The much criticised Manuel Almunia having the 45 minutes of his life was responsible for the teams going in at half time at 0-0. Arshavin only lasted 27 minutes, Cesc was clearly playing with an injury from the Birmingham City
This is the second installment of the Season Review 2009/2010. You can catch Part 1 HERE
Part 2
Once again the team were written off, it would have taken a great deal for the players to get over the mental damage that would have been inflicted on the squad but once again the team rolled their sleeves up and fought their way back into the race after the third major set back of the league season.
Liverpool came up against a more determined Arsenal side and were beaten for the third time by Arsenal. Sunderland were put to the sword and Stoke City came up against a side who proved that they have more than just talent in their locker. That game at the Britannia stadium was a game that will stick in the mind of many Gooners for some time. Young Aaron Ramsey’s leg snapped by an aggressive, clumsy England player who had the defence of the country, Nicklas Bendtner’s beautiful headed equaliser and Cesc’s nerves of steel as he slotted in the winning penalty. William Gallas injured 17 days earlier at Liverpool was replaced by the giant Sol Campbell who made his comeback via the January window was outstanding in both his on field performances and his leadership skills were there for all to see.
Regardless of how the season would turn out, that game confirmed to me that we have a great foundation to build on, most of the elements were already at the club, if we could keep going then anything was possible as long as we could keep our team together. Injuries had already played more than its part in our season and the team could not afford for the situation to worsen further. Three points behind the leaders at the beginning of March confirmed that Arsenal were very much in a title race.
We continued to cling onto the coat tails of Chelsea and Manchester United. Late winners turned into our speciality. Burnley, Porto, Hull City and West Ham all dispatched until it all came crashing down at St Andrews. Our last title challenge was derailed at Birmingham City in 2007/2008. That year the team could not recover and it was the same this time round. Nasri’s late strike after coming off the bench was supposed to continue our fine run but a freakish goal from Kevin Phillips snatched an unlikely draw for the home side. It went quickly downhill from that point.
Barcelona were drawn out of the hat in the Champions League quarter finals, a mouthwatering tie that got the world talking. Barcelona’s first half master class was wonderful to watch, even for a loyal Gooner. The much criticised Manuel Almunia having the 45 minutes of his life was responsible for the teams going in at half time at 0-0. Arshavin only lasted 27 minutes, Cesc was clearly playing with an injury from the Birmingham City game and William Gallas’ season and possibly Arsenal career had ended at half time. It seems that the injury curse had no qualms about avoiding subtlety.
Theo Walcott had come off the bench to drag Arsenal back from a 2-0 deficit after early second half Barcelona goals. Walcott grabbed the first whilst Cesc slammed home a late penalty before feeling the effects of Puyol’s challenge which turned out to be a fracture thus ending his season alongside Djourou, Gibbs, Ramsey, Gallas and later Vermaelen.
Alex Song had joined the injury list after the Barcelona match. The squad who had dealt with injuries pretty well until that point just had nowhere else to go. The spine of the team had been ripped out, the creative spark was no longer available. In normal circumstances, well normal to other Premier League clubs, Mikel Silvestre wouldn’t have registered a league appearance this season, let alone having to be called upon in the Camp Nou. Against the odds, Bendtner scored the opening goal of the game, Diaby had the chance to play Theo in for another chance shortly after but declined the offer consequently allowing the chance to vanish. From then on, it was the Lionel Messi show. Arsenal had no answer to his magic on the night and his four goals looks to me (with the advantage of hindsight) like a stake through the heart of belief.
The title was not yet out of reach, we needed to win our remaining games and rely on our rivals making another slip up but the punch drunk Gunners were not able to dig in any longer. Like a fighter on a life support machine, the team just gave up breathing. Tottenham had beat us for the first time since 7th November 1999. DVD’s were being edited in N19 whilst the walls were caving in at N5.
Van Persie made his comeback at White Hart Lane and painfully showed everyone what we had missed in his absence.
Everything collapsed at Wigan, the lowest point of the season. Two goals up and strolling, the game was won and then surrendered in terrible fashion. 3-2 and I have never seen our manager look so exhausted mentally. Fabianski was going through an awful time in goal, mistakes at Wigan and again at Blackburn. Almunia had been inconsistent throughout the season, the noises are getting louder from supporters.
Our title race had fallen dramatically into a fight for 3rd. Our neighbours from down the road pushing to get that automatic spot into the Champions League but the boys remembered how to play football again and brushed aside a Fulham side who had more than an eye on their Europa cup final.
The up and down roller coaster 2009/2010 season had come to a close. A disappointing end to an entertaining season on the whole.
A season that started so fantastically well had crashed head first into a brick wall at the end of the season. A young, hungry, determined group of players had transformed into pretty much the exact opposite in some cases. That has to be a big disappointment. It is easy to forget everything that happened before the last six weeks of the season. Although we suffered defeats against our rivals, we continued to match them pretty much every week. We remained in touching distance with the eventual winners. The real beginning of our fall away happened on the 27th March so clearly we have more than the foundations in place.
Reading through my season prediction last season for the 2009/2010 season I started off saying the following.
Like all Arsene Wenger teams of the past we are very capable of going forward and scoring goals, creating chances and finishing them off but we have been let down further down the pitch. Individually it would be extremely difficult to single out any defensive player we have and point negative fingers at him but as a collective unit we know we have some work to do to get to the very top of English and European football.
I could quite easily cut and paste that into this article as my new season prediction and that is a little frustrating how these problems rear their ugly heads once again. According to Ivan Gazidis we have had double the injury figures that the eventual champions Chelsea had over the season and I can believe that. No matter how you dress that up, it is a massive reason as to why the team dropped off at the end.
The notion that you must have equal members of the squad down three or four places in each position is simply absurd. Like I said in my review, Mikel Silvestre shouldn’t have even had a look in such was the talent ahead of him. Losing Gallas, Djou
rou and eventually Vermaelen at the latter stages of the season would have impacted every team in world football. This is not to suggest that we do not have problems to deal with, it is clear that we do.
Defensively we do not work well enough as a team. I would compare our first choice back four (including Gallas) as one of the top collection of defenders in world football but there is something wrong with the balance of the whole team or the collective understanding of their roles.
Manuel Almunia has dropped a level this season whilst Fabianski remains error prone so work needs to be done in that department.
It would be easy to forget the progression that the team have made because of our end of season collapse. Alex Song has established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in the league whilst Van Persie has shown how good he can become as a leading forward. Tomas Vermaelen has had a solid first season and at only 24 he has plenty of room for improvement. The new 4-3-3 formation has been a success overall but work still needs to be done on the training pitch to iron out some of the flaws.
£120 million of the property debt has been paid for so the strings have been loosened around Arsene’s arm. Investment into the squad looks certain. Lets hope that season 2009/2010 was the last stepping stone before our assault on the big trophies next season.
Arsene will be forced into some changes during the summer. William Gallas is looking likely to be heading out of the Emirates door and his French central defensive squad member Mikel Silvestre is out of contract and is highly unlikely to be offered a new one.
The same problems have reared their ugly heads again this season and Arsene will have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to the teams defending. I don’t believe that it is a simple case of buying a new central defender and all the problems will be solved. William Gallas and Tomas Vermaelen were two of our most consistent performers in the first half of the season yet the team still conceded goals. The balance between our attacking and defending needs to be addressed. Individual errors contributed to many of our goals last season so solving that problem is not as simple as buying one or two players.
Marouane Chamakh will be joining our attack so it will be interesting to where he fits into our set up, our full backs will now have a genuine target to aim for when in wide positions. Chamakh’s arrival as well as Bendtner’s improvement will now allow Wenger the option of resting Van Persie when needed.
I would like to see a better season for the likes of Arshavin. Plenty of talent and ability but not enough influence in games when someone is needed to step up and make the difference. Cesc Fabregas scored 19 goals and also gained an impressive 19 assists in all competitions whilst the Russian managed 12 goals and 9 assists.
Abou Diaby, Nicklas Bendtner and Alex Song have taken some big strides forward and will be looking to continue down that path while youngsters like Kieran Gibbs, Craig Eastmond and a few of the other up and coming youngsters will be looking to push themselves into the squad as regulars.
I have attempted to write this season prediction without the use of the word injury but it is pretty much impossible to do so. One of the top priorities should be getting to the very bottom of our injury problems. The GPS technology will not be available until the second half of the season at the earliest according to Gazidis. Other methods will have to be used to ease the problem.
Every season I believe that our injury concerns will improve and they get worse, I certainly do not believe that it will get worse than it was in the season just finished but will it improve sufficiently enough to help us through the whole campaign?
If Chelsea had our injury record last season then the management would be sitting over the summer wondering how they failed to win any silverware this season.
The next season will be a massive season for Wenger and his players. We are close but work needs to be done.
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