The Champions league was our last chance of salvaging the season and a 2-1 win against Reading had the team in Buoyant mood for the return game v PSV.

Everyone seems to be on a bit of a low. It would have been easy to write a scathing criticism about the spinelessness of the team in recent games, the poor performances of certain players, the fact that the argument AGAINST the manager seems to grow stronger with each passing season or the fact people are STILL leaving matches early but the venting on all these matters seems to help nothing.

So instead comes a reflective piece. This isn’t necessarily a pessimistic look at life as an Arsenal fan but just a reminder that things don’t always go our way.

Everyone seems to be mourning what appears to be the demise of our season even if it happens and we do end up trophyless, will it really be any worse than recent seasons gone by? Let’s have a look…

2006-07

Could there have ever been a worse 15 days? It all began on February 20th when the team travelled to Eindhoven to face PSV in the second round first leg of the Champions League. A pretty uninspired performance saw the team lose narrowly to a second half Edison Mendez goal. No away goal but no biggy. You would expect we would have enough quality to beat PSV comfortably enough at home, right? Either way, no need to think about it just yet. We had the small matter of the Carling Cup final to think of…

And so a trip to Cardiff to face Chelsea. The game was always going to be tough but some great results against Spurs and Liverpool in previous rounds meant the ‘young guns’ could be confident. Sadly, our first chance at a trophy in 2 years was lost in a mesh of clinical Drogba finishing, John Terry getting kicked in the head a mass brawl that resulted in three suspensions to our players. But hey, at least Theo scored.

In any event, there was still always the FA cup. Two days after Cardiff saw us go to Blackburn for an FA cup replay. It was certainly an opportunity to get our season back on track especially having destroyed them twice in the league. Benni McCarthy didn’t read the script and sent us crashing out.

The Champions league was our last chance of salvaging the season and a 2-1 win against Reading had the team in Buoyant mood for the return game v PSV. A poor game saw Alex put through his own net late in the second half to give us some hope of taking the game to extra time. But the Brazilian defender wasn’t finished for the evening as he scored the decisive goal to knock us out.

NB: Alex went on to sign for Chelsea. The year before, Julliano Balletti scored the winner for Barca in Paris. The year before that, Claudio Pizzaro scored a brace in Munich which ultimately knocked us out. Anyone else seeing a pattern emerging? If Andrei Voronin scores the winner for Liverpool in a few weeks expect him to line up in blue next season…

The season petered into a forth place finish and was thoroughly unsatisfying and so much promise.

2005-06

History says we put all our eggs into the Champions League basket this season and our domestic form suffered as a result. Not strictly true. Arsenal faced Wigan in the second leg of the Carling Cup semi final at Highbury fielding pretty much a full-strength team. Jason Roberts’ late consolation/equaliser/winner ruled out another trip to Cardiff.

Four days later, Arsenal went ‘oop north’ to face perennial bogey side, Bolton Wanderers in one of the most unremarkable football matches in Arsenal’s recent history. A goal from Stelios put Arsenal out of the FA Cup and with only the Champions league to focus on.

…And we all know how that story ended

2003-04

The season remembered by most as the year of The Invincibles. For others, without wanting to sound ungrateful, it was a season of missed opportunities. While the league triumph was something special, there were a couple of very disappointing weeks in April…

The first leg of the Champions League quarter finals saw The Arsenal take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A 1-all draw wasn’t the worst result in the world. We’d beaten New Money FC three times already that season and with the second leg taking place at Highbury, everyone in red and white was confident.

But before that, we faced Man Utd in back-to-back games. A typically fantastic Thierry Henry strike gave us a deserved lead at Highbury but complacency kicked in and United grabbed a fortunate equaliser. 6 days later, we faced the northern scum again in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park. Wenger’s team selection was a strange as Henry and Reyes were left on the bench. Both were thrown on as Arsenal desperately tried to cancel out Paul Scholes’ first half goal but it was all in vain.

Three days later, Arsenal surrendered a 1-0 lead at home against Chelsea and went out of the Champions League in heart-breaking fashion.

Yes, there was the great comeback against Liverpool, the demolition of Leeds and ultimate securing of the title at SHL but Arsenal were in realistic touching distance of the treble and sadly let it slip.

Football is never perfect. The above are perfect examples of this. Whether this season follows in the same vein remains to be seen. What we do know however, is that we can face disappointment time and time again but we always bounce back. This is the strength of the football team we support. Chins up people.