ARSENAL’S ‘UNSUCCESSFUL’ SEASON: AN ALTERNATIVE REVIEW
Robin van Persie was spotted in The Gunners pub shortly after the West Brom game. At one point he was seen riding the shoulders of a stout, balding supporter. A few minutes later he was behind the grill at Piebury Corner. Arsenal fans came and went, but Robin – still in full kit with captain’s armband – continued to mingle throughout the night, posing for photos with a smile on his face, even after one heavy-handed reveller made a tear in his cardboard left hand. They say football fans are fickle; the masses who call Arsenal ‘by far the greatest team,’ a defensive nightmare, ‘The Invincibles,’ mentally weak and the ‘one team in London.’
How about the players, can they not be fickle too?
This season has been heralded as the most stellar in history and in terms of entertainment, it cannot be denied. What made it so gripping then? One reason could be down to the fickleness in all of us, from the supporters to the boardroom; being a pessimist or an optimist based on one result, or even one goal. Subsequently, we become incapable of holding our tongues when waiting for an outcome, whether it is the result of a single fixture, or the season as a whole. Some warn others about minding gaps without noticing the one that lies just ahead of them. Together, it makes the end result all the more unexpected, and therefore entertaining.
We all like to make predictions and there’s nothing wrong with that, though this is not the same as fickleness. Roberto Mancini ruled Manchester City out of the title race when they fell eight points behind Alex Ferguson’s lot, only to perk up again when United let slip. Best of all had to be at the weekend, when Bolton drew level away at Stoke. Quickly, a section of Trotters fans unfolded a huge banner reading ‘THE GREAT ESCAPE.’ Perhaps the Bolton fans had misunderstood that only a win would secure safety. More likely is that genuine belief overcame what wasn’t yet a reality. By the final whistle, a new banner reading ‘WE’LL BE BACK’ took stage.
The scores of Arsenal fans who were running amok around Finsbury Park on Sunday are probably still contemplating what to make of this season. On the one hand, they will have been reading about the trophy drought, how Arsenal lost 10 games and how ineffective some signings were. On the other, they will remember the jubilant scenes that seemed to mirror what was happening in Manchester. At the top of Blackstock Road, one well-oiled fan led the good times by chasing an inflatable football wherever it was booted. Like a dog having been returned to its owners after a week in the kennels, he chased that ball, skilfully balancing a pint in one hand while dodging the traffic that came from all angles.
Inside the pub, camera phones caught the madness when the final whistle blew and third place had been cemented. Outside, people who didn’t usually smoke smoked. Horns blasted from passing traffic, buses held at red lights were invaded by excited stragglers and the Caribbean gents down at Piebury Corner swayed in perfect harmony to some soul music. Elsewhere, at the Stadium of Light, Ferguson wasn’t so contented; his face priceless in thinking United had snatched the prize. On this occasion, those handful of added-on minutes down The Etihad were a cruel mistress to Fergie, the extra-time that had so often been his loving wife.
Timing can influence our take on a season, and if you’re fickle enough, then the lasting memories of Sunday will lead you to believe that, for Arsenal it had been a decent campaign. In the moment, it was difficult to distinguish exactly what success was. Gooners were celebrating like they had won the league, yet a trophy had played no part at all in the matter, just a burning rivalry with the city neighbours to see who finished third. City had pulled off a victory euphoric enough to actually make it sad, knowing that the celebrations would have to an end at some point. In contrast, Arsene Wenger’s team had piteously scrapped past West Brom, and so, wearily slumped into the corner of a Victoria line train heading home to catch the highlights, I questioned what success was? How could the success of City’s season and Arsenal’s season be separated, when the feeling of the outcome appeared to be the same?
So long as football keeps offering up moments such as Sunday, being the follower of a club struggling to be champions is easier to bear. To some degree, the weekend proved it might not even matter if you do or don’t attain silverware. Sure, witnessing your beloved team win a title is captivating too, but stop and ask why? Because it gives us the right to gloat? Because some dusty history books look impressive? If your team strolled to the top every season, you would never experience true satisfaction. The quite selfish question by the end had something to do with what we search for as fans. Is it the continuous success of the club and players, or, how football makes us feel? It was apparent that you didn’t need ultimate success to end the quest.
North London was the place to be on Sunday, where the love affair with the Twelve Pins pub reached new heights. The guy who looks like Pele turned up as usual, as did the guy with ‘Fabregas … Wilshere … Wizards’ on the back of his Arsenal kit. Places like ‘The Pins’ help you to see the funny side in conceding a detrimental third goal at home to Norwich after getting ahead late on, partly because your left-back was the furthest man forward. Also, rejoice your fickleness, as quite often it’s the recipe for success, even if it might be an illusion. And if you’re not easily deceived and you see each trophyless season as a failure, then just know success was achieved the day you dolled-up in red and white, not white and blue.
True satisfaction! True satisfaction was being drenched in beer by people I’d never met before. True satisfaction was watching the crowds singing, ‘TOTTENHAM, SIGN HIM UP, TOTTENHAM TOTTENHAM SIGN HIM UP,’ every time that traffic-dodging K9 swung and missed the inflatable ball. Over the coming weeks many people will analyse the specific reasons for Arsenal’s success and failure this term, which will be crucial for the summer preparation. Sometimes though, we can measure success in other ways, and often it is what you make of it as a fan. Sometimes it might take detaching yourself from the club and reminding yourself that, yes, you’re simply a follower, watching the game with your mates in special surroundings. Now look back and think: was that successful? The look on Robin’s face down Piebury corner suggested yes.
THE GUNNERS GOT AWAY WITH IT
1-0 up, 2-1 down and a (seemingly) improbable fight back… Arsenal’s victory at the Hawthorns may not have had quite the drama of Manchester City’s stunning fight back at the Etihad, but its importance for the Gunners cannot be overestimated.
Arguably, his most telling admission about the 2011 – 2012 campaign was: “At some stages, everybody was wondering what we were doing.” Never was a truer word spoken.
The Gunners’ season began in total chaos. In July, Wenger spoke confidently of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas staying in North London. The fact that both departed for Manchester City and Barcelona respectively in early August suggested that there was a widening credibility gap between Wenger’s promises and the actual truth.
The team’s results in August suggested that Wenger might be swept away at any minute. Even Alan Hansen, not usually known for making sensationalist comments, remarked in the Telegraph after Arsenal’s 8-2 hammering at Old Trafford: “One more result like this, and Wenger could be history.”
The home game against Liverpool, which Dalglish’s men won 2-0, was played against a backdrop of torrential rain, and rumbling thunder. It seemed ominous for the club, and after damaging defeats at Tottenham (2-1) and Blackburn (4-3) (away fans at Ewood Park could clearly be heard chanting at Wenger: “You don’t know what you’re doing”) football writer Patrick Barclay commented on Sky’s Sunday Supplement: “I can see Arsenal in a relegation scrap, the way they’re going.” The worrying thing was, none of the panellists disagreed with Barclay, and he was not taken to task by Gunners fans for his comments either. “In Arsene We Rust,” said one banner at the Blackburn match.
With Wilshere out injured for the foreseeable future, Nasri and Fabregas gone, and van Persie the only top striker at the club, even the most ardent Arsenal fans had to admit that between them, the board and Wenger had badly mismanaged the club’s most depressing close season for decades. The last minute spending spree in August added to the “panic stations” feeling surrounding the club.
Yet the team then embarked on an unexpectedly good league run. The highlight was Arsenal’s crazy 5-3 victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which propelled the team into sixth place, having laboured in 15th after defeat at Spurs. It was the victory at Chelsea that opened Gunners supporters’ eyes to the fact that, fragile as their team’s self confidence was, Villas-Boas’ outfit was also struggling to adapt to the new coach’s defensive changes. Realistically, with the Manchester teams cruising into the distance, Arsenal could only target 3rd or 4th place, and hope that Tottenham and Chelsea slipped up. By the time the team lost to Swansea, Fulham and Manchester United in consecutive away matches, and were then slaughtered in Milan and lost to Sunderland in the FA Cup within four days, the “You don’t know what you’re doing” chants resurfaced. Again, Wenger’s position seemed under threat.
Then, a miracle occurred. Arsenal won seven league games on the bounce, and came close to a sensational comeback against Milan in the Champions League. It was down to a number of factors… Henry’s return, the emergence of Oxlade-Chamberlain, and the return to the team after injury of Bacary Sagna. But the truth is that Arsenal’s epic fight back (or is that Tottenham’s staggering collapse) at the Emirates in the Gunners’ 5-3 home win in late February turned the season around. Had Redknapp’s team won that match, and gone 13 points clear in third place, it’s highly likely that Arsenal’s campaign would have gone irrevocably pear-shaped.
The “Redknapp For England” campaign clearly destabilised Tottenham, whatever their players claim, and the fact they lost in consecutive games to the Manchesters and Arsenal suggested Spurs weren’t quite as strong as the “Watch the Gap” yellers suggested. On April 11th, after a comfortable 3-0 win at Wolves, the Gunners were five points clear of Spurs in 3rd place, and seemingly set to cruise to European qualification.
Over the last month, the team’s early season defensive jitters (and Mikel Arteta’s injury) saw them go four games without a win, and witnessed Tottenham and Newcastle close the gap, leaving Arsenal requiring a win in their final game of the season to guarantee Champions League football. When it came to the crunch, Wenger’s man duly delivered. Just.
He admitted: “I didn’t want to finish 4th. If Chelsea win the Champions League then you are not in it, if they don’t you are not definitely in it as you play a qualifier.” The ramifications of Arsenal not qualifying for the tournament next season would have been frightening.
A minimum of £20 million less income, considerably less chance of keeping van Persie and attracting the £10 million signings in defence and midfield that the team needs, and less chance of filling the Emirates. The fact that the club wrapped up the signing of Podolski before the end of the campaign suggests that this close season might be slightly less fraught than the last one. Someone at the club at least seems to know what they are doing this time around, although without major surgery, it’s hard to see how Arsenal will scrap for anything other than 3rd.
The overall impression of this campaign is that the Gunners got away with it. Apart from being ridiculously over-reliant on van Persie’s goals, the fact is that Villas-Boas (until February) and Redknapp (after February) didn’t really know what they were doing either.
Next season, having to rely on their London rivals to implode is unlikely to see the Gunners through.
2012/2013 CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH
Regardless of whether you consider this season to be a success or a disaster for Arsenal, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of debate about this, the simple fact is the 2012/13 season has to begin immediately.
It’s obvious that this squad has some strengths, such as Robin van Persie and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but there are also some glaring weaknesses. These problem areas need to be addressed as soon as possible if the Gunners are to be serious contenders next year.
Yes, a third-place finish is a hell of a lot better than finishing between fourth and 20th, but let’s not forget there was a 19-point gap between Arsenal and the league leaders. Wenger has already started well when it comes to strengthening the team by adding Lukas Podolski from Cologne. Podolski is a world-class striker who has to play, not sit on the bench.
Of course, van Persie also has to be retained for Arsenal to remain one of the elite teams in Europe. If he does happen to leave, Podolski is a suitable replacement. But if the Polish-born German becomes the team’s only top-class striker and gets injured, there’s going to be deep trouble. The two main areas that need to be improved on, though, are defending and goalkeeping.
We all know about Arsenal’s deficiencies when it comes to defending and that’s why an elite goalkeeper is needed, at least until Wenger sorts out the defence. Wojciech Szczesny is a good keeper, but he definitely can’t be considered a great one. In fact, goalkeeping has been one of the Gunners’ weak spots over the past few seasons, not just this one.
Wenger should realize how important good keeping is, since West Brom proved today that anything less can cost you games. Arsenal’s 3-2 win may have been deserved at the Hawthorns, but the team certainly took advantage of some atrocious goalkeeping by West Brom’s Marton Fulop.
There’s a lot of work to be done over the summer and it has to start immediately before other clubs start snatching up the best players available. It also includes getting rid of the dead wood at the Emirates and sorting out the payroll by cutting some players loose.
Finishing in third place will provide the fans with Champions League football next season and the club with a fatter bank account, which are both positives. There were also some other bright spots, such as the Gunners fighting their way back to take third place and van Persie winning the Golden Boot with 30 goals.
With a few more pieces added to the puzzle and making sure they’re ready to start the season in August and not a month later, there’s no reason Arsenal shouldn’t be a title contender next season. Wenger just needs to make sure he’s not trying to stick square pegs into round holes when adding key players.
A SEASON OF SURPRISES
At 34 minutes, it seemed like the balance of power had indubitably shifted towards the white of North London. 34 minutes later, it appeared as if it had never moved. That’s how quickly Arsenal’s season had changed because if they had lost to Tottenham Hotspur – and they were already trailing 2-0 – they would have been an unassailable 13 points behind. But somehow, and dumped out of two cup competitions beforehand, they summoned extraordinary resources to not only comeback and win 5-2, but to claw back the deficit in the league table.
It many ways it was the defining match of the season – certainly, it was the Emirates Stadium’s most “signature moment” since it opened in 2006 – because it displayed the best and worst of Arsenal – their frailties and their strengths – in 90 exhilarating minutes. To be fair, there have been a lot of those matches which is why this has been such a frustrating season. Yet, for all of Arsenal’s supposed deficiencies, they find themselves in a better position than last season. Looking forward to next season and there’s a different sense of optimism and that might be down to the “panic-buys” that Arsène Wenger made last summer. Because with it, it imbued a mental strength that was once lacking and if Arsenal can make the necessary technical additions, they can challenge for trophies next campaign.
And that might be the biggest regret for Wenger because his team haven’t been able to exert their style on opponents as they have in the past. Wenger begrudgingly admits that that the team is a “little bit less good than last year with possession of the ball” and while talk of “philosophy” implicitly imbues it with a kind of moral superiority that tends to irritate, but in the case of Arsenal and Wenger, it’s everything. He ended the season with Tomáš Rosický orchestrating Arsenal attacks and tellingly, he opted for the fleet-footed artisan he borrowed from Chelsea, Yossi Benayoun, on the left, putting an end to the mercurial three-striker tactic that he led with.
As per usual, it’s not just in attack where Arsenal have been unable to find the right balance because for the fourth season running, the defence has increased the number of goals it has conceded. But in this case, it’s not easy to recommend solutions because Arsenal are just inherently too complicated. Their rapid and intense brand of football is resource-heavy thus creating undue strain at the back. Wojciech Szczęsny has been criticised in the recent run for his save percentage, 64% (the fourth lowest in the Premier League – average 69%), but it’s down to the quality of chances Arsenal allow teams (more space, less men back, counter-attacks) thus the probability of scoring is higher. It’s evident, then, that Arsenal could improve on their organisation at the back although it’s not just a matter of the back four; the whole team is culpable. The two goals Arsenal conceded on the last day to West Bromwich Albion displayed the route of their problems as failure to press up the pitch allowed their opponents to play it from the back early and exploited spaces behind. The back-four attempted to push up and squeeze the space but the lack of pressing ultimately undid Arsenal. Put simply, you cannot play a high defensive line without closing down because it invites the opposition to make passes through the backline.
This season has seen Wenger increasingly delegate defensive responsibilities to Pat Rice. Earlier this campaign that was a necessity as Arsenal essentially required new recruits such as Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos to adjust quickly but one wonders whether the compartmentalisation had some effect on the cohesion of the team. Certainly, by separating the defenders and the attackers in training meant less time to practice moving up and down the pitch together but that would surely be picking at bones. Arsenal did it in their Champions League run of 2005/06 when Martin Keown was given hands-on access to improve the defence. Put simply, the strategy of relaxed pressing from the front has been all wrong. Last season, Jack Wilshere and Alex Song where able to set platform for Arsenal to press together and they were backed up by the Dutch system of “through-marking” to retain a shape. This season, there has been less structure although they began to get it right when they went on a good run towards the end of the season and especially in the 1-0 win over Manchester City where each midfielder was designated a man.
However, there are plenty of positives to take from the season too although you can’t help but not avoid the caveats. Robin van Persie has delivered on a virtuoso season, scoring 37 goals in 48 appearances although the next highest scorer behind him was Theo Walcott with 11. The winger himself has had a better season than given credit for and van Persie has taken it on himself to acknowledge that impact by the measure of his assists. Alex Song too, who has come to the fore creatively, especially when Arsenal were deprived of any first-choice full-backs and everything had to come through the middle. Backed up he has been by the astute Mikel Arteta who has in a sense, liberated him. In defence, Laurent Koscielny established his self as one the Premier League’s finest centre-backs despite the chaos that often surrounds him while Rosický has finally found the form he seemed to have lost five years ago.
With Arsenal, the same caveats always apply but in this season, they have become masters of the unexpected. And as such, there is always cause for hope for 2012/13. “My target is to get back to that level (The Invincibles side of 2004/04),” says Arsène Wenger. “I feel we are not far from coming back to fight for the championship, and let’s hope we can show that next season.”
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