Arsenal's Season Ends Quite Early
Thursday, 08 March 07, 11:42 PM · Comments(9)
1997-1998 The Double - Premiership & FA Cup (beat Newcastle 2-0)
1998-1999 Lost the Premiership on the last day of the season, and threw away an FA Cup semi to Man United)
1999-2000 Uefa Cup final (lost on penalties after missing numerous chances)
2000-2001 FA Cup final (lost to Liverpool 2-1 after Michael Owen scored twice in the last 10 minutes)
2001-2002 The Double - Premiership & FA Cup (beat Chelsea 2-0)
2002-2003 FA Cup (beat Southampton 1-0)
2003-2004 The Unbeaten Season - Won the Premiership without losing a game
2004-2005 FA Cup (beat Manchester United on penalties)
2005-2006 Champions Leage final (lost to Barcelona 2-1 after they scored twice in the last 15 minutes)
2006-2007 Nothing (out of all cup competitions, and in 4th place in the league with 10 games remaining, 20 points off leaders Man United)
That is the story for Arsenal with 10 Premiership games left. It is the first time since Wenger's first full season that we've ended with nothing to play for, and things look quite dire. Yes, the team is young and full of promise, but if we win nothing, then the players will never reach the next level. 20 points off 1st place, and having lost in the Carling Cup final, and been knocked out of the FA Cup, Arsenal went into the second leg of their Champions League tie against PSV 1-0 down from the first. It was the biggest game of their season, and they needed a good win. But despite going ahead 1-0, the game ended 1-1, with PSV going through 2-1 on aggregate. Sad stuff.
Arsenal worked hard and got their goal without ever looking brilliant, but wasted many chances. PSV had nothing from open play, but late on, Hleb gave away a stupid foul, and you just knew that PSV were going to score from the free-kick... and they did. 1-1 on the night, Arsenal now needed 2 because of away goals, an unfit Henry had just come on for Baptista and gotten injured again, and it was all over.
With 10 games to go, Arsenal have nothing to play for except a Champions League spot. So how does Arsene Wenger motivate a bunch of experienced players who are used to challenging, and a group of exceptional, but unproven youngsters whose inexperience and self-doubt might make their season self-destruct? It's tricky, because for the first time in years, Wenger himself is under tremendous pressure, and everyone is doubting his abilities. Other managers have been having a go at him, the FA and referees don't exactly like him at the moment, and this is his 3rd consecutive year of not challenging seriously for the league.
Wenger has always been a more psychological/motivational manager than a tactical one, and he will need to gather all his resources together now. Not qualifying for the Champions League would be 100% distastrous, and could put the club in serious trouble for the future. Arsenal can still take 3rd place from Liverpool (that would at least represent "progress" over last year's 4th place finish), fainter still are hopes of catching Chelsea in second. Also, while the others are playing in the Champions League, Arsenal will have to buckle down and focus on trips to Villa and Everton and the like, and no one knows how the players will respond.
Maybe with the pressure off, they will excel, but maybe with so little to play for, they might find it impossible to motivate themselves, and maybe see a a finished outside of the top 4. Either way, Wenger has a lot to do, and he will no doubt remind the players and fans that they are unbeaten in the league since December, so things are not all bad. Right now the best possible solution is to get behind Wenger and the team and stop criticising or doubting the club, coach or players, because really, it's a very difficult period up ahead.
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10 MINDLESS games to go arjun, it's going to be tough. 96-97 against gladbach was wenger's unofficial start at the club, so there was still the new era, etc going on.
2002-2003 we bottled it. plain and simple. that keown own goal against bolton sealed the title for united, but at least after having lost 3-2 to leeds (uhm... kewell handball, viduka foul), we won 6-0 against soton (bob's brilliant hattrick, and pencunt's first and only 3 goals), and went on to not lose the next 48.
i don't see anything like that coming out of this game.
and the difference is that in all those years, we always scored goals. arsenal were the attacking team, and if we lost or fucked up it was because of bad defending, but there were always goals.
now there is no real basis for calling us an attacking team, because really we are struggling to score, and fon't have finishers.
I wouldn't call them mindless SM. We still have to visit Liverpool and host Chelsea. I do agree though, that with the pressure off, and nothing important to play for, the lads might relax and play a bit better. Yes, we do need a consistent finisher but we've needed one for years. Once Henry became moody, it just became more apparent.
At the end of the day we have to master the simpler aspects to move forward - setpieces, shooting on sight, positioning, etc.
I know, it's depressing, but cheer up :) Despite our aenemic finishing, we still had a decent season. If we can sort that out we can only get better.
Arsenal has suffered with the same thing for the last three years I feel. We need a predator who finishes of other paoples chances. The current strikers (Besides v Persie) seem to want to pass it into goal. Add that to mid fielders who are scared to shoot, means we are inspid in the big games. Drogba for the mincers, V Nistelrooy for scum in previous seasons even chrome dome for Everton proves a guy with moderate talent but goal scorers agression makes a team succeed. 9 styly out fielders and one agreesive, arogant, selfish bastard who wants to score every time he touches the ball and we would be scary. No team creates as many chances as us, lets knock some in.
i think we need a touch of klaas (jan huntelaar, from ajax). before barca sign him.
No way Sul, Ajax needs the Hunter!
Talking about new signings for Arsenal, I think they should try to sign Alex, the PSV defender, he is brilliant!
And I am honestly not saying this because he kicked you out. Ajax won't be Dutch champions as long as Alex and Gomes are with PSV.
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Don't be sad, man. 2008 we will have Sao Paulo x Arsenal in LA Fifa Club World Cup. That's for sure!
1996-97 season Arsenal lost to Gladbach 3-2 and 3-2 in the UEFA cup. Both games they dominated and got sucker punched on the counterattack. The common description of both games was that Arsenal 'threw everything at them but the kitchen sink'. Still we lost.
In the 2002-03 season we dropped points in consecutive games against Aston Villa, Leeds and Bolton - all off set pieces. All in games in which we were on top.
10 years and 4 years on respectively - it would seem nothing much has changed.
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Having said that - it's still been a good season despite having ended early.
Home and away defeats of champions elect United, consecutive drubbings of Liverpool, domination in both games against Chelsea. The truth is we've played very well against the better teams who have come out to play. It's our familiar failings - wasting shots on goal and set-pieces that have ruined us.
We can still finish 3rd and build for next season. The 2001 season ended a bit like this - FA Cup defeat and a good distance behind United in the league. Next season - we won the double : )