It seems rather appropriate to use the above title for this article, after all, we are in silly season & it probably sums up our season quite well to be honest. Over a year has ticked by since I started this Arsenal blog & like many who have also gone down a similar path, you have absolutely no idea how it will go, end up, or even be received. Little did I know when getting things set up last summer, that this would be one of the most mental/craziest/insane seasons of all time & not just from an Arsenal perspective as we well know.
I’ve supported the club for 30 years & for a lot of our fanbase this would be the worst season you would have ever experienced. There are however a whole host of us that can rewind our minds all the way back to that terrible season of 1994-95. George Graham was sacked for taking bungs during transfer dealings, we had a caretaker manager & ultimately finished 12th in the League. That was, well…. pretty shit. There are some points from this mid 90s period which give me the hope you look for as a supporter, especially when your club has been tested the way it has this season. At the end of 1994-95 season, who would’ve thought that our next three finishing positions would be 5th, 3rd & then Champions? Not many would have thought that & I am sure that not many right now would think it would be possible to replicate in the next 3 years. What it says to me though (& call me bat shit crazy here), is that it is possible.
This blog is taking a light look back over the season then, but do I even dare let myself go back to the dark dark places we found ourselves in at multiple points this season? Unfortunately there’s no choice. Luckily for us, the light at the end of that dark horrid tunnel was a nice shiny FA Cup, so it wasn’t all bad I guess.
I remember after we finished our preseason campaign, that I felt quite positive about the upcoming season. We’d signed Pepe for a big fee which always gets the excitement going, we had had some fairly decent performances in the lead up to the Premier League kick off & even though I still had the taunting memories of the end to the previous campaign, there was some (misguided) optimism. Unfortunately that optimism faded fairly quickly & by October our Premier League campaign was already in the bin & fan outrage had reached a level never seen before at Arsenal. Emery had lost the dressing room, no-one could understand what style of football he wanted to play & what became incredibly apparent is that he seemed to be afraid of most of our opponents. I remember hearing someone say that Emery was more afraid of losing games than he was interested in winning them & I felt that this was the most accurate description of the failing manager.
The most frustrating part for us watching this unfold was the apparent lack of action being taken from the executive board. When you look at how poorly we finished the season before & how bad our form was (just 4 wins from our opening 15 games, which is quite frankly atrocious), Emery still seemed to have the backing of the board. We were becoming the definition of insanity, doing the same things over & over, while expecting a different results. We finally got what we all wanted in early December, after we lost at home to Brighton. One things that still blows my mind when looking back over this period is that many of us were talking about relegation, we were in free fall & until we got rid of Emery, I just couldn’t envisage an upturn in performances or results. So Emery was out & Freddie was in for a bit.
Enter Arteta… Now I will be the first to admit that I was sceptical about him taking the role. This was nothing to do with it being his first job to be honest. My one & only fear for him was that our club was so incredibly low, with so many ongoing issues, that I just though that the job would be tough for an experienced manager, let alone if it were your first job in management. When we look at the work he has done, during the most challenging time in Arsenals history, it’s nothing short of remarkable & he has (so far) exceeded any expectations I had when he joined. As he knows & we can all see, there’s still plenty of work to be done & it is probably going to take longer than we initially thought when he joined, mainly due to Covid-19. We really need to turn some of those draws (all 14 of them) into wins, we ultimately became drawing drawing Arsenal this season.
We are seeing signs that Arteta is starting to turn the ship around, but he’s going to need some assistance to fully change the direction. That support needs to come from KSE & the executive team. He’s fully within his rights now (after the results against Liverpool, City & Chelsea) to push them to spend, I mean come on, look at what he managed with the current bunch of players. Half way through the season you would’ve wanted pretty much most out the door at the end of the season, but it goes to show how much a man can change the whole perspective. We saw the redemption of Xhaka & Mustafi, both deserve massive credit in my opinion. These guys took a big chunk of the abuse from us as “supporters” for quite some time, they’ve taken it on the chin & have put in some fantastic performances towards the end of the season, showing great character to do so. I think the to main things I have noticed in our play is our structure in general is massively improved & the increased engagement of opposition higher up the pitch when they start to attack our goal. Under Emery we would back off, back off & then back off some more, which meant we would concede plenty of chances & unfortunately plenty of penalties as well. We are engaging higher up the pitch, allowing us to regroup & regain the structure. Back to Mustafi though & its his new found ability to stay on his feet which has caught my eye the most. Admittedly he had a 20 minute spell against Spurs where he went back to his old habits, however he was our best defender after the forced midseason break. He deserves the credit for that.
It was great to end the season on a high wasn’t it? I don’t think many of us would’ve predicted our 14th FA Cup triumph, especially when you look at who we had to beat along the way. Luckily, I think we have a Manager now who will not let this ‘paper over the cracks’, something we have definitely seen before. We need to make a few additions to the squad & also tie down our FA Cup hero, Aubameyang. He was a phenomenon this season, to score 30 goals with so little creativity is astonishing.
We have just made our first ‘summer’ signing today, Willian has joined on a 3 year contract which is causing debate amongst our fanbase, which isn’t the hardest thing to achieve really is it?! Personally I’m not to fussed about it, he’s a good player & can definitely add something to the squad & help some of our younger talent along the way. Do I see him staying the full 3 years? Probably not. He has always stated a desire to retire his career in Brazil, so with that in mind I think he might only be with us for 2 years, meaning we could even get a small fee for him when he moves back to Brazil. If that’s the case, then the 3 year contract makes sense & could (do I dare say this) be smart business by the executive team. Only time will tell.
Thankfully the break from football isn’t too long, we play again on 29th August in the Community Shield. The season then starts up again on September 12th & as always, I already cannot wait for it all to start again. Once more we will be filled with hope, let’s just see if that hope can last a little longer next season hey…
Finally I would just like to thank all who have read or interacted with the blog this season. It was a crazy ride to say the least.
Stay safe
The Arse 