We could have easily won something last year. Multiple things even. But, even though we managed to build and sustain a title challenge (until April) and reach the final of the Carling Cup, as well as beat Barcelona, United and Chelsea was it an improved season?
Last season involved some of my greatest and worst moment as an Arsenal fan to date. The Chelsea game on boxing day was magical and probably the best Emirates atmosphere since the 5 minute comeback vs United in 06. The Barcelona game was probably one of the finest achievements any team can have at the moment too, as they are probably the greatest team ever.
However these amazing games - incidentally mainly occurring at night - only paper over the cracks of last season. The dismal defeats at home, the inability to hold a fucking lead, and the defensive mistakes we continued to make. Not to mention the fact we finished the season empty handed (again) and in 4th position so we have to qualify for the Champions League.
Losing 2 points away to Sunderland in the 94th minute set the tone of our season, but looking back on the season it was just a little drop in the sea of bad results and performances. Much worse was going down 3-0 at home to West Brom which really hurt me, even though we made it 2-3 later on. Losing at home to Newcastle was a heartless, gutless performance too.
The worst game though was the Spurs game, which was unbearable. Losing a 17 year old record like that was hard to watch, made worse by the fact that we lost it so easily. 2-0 up at half time and we could and should have got 5 but we manged to concede 3 stupid goals and lose to our biggest rivals. One can't help but think that the defence of Keown, Adams and co would have dealt with those Spurs players for fun. Kicking the shit out of them in the process.
Other notable matches were the scraped victories against Birmingham, Fulham and West ham, as well as the defeats away at Chelsea and United in which they brushed aside out attacking threat so easily, before bullying our defence into mistakes and what felt like inevitable defeat.
As if that wasn't enough, the defeats in the champions league away at Braga and Shakhtar were probably two of the worst performances under Wenger, and the club just didn't do our amazing fans justice. The air crew strikes in Portugal meant it took days of travelling for some Gooners to go to Braga, and for what? Can anyone remember anything of note from the game?
And all of that was only in the first half of the season.
We did start the second half of the season brightly, except in cup games where poor results against second rate, lower division teams lead to uncountable replays in which we had to wheel out first team player which probably contributed to their tiredness later on in the season. These abject displays also showed the weakness of our second string of Denilson, Rosicky, Chamakh and co. who failed to stand out against League One opposition.
Then came Newcastle.
The biggest comeback of any side in Premier League history. The capitulation of our defence and mindset. The game where we were winning 4-0 in the 70th minute but ended up drawing 4-4 to a second rate side, who had just been promoted and were without a recognized striker. This game played a massive part in our season, and will next season. We wouldn't have dropped point against Liverpool if we had won this. We wouldn't have dropped point at Tottenham if we had won this. We would have won the Carling Cup if we had won this.
This game epitomizes our season. Class, pace, power, skill throughout the team, which was capable of beating anyone. But an incredibly weak backbone and mentality that meant we would continue to collapse again and again as the season wore on. Defensive errors made at the wrong times, and the inability to defend when we most needed to, not forgetting constant conceding from set plays.
We were able to beat Barcelona just 11 days later, but the signs of the weakness and low confidence we had gained from that result were there for all to see in the Carling Cup final. We were abject and lifeless again throughout the final, and although I still think we deserved to win - and would have if it had gone to extra time - we shot ourselves in the back again by making yet another defensive error. How many times have I said that in this post?
In the last 14 games after the Final we only managed 3 victories. One against Leyton Orient and another against Blackpool. We managed to fail to score at home for well over 270 minutes before Van Persie bundled in a 98th minute penalty to take the lead over Liverpool. And we even ended up drawing.
We did show some fighting spirit against West Brom to come back form 2-0 down, but at the end of the day it was 2 points dropped. Again. Similarly we should have beaten Tottenham and Bolton with ease, but instead of rising to the challenge, our players shirked away at the pressure.
The player carried on playing abjectly in the final three games of the season (even without any pressure) and we lost at Stoke, at home to Villa and drew with Fulham.
I want to finish on a brighter note though, as I try to be optimistic usually. The United result towards the end of the season, where a weakened 11 beat the champions' best team quite comfortably does show we do have quality throughout the squad.
The amazing victories against our rivals away at City, and home against Barca, Chelsea and United show some signs of progress we've made in the last year too, and will give us confidence to challenge them again next year. But last season overall was not a progression -we finished lower and on lower points than previously- and was easily the best chance of winning silverware we will have for the next decade.
Our rivals were weak, and will undoubtedly strengthen this summer, wheras we will probably lose one, if not two of our best players as well as our first choice left back.
Here's to next season though!
Monday, 11 July 2011
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Doubts over Downing
It's not been the week I thought it would be.
That's the feeling almost every Arsenal fan has had during nearly every week of the transfer window for the past 5 seasons or even more. But the fact that we still haven't made one signing - alright Gervinho will be confirmed soon and Jenkinson may play a bit this year - yet is very annoying.
Pre-season is well underway and preferably we'd like to have our squad together and gelling before we start the season. Wenger's interview wasn't the most enthusiastic one either, and he only mentioned 'one or two' good new signings.
By my calculations we need about 4 or 5 new signings if we are to make a proper challenge for the title, and maybe more if we lose players of Cesc's and Nasri's ability. He also hinted that he may not sign a replacement for Clichy, who completed his £7 million deal to Man City this week, and said that Gibbs needs a chance to progress.
That would be all well and good if Gibbs wasn't as injury prone as Van Persie and seemingly incapable of defending at times. If you compare him to Chelsea and Uniteds left backs two he comes up very short, and they are meant to be our biggest rivals.
There is some new news this week though, and today we were linked with a deal for Stuart Downing of Aston Villa. He is a good player, but not the type of big name that we are in need of and, dare I say it, not much (if at all) better than what we have.
To make things even more un-realistic, the price Villa seem to want is close to £20million. Will Wenger pay that kind of money for anyone? Let alone only a good Premier League player, who is not the world class player we need.
Overall I see the transfer as very unlikely. Perhaps more likely is a deal for Juan Mata of Valencia. The young Spaniard is very exciting and has been tracked my many of Europe's top teams for years. Apparently Valencia only want around £20million too, and with the losses of either (or both) Nasri and Cesc, we need a player like Mata.
Another player i'd love to see in an Arsenal shirt next year is Hugo Rodallega. Yesterday he revealed that we have been monitoring him, as well as other European clubs, and with the seemingly abrupt exit of Bendtner combined with the doubts over Marouane Chamakh's ability, singing Rodallega would give our strikers more strength in depth.
Rodallega has a good record and a few years Premiership Experience, he always can play as a lone striker so will know what is needed to exceed and score goals. Last year he scored 9 goals in 36 Prem appearances and the year before 10 in 38. At a club like Arsenal that could easily rise, as we lay on more chances for him.
In other news, Wellington has traveled to Valencia to secure his loan to Levante for next season. Whilst last season's 6 month spell there wasn't the most successful (he only managed 2 substitute appearances) we can be more optimistic of him gaining playing time this year, and he could be joined shortly by Pedro Botelho - who widely impressed last year.
Thats about all there is for now, till later.
That's the feeling almost every Arsenal fan has had during nearly every week of the transfer window for the past 5 seasons or even more. But the fact that we still haven't made one signing - alright Gervinho will be confirmed soon and Jenkinson may play a bit this year - yet is very annoying.
Pre-season is well underway and preferably we'd like to have our squad together and gelling before we start the season. Wenger's interview wasn't the most enthusiastic one either, and he only mentioned 'one or two' good new signings.
By my calculations we need about 4 or 5 new signings if we are to make a proper challenge for the title, and maybe more if we lose players of Cesc's and Nasri's ability. He also hinted that he may not sign a replacement for Clichy, who completed his £7 million deal to Man City this week, and said that Gibbs needs a chance to progress.
That would be all well and good if Gibbs wasn't as injury prone as Van Persie and seemingly incapable of defending at times. If you compare him to Chelsea and Uniteds left backs two he comes up very short, and they are meant to be our biggest rivals.
There is some new news this week though, and today we were linked with a deal for Stuart Downing of Aston Villa. He is a good player, but not the type of big name that we are in need of and, dare I say it, not much (if at all) better than what we have.
To make things even more un-realistic, the price Villa seem to want is close to £20million. Will Wenger pay that kind of money for anyone? Let alone only a good Premier League player, who is not the world class player we need.
Overall I see the transfer as very unlikely. Perhaps more likely is a deal for Juan Mata of Valencia. The young Spaniard is very exciting and has been tracked my many of Europe's top teams for years. Apparently Valencia only want around £20million too, and with the losses of either (or both) Nasri and Cesc, we need a player like Mata.
Another player i'd love to see in an Arsenal shirt next year is Hugo Rodallega. Yesterday he revealed that we have been monitoring him, as well as other European clubs, and with the seemingly abrupt exit of Bendtner combined with the doubts over Marouane Chamakh's ability, singing Rodallega would give our strikers more strength in depth.
Rodallega has a good record and a few years Premiership Experience, he always can play as a lone striker so will know what is needed to exceed and score goals. Last year he scored 9 goals in 36 Prem appearances and the year before 10 in 38. At a club like Arsenal that could easily rise, as we lay on more chances for him.
In other news, Wellington has traveled to Valencia to secure his loan to Levante for next season. Whilst last season's 6 month spell there wasn't the most successful (he only managed 2 substitute appearances) we can be more optimistic of him gaining playing time this year, and he could be joined shortly by Pedro Botelho - who widely impressed last year.
Thats about all there is for now, till later.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
World Class Van Persie
The recent season has been analysed and scrutinised by many fans, bloggers, journalists and even by the players and manager. It had it's ups and also it's downs and, after a more than disappointing ending, most of us are pleased to see the back of it.
However, over the next few weeks I aim to conduct some blogs that give a more positive message from Arsenal's 2010-2011 season, and look at some of the good things that happened over the course of the year. In the last post of this series, I look at the impact Van Persie has had on our season.
Where would we have been last year without this man?
Van Persie was simply exceptional in the second half of the season, leading the team from the front scoring goal and after goal and being the main creative talent in a team which included Fabregas, Nasri and Wilshere.
The 27 year old managed 22 goals in 33 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions as well as 7 assists. His form in the second half of the season - after yet another injury ravaged start to the year - was breathtaking, and he broke many records along the way, as well as scoring his first career hat-trick against Wigan. His records included most consecutive away goals, as well as equaling the 18 goal record since the turn of the year.
Next year he can definitely be regarded as one of our best players, even if Cesc, Samir etc. don't leave. His touch is audacious and, even though he doesn't play in his favored position he scores goals and creates them too. If Cesc does leave this summer we could even revert to 442 with Van Persie behind the main striker, but hopefully we won't be in that situation.
His best moment was probably the fantastic goal against Barcelona at the Emirates. Everything about the goal was sublime. The inch perfect ball by Clichy before the Dutchman finished off the move with an outrageous shot, which buried itself in the bottom corner of the Barcelona net. It was a Bergkamp-esque goal or sublime quality, and one which personally i'll never forget.
His worst moment also probably came against Barcelona, when after getting a stupid booking, he was sent off in what is a massive injustice and probably led to us getting knocked out of the champions league. It was an awful decision by the ref, but if he hadn't received the first booking then he wouldn't have been in the situation to be sent off.
Robin does seem happy at Arsenal right now, but if we lose our best players he may not be for much longer. Hopefully he'll be scoring (and not be getting injured) a lot next season. And he really has to improve on his set-pieces.
However, over the next few weeks I aim to conduct some blogs that give a more positive message from Arsenal's 2010-2011 season, and look at some of the good things that happened over the course of the year. In the last post of this series, I look at the impact Van Persie has had on our season.
Where would we have been last year without this man?
Van Persie was simply exceptional in the second half of the season, leading the team from the front scoring goal and after goal and being the main creative talent in a team which included Fabregas, Nasri and Wilshere.
The 27 year old managed 22 goals in 33 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions as well as 7 assists. His form in the second half of the season - after yet another injury ravaged start to the year - was breathtaking, and he broke many records along the way, as well as scoring his first career hat-trick against Wigan. His records included most consecutive away goals, as well as equaling the 18 goal record since the turn of the year.
His best moment was probably the fantastic goal against Barcelona at the Emirates. Everything about the goal was sublime. The inch perfect ball by Clichy before the Dutchman finished off the move with an outrageous shot, which buried itself in the bottom corner of the Barcelona net. It was a Bergkamp-esque goal or sublime quality, and one which personally i'll never forget.
His worst moment also probably came against Barcelona, when after getting a stupid booking, he was sent off in what is a massive injustice and probably led to us getting knocked out of the champions league. It was an awful decision by the ref, but if he hadn't received the first booking then he wouldn't have been in the situation to be sent off.
Robin does seem happy at Arsenal right now, but if we lose our best players he may not be for much longer. Hopefully he'll be scoring (and not be getting injured) a lot next season. And he really has to improve on his set-pieces.
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