FAILURE?

Let's just say, for arguments sake, that Arsenal's season was a failure, was disappointing, as the media would have us believe and what some Arsenal fans are now saying. 

 Let's just look at the reasons that are being put forward for our 'capitulation': a) Gallas having his outburst at Birminghamb) The psychological effect that Eduardo's injury had on our players for the rest of the seasonc) Why didn't Arsene Wenger sign players in January?d) Adebayor needs 5 chances to score e) Arsenal bottled it when winning against the other Big Four teamsf) Wenger picking 7 reserves for the FA Cup match at Old Traffordg) Ditto CC against Spursh) We didn't have a big enough squad.

 Take a) for starters. OK, Gallas behaved like a French bloke. But that week he had helped Bacary Sagna after his brothers' tragic death, then during the match had seen a teammate horrifically injured and had to endure the pain of seeing a totally unjust penalty being given against us in the last minute of the match. OK, I wouldn't have behaved like that, but then again I wouldn't behave as pathetically as Terry & Ferdinand behave. And what is their excuse? 

b) has got some merit as I've come to the conclusion that Hleb's head went and is when his doubts about staying with Arsenal surfaced. I did say something to this effect at the time when I questioned how many more assaults by the likes of that c**t Taylor, aided & encouraged, protected & defended by his manager, would it take before the likes of Cesc & Hleb are driven away from the English game. In Hleb’s case, that was enough for him by the looks of it.

 c)  'Why didn't Arsene Wenger sign players in January?' Why the f*ck should he have?  Did he know Eduardo would be crippled in February? Did he know RvP would get injured again in February? Or Song? Or Toure? Or Walcott? Or Sagna in April? Or Djourou? Or Diaby? But I suppose all you lot who say he should have signed players knew this did you? Does Championship f*cking Manager tell you this as well? And who should we have signed? By general consensus it should have been Woodgate and Anelka. So for a combined total of about £25m we could have had a convicted racist thug who, from January onwards, was part of a back four who were so piss poor that they would have been improved by signing Igor Stepanovs (no wonder Kaboul, who was two-bob when he played, got the right hump at being excluded from that shower of shyte), and a player who managed to score a whole two goals in over twenty appearances for Chelsea. That's £7.5m per goal so far. Great value. Just what we needed.

We had a whole f*cking midfield who could hardly score after Christmas, so why not a centre forward as well?  It's just hindsight from a lot of you. Well, let me tell you, I would be far more impressed if you had foresight, or could even back up your arguments with a few facts.  

d) 'Adebayor needs 5 chances to score.' Really? I didn't hear anyone saying that before Christmas. In fact, it was only when he had his poor first half against Man U up there in the league in April that that load of bollox surfaced. The bloke scored 24 goals in 33 league appearances. He didn't take any free-kicks unlike Ronaldo and only had a couple or three penalties in his tally unlike Ronaldo who scored shed loads. He also played on his own upfront a lot of the time when we had numerous attacking players injured. Contrast that with Ronaldo who had Rooney & Tevez with him most of the time and who could be rested when it suited him.

 e) Did we? 1-0 up against Chelsea at their place. Hopeful punt up field. Just the 3 Chelsea players offside, but obviously a minor detail for the linesman, Sky pundits and virtually everyone else reporting on the game. So they score when they hadn't looked like doing so. Even that Arsenal hater Redknapp said so. Plus Sagna's injury in that game. Plus the c*nt Terry's gamesmanship I spoke about earlier. 1-0 up against Man U. Yes, it should have been 4 up by then, but then Carrick completely miss hits a ball and Gallas gets his arm in the way. No disputing the penalty, but Carrick throws his arm out to stop a cross at Stamford Bridge and nearly the whole Man U side go for the ref and linesman when a clear penalty is given and Ferguson whinges about games as big as that 'shouldn't be influenced by handball's like that'.  Short memory eh, Sir Awex?

 Then Evra goes over theatrically on the edge of our box. Funny how Sky didn't show a replay yet they normally show it from 6 different angles isn't it? Could it be that they had a little look at it and decided it may be contentious and it would upset Ferguson once more if another of his players were to be accused of diving? After all, for Geoff Shreeves, the Sky after match interviewer to be called a 'f*cking bastard' by Ferguson once in a season for questioning Man U players honesty might be considered unfortunate, but twice would be downright careless wouldn't it? So Hargreaves scores and we lose that one as well. 

Then Liverpool in the CL second leg. Theo has just produced the most stunning piece of individual football seen in this country this season and we're going through. So what happens? Babel makes a beeline for the Arsenal box and dives. And the referee says that Kolo pulled his shirt which has been clearly shown did not happen. So they score from the penalty, we chase the game and with every Arsenal player apart from Cesc in the Liverpool penalty area, Babel shows how easy it is to stay on your feet when it is in your interests and scores the clincher.  You may have seen a bit of a pattern there and there is. But that's not all of it. Having been the better side in all three games we couldn't put the opposition away. It's a failing, yes, but one which this team will learn from. 

f) So AW virtually gives up on the FA Cup? I could take losing but the problem was that two senior players, no names but here's a clue - they are our current first choice centre backs - decided that it wasn't a problem if they didn't give their all in the match. Well, let me tell you, if there's one thing I can't take it's an Arsenal player not trying his hardest in an Arsenal shirt. Defeat I can take, but that I can't. To blame it on Hoyte or Traore is wrong. If they weren't good enough on the day then so be it, but at least they tried. Having said that, some people, and f*ck me, do those wankers in the media know f*ck all, are still trying to say that Arsenal never recovered from that. Which must be why we went out four days later with a proper team and beat AC Milan 2-0 in the San Siro. Becoming the first British side to beat Milan away. 

g) Pretty much as in f) above. Except in the first leg we didn't have a single first team player as I recall and it has provided us with a good laugh, what with Spuds bringing out a commemorative DVD of the second leg so quickly you'd think they wanted to cash in before anyone realised it only meant something to fans who had either never seen or couldn't remember what it was like for their team to beat their closest (only in a geographical sense) rivals. I am a bit jealous though as apparently they then qualified for the World Cup Final and beat the team representing Russia, so Spurs are now the World Champions it would seem.  

 h) 'We didn't have a big enough squad.'  Well, if we had the luck that Man U had with injuries then we certainly would have had a squad big enough. But that's a nagging question - are we just very unlucky or are 3 seasons of horrendous injury problems down to either the sort of training the players do or are our medical staff not good enough? It has to be sorted because I can hardly remember how good Thomas Rosicky really is anymore. I just hope he remembers & shows us how good next season.   END PART 3 

PART 4 HERE

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