Picking over the bones of Arsenal's 07/08 campaign
Posted by Gringo Maclure in Arsenal | 14 April 2008
For Arsenal fans its another season with no trophy. Dissapointingly, there is to be no thrilling title run in or Champions League final. In January there was blue water between Arsenal and their Premiership rivals. What went wrong? Here are three ideas, but I reserve judgement on which of them is most significant...
1. Bad luck. Arsenal have had their fair share of unpredictable knocks. On different days injuries, the woodwork, penalty decisions against us (Clichy v Birmingham, Toure v Liverpool) or decisions not going our way (Hleb v Liverpool) could have gone the other way. But, it's often said that in football you make your own luck and you can't point soley to fortune's fickle wheel as the reason for the Gunners demise.
2. Injuries and a lack of depth. Eduardo's leg break not only ended the season for one player it seemed to have affected the morale of the whole team. Eduardo was important for the team, not just in terms of goalscoring but in that he had forged a good partnership with Adebayor. Van Persie was slow coming back from injury and Rosicky's lengthy spell on the sidelines meant that Wenger had to increasingly rely on squad rotation involving younger players for Arsenal's attacking options. The flipside of the injury crisis was it revealed a lack of depth in the Gunners squad. Against United, Wenger brought on Bendtner and Hoyte, both youngsters with bright futures but unlikely to turn the match around. Set against Ferguson's bench which included O'Shea, Giggs and Tevez the Arsenal possible replacements seemed lightweight in comparison.
3. Lack of grit, resolve and leadership. In the first half of the season Arsenal made a habit of scoring in the last quarter of an hour against their opponents and thus securing 3 points when really only a draw was on the cards, or 1 point when a loss seemed inevitable. Beginning at Birmingham, that trend reversed. Games Arsenal would normally have won turned into scraped draws (Middlesborough, Villa, Wigan) and, most tellingly, they weren't able to hold onto results where the advantage was with them (CL Liverpool, Chelsea, United). Only in the away leg against Milan and versus Bolton did the squad show the kind of exceptional resolve required to compete at the highest level. Where should the interrogation begin? In my view, the captain has to take some responsibility - despite his experience and enthusiasm Gallas doesn't add up to leadership material. Like Henry before him, he is a big name who is wont to sulk when things don't go his way. Also, when Toure is not in the centre the Arsenal back four look a lot more shakey.
It has been a gripping campaign from the Gunners and most would agree they have performed better than expected following the exit of Henry. The positives to take away are numerous: Walcott's form, Adebayor's maturity, Sagna and Eduardo grafted into the squad well, the Flamini/Fabregas partnership and a continuation of Wenger's commitment to attractive football at the highest levels, both in the Premiership and in Europe. But, yet again, the major trophies will be going elsewhere and that's got to worry Arsene Wenger.
Comments
All this talk about lacking the strength within the squad is baloney. Arsenal didn't get knocked out of the FA Cup / Europe / the title race due to the lack of strength, but due to the lack of leadership. Since the turn of the year Gallas has been found wanting on so many occasions, perhaps his stunt at Birmingham truely summed up what he is - a spoilt kid and in NO WAY a leader.
Well said, I agree with all of the above. We need to make sure Flamini stays, why not bribe him with the captaincy, he would lead by example if nothing else, with his phenominal workrate.
what a player he has been - but im still wondering if he and arsene had a fall out last season when flamini refused to play full back as he hardly featured last season. We need him next season!
Clinical Finish.Some games we have had 15 decent scoring shances and scored one that is not good enough for a top side.
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