Think of the encounter against Wigan in December, where we got a champion result despite a very un-champion performance by sneaking two goals in the dying embers of the match. The first-half showing at Villa Park was a work of art

(Squid Boy’s note – just looking through my hard drive, I stumbled upon this article written on the eve of the 2007/08 season. Given the way our last two campaigns have unfolded, it resonates more than ever right now. So transport yourselves back to August 2007 and read on…)

1995/96. 1997/98. 2002/03. What do these three seasons have in common? In each of them, a team came back from the dead to win the title.

95/96 was the season where Kevin Keegan famously lost the plot in an interview at about the same time his Newcastle side were losing their hold on top spot. 97/98 was the one where we overhauled Manchester United with ten straight wins to capture our first title under Monsieur Wenger (hurrah for us!). And in 02/03 the roles were reversed as the Mancs eroded away our lead to regain the Premiership trophy. In all three seasons, the eventual Champions got off to a relative ‘mare of a start. If I remember correctly, Newcastle were 10 points clear before the returning Eric Cantona helped guide Fergie’s Fledglings to the promised land, whilst in our glory Double year were 12 points behind at one stage (albeit with games in hand) and at the turn of the year we were actually in 5th or 6th position. In the most recent turnaround in 02/03, Man City handing out a drubbing to a piss-poor United outfit in November, thus leaving them far adrift of us whilst we ourselves looked on our way to retaining the title after dishing out a 5-1 battering to City themselves in February.

However things changed soon thereafter. The following season was our fantastic unbeaten one, so you could say that we raised the bar all on our own. In all honesty though, I believe it is the introduction of Roman Abramovich’s millions into our game that has led to a higher standard being set. Since our unbeaten season, the Champions (Chelsea twice and United once) have all hit the ground running. Any bad result was quickly rectified with a good one, leaving them either ahead of the chasing pack or well in touch with the leaders.

The old adage is that you cannot win the league in autumn, but you can certainly lose it. This rings especially true for us Gooners. Whilst in 02/03 we didn’t win the league, it wasn’t our start which hampered our title chances – in fact, we were playing the best football ever seen in the land to date – four-goal thrashings of Leeds away and PSV away in the space of a few days particularly stand out in the memory. Indeed, it was during the run-in where we ran out of steam, throwing away silly points at Villa and Blackburn along with the now infamous assault job that Bolton carried out on us at the Reebok. Not much has to be said about our start in the 03/04 season, as we all know what happened: come November we’d set the record for best unbeaten start to a Premiership season and from thereon in we led from the front, fighting off ‘loadsamoney’ Chelsea and perennial challengers Manchester United.

04/05 is an intriguing year in the memory of Arsenal fans. On the back of Invincible season we played THE best football ever seen in this country to race to 25 points out of a possible 27 (the only hiccup being those bastards Bolton snatching a late draw at Highbury). Then came the definitive game of the season at Old Trafford. I don’t need to go into what happened as it’s probably still fresh in all your memories, but after that day the empire truly came crashing down, and in my opinion we have never recovered domestically since. Similar to the 02/03 season where we also lost a long unbeaten run, we failed to regroup sufficiently to win the league. In 02/03 after that damn Rooney killed our 30-game run with a screamer, we lost our next 3 games. However, therein lies the difference: 02/03 was pre-Abramovich and in a way pre-excellence, as we managed to bounce back well enough to get an 8-point lead over the Mancs, despite losing it in the home stretch. 04/05 was Mourinho’s first season at the helm of Chelsea, and whilst never firing on all cylinders early on like The Arsenal were, they managed to stay in touch initially before overtaking us after that fateful 50th game and then accelerating away in the New Year. After OT, we didn’t have a sniff.

During the last two seasons we’ve had to endure some pretty average starts. 05/06 saw horrible away form and a frustrating habit of being bullied off the park as our downfall, whilst last season it was shoddy home form at the new stadium – understandable, if not wholly excusable. In each of these seasons the eventual Champs were off and away early doors. 05/06 saw Chelsea continue their dominance with 10 wins out of 11 at the start of the season, rendering any potential title race null and void by Christmas. Last year was United’s turn as they won a whopping 14 of their first 17 games. The key for them was that they never had two bad results on the trot, every time they suffered a defeat or unexpected draw they came out and won the next game, showing that they meant business.

Last season, I had the misfortune to be present at our two worst performances of the season – Sheffield United away and Liverpool away. Interestingly, these games were during key periods of the season: the Sheffield game was during the hectic Christmas period, whilst Liverpool was around Easter time. I don’t think that is a coincidence at all – with nothing meaningful to fight for, the players may subconsciously lose interest. By the time the Sheffield game rolled around, we were well out of the title race and produced a drab and dire performance, creating next-to-nothing. Hark back to Christmas games of the past where we were fighting for the title – consecutive wins against Liverpool away (with 10 men) and Chelsea at home (from a goal down) spring to mind in 2001.

For last season’s trip to Anfield, we had all but secured fourth spot, leaving a relatively meaningless (to the players anyway) third place to play for. And how they showed it, giving a shocking defensive performance as ‘world-beater’ Peter Crouch grabbed a hat-trick against such defensive luminaries as Gallas and Toure. Once again, I’d like to divert your memories back to happier Easters, such as in 2004 where having been knocked out of the FA Cup and Champions League, the lads came from behind to banish the Scousers courtesy of an Henry hat-trick, which was followed up by a crucial point at St. James’ Park to keep us on track for the Premiership trophy.

The current squad, I believe, do not lack quality or talent or even team-spirit. But what they may lack, as evidenced by the performances last season at Bramall Lane and Anfield, is self-motivation. How often did we see the boys turn up for the big games, only too go through the motions against the so-called ‘smaller’ teams? place (Squid Boy’s 2009 note – this is eerily true for the 08/09 campaign as well). How is it possible to do the double over eventual the eventual Manc Champions, to be so close to beating Chelski twice, to hammer Liverpool three separate times, but then to be so abject against the likes of Fulham, West Ham (twice), Everton and Sheffield United? I believe the key IS self-motivation, of which there was a distinct lack thereof last season. And how did this come about? Because of our poor start, which saw us so far off the top, but still in the comfort zone of third or fourth.

Senior players like Jens, Kolo, Willy and Gilberto are all winners. They need to transmit this mentality to the likes of Cesc, Gael, Phil, Ade and Robin. Confidence breeds confidence, and if we are to get off to a good start and be at least on a par with the leaders come January, then I have
no doubt that the players are good enough and mentally strong enough to carry the fight through to the end of the campaign. Performances like those at Bramall Lane and Anfield at key times of the season will simply not occur as the players will be desperate to keep in touch with/hold off their rivals atop of the league. Cesc and Robin are both fighters and have the potential to turn that spirit into a winning one, as long as they have something meaningful to fight for. This attitude will only come about thought IF we get off to a good start. By the term “good start”, I don’t necessarily mean being unbeaten for the first 15 games (although that would be very nice indeed). Sure there will be banana skins and doubtless we will drop points. But like United did last season, we need to pick ourselves up after a bad result and get back on track ASAP, not descend into a deep malaise like our 02/03 and (especially) 04/05 predecessors did. The phrase I think is ‘bouncebackability’.

Although it’s always important to begin the season well, for The Arsenal it may be more even important to do so this time round than ever before. As is widely-reported, Le Boss’ contract expires at the end of the season, and while I think he will stay come what may, the team being up there with the best of them early on will certainly help to ward off any potential suitors after January 1st. Lets put it this way, if we’re fighting for fourth with Tottenham and any other upstarts come New Years Day, then Real Madrid and Barcelona will be licking their lips in anticipation.

So there you have it. It’s not a season preview as such, or an in-depth look at the squad, or an outright prediction as most websites seem to be doing before the big kick-off. Rather, it is a look at how the season may pan out, depending on early results. Get off to a flyer and I believe that the fighting spirit and character within the squad will shine through, and whether we triumph in May or not, at least we would’ve been in with a shout. Get off to a damp squid and be prepared for another season of transfer rumours, unrest in the boardroom and encircling Spanish vultures over our coveted boss. I hope and pray it’s the former, not the latter.

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2009 UPDATE:

Since I wrote all of the above, we have of course ended up as also-rans twice. But don’t let that fool you, because our two tilts at the title were like chalk and cheese. In 07/08, we were mighty mighty close to shocking the nation and claiming the spoils. We did indeed get off to the flyer we so craved, and although it didn’t turn out too well in the end following that black February day at Birmingham, just close your eyes and remember the feeling as we conquered all before us for six-months. Hark back to that game in September 2007 at the Lane where we ripped Spurs to shreds from a goal down. Think of the encounter against Wigan in December, where we got a champion result despite a very un-champion performance by sneaking two goals in the dying embers of the match. The first-half showing at Villa Park was a work of art. Even the last game prior to the Birmingham debacle, a nervy home win against Blackburn, kept the momentum going. Winning ugly as we marched relentless truly was a thing of beauty.

And now close your eyes and contrast that to last season. After a summer of upheaval that saw half our first-choice midfield depart for so-called greener grass and our top scorer from the previous campaign nearly join them. Think of the second game at Fulham, where we lost our concentration for a split second and never looked like getting back in the game. Think back to Hull at home, where complacency got the better of us. Think of Citeh away in November after Gallas got stripped of the armband. I was there. It hurt like hell on the long journey home. Think back to January, when we trailed Aston Villa in the race for fourth spot and many of us (myself included) became neurotic as the transfer deadline approached and the deal for Arshavin hung on tenterhooks. Think of the 4-4 farce against Spurs on Halloween. No wonder they call it ‘fright night’. None of these memories make pleasant reading, do they?

With the press spewing negative bile from every orifice and a growing number of Gooners lapping it up as gospel, I fear something similar could occur this season – one which could feasibly descend into a campaign of prolonged negativity towards our players and esteemed manager. Our start is far from easy, unlike 07/08 where we had a healthy number of home games against the “smaller” sides. Everton and the two Manc clubs away early doors…not to mention a Battle of Britain against Celtic. If we’re even slightly off our game, it is not out of the realms of possibility that we end up with the dread ‘nul points’ from these games and the ignominy of the Europa League on the horizon.

But can you imagine if we come out of them unscathed, or better? Maybe 7 or 9 points plus safe qualification to the group stages of Europe’s premier competition? Wow, what a rush that will be for players and fans alike. The Emirates could morph into a joyous place with the fans acting as a legit twelfth man for the home side, instead of for the opposition as was sometimes the case last season. It could be like 07/08 all over again. Only now, I’d bet on us channelling the pain of falling at the last hurdle then to drag us over the finishing line this time. Kinda like how the 2002 Double side used the pain of UEFA Cup and FA Cup final defeats in the prior two years.

Some may be daunted at the prospect of going to Celtic, Everton, Man Utd and Man City within four weeks of the season commencing. I will admit to a certain amount of trepidation, but by and large I say BRING IT ON. There is no room for complacency or lapses in concentration against those sides. Hit the ground running and by May we could be soaring sky high…