B of a season

By Eduardo
May 25 2013

As seasons go Arsenal’s 2012/13 season was what can only be termed as an up and down season, with much of the emphasis on the down.  You could in fact call it a B of a season, well in the cups anyway. Arsenal went out of all cup competitions to teams beginning with the letter B. No shame in going out to Bayern Munich in the Champions league, especially as it was on away goals, but the same can not be said of our exits in the Capital One Cup to fourth tier Bradford City, and second tier Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup.  To lose to such poor teams as Bradford and Blackburn, with Arsenal fielding almost full strength sides, is for me inexcusable and really should have led to Arsene Wenger’s dismissal.  Maybe to lose one, but not both games.

Ill Prepared for the Season yet again

Well just like we have become accustomed to in recent years, the season began with the major distraction of transfer dealings, but not of the sort Gooners wanted, RVP showed he was never a Gooner and headed off to Man Utd.  All our main summer arrivals, Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski, were already here by that time, and despite the loss of our star striker and captain our manager did not bolster our squad further.  We went into the season on a downward spiral, big star gone, FAPL untried newcomers, missing wonder boy Jack Wilshere, and once again having our manager relying heavily on the oh so injury prone Abou Diaby to be our midfield general.

The Diaby situation ended this season as it normally has; and once again Gooners everywhere ask why our manager can not see the stupidity in planning so much on an injury prone player to be our saviour. Yes Diaby is an extremely talented player, but his talents cannot be utilized when he is so often injured, so why does Wenger keep making this same mistake.

The Season Start

A couple of odd things about our start to the season, one was that a few early clean sheets had all and a sundry  claiming the Steve Bould effect had kicked in, well that soon changed when the goals went in against us, but every time during the season we got a few clean sheets, the Steve Bould effect would appear again, why clean sheets were down to him, but the goals let in had nothing to do with him, is just another one of life’s little mysteries, a sort of Emirates Stadium Mystery if you like.

The other odd thing about the start of our season was that despite it being our worst start to a season under Wenger, yes even worse than 2011/12 season, but without any 8-2 kind of result, there was not the sort of anger or fans revolt that had been seen a year before.  Maybe this was because having shown anger and voiced their disapproval a year earlier and seemingly nothing had changed, most Gooners just could not be bothered to put themselves through it again, maybe no massive defeat was the reason, or just maybe without said big defeat our awful start actually got overlooked.

But more likely it was that we did not go on any major run of defeats, and we always had a win or two that the fans loved, like putting the 5pud2 back in their place again, or the other London derby win away at West Ham, that included all three summer signings Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski playing very well. Getting out of our CL group helped ease some concerns too.  But there was the Bradford defeat, that should have caused a riot, but it just somehow did not really seem to matter.  Yes many blogs and some in the media saw  it as the end for Wenger, others just stopped going to the Emirates on match day, and some that went got in rows with other Gooners, but overall it was a lot of nothingness to a lot of Gooners.

The Bradford defeat was meant to be the turning point, this would build defiance in the team, and they would come out to show it was a fluke, and go from strength to strength.  Sadly it did not; we went from ok to ok, meandering along without a care in the world. 

Mid Season and the Window

We had the distraction of the January Transfer Window mid season, yes we got rid of one failed left back Andre Santos, and brought in an accomplished Spaniard Nacho man Montreal, we came close to one other signing, but it was not to be, but at least the one other really good piece of news at that time was that Theo Walcott had signed da thing. 

Did we get our Arsenal Back?

We huffed and puffed along for another spell in the season, until it all happened again, Blackburn in the cup, yes bloody Blackburn of the Championship beat us at home in the cup, this B thing had a sting, and when Bayern stung us too at home, and then those B*stards from up the road beat us to take a 7 point lead over us in the FAPL race for the top 4, everything seemed lost for many Gooners.  But the old saying goes; it’s darkest before the dawn.  And from this bleak position in many ways we got our Arsenal back, our manager grew a pair, dropped some players, took a more pragmatic approach, and we did not taste defeat again for the rest of the season.

Yes we went out of the CL, but that was on the back of an away win in Bayern, which according to Wenger gave the team the belief to put that 8 wins and 2 draws run in the FAPL together, which saw us overtake Bale FC in the race for top 4, and despite the silly criticism of not only our players delight on last day of the season but the fans rejoicing the finish, for me manager, team and fans had every right to be happy at that point.  The chimp was put back in its place; a B of a season had been got through without a B of an ending.

The Bould Effect

To continue the B theme, we have to ask was there really a Bould effect on our season, our defense certainly has much improved stats this season than we have had for many a year, and ended with the second best defensive record in the FAPL, including 14 clean sheets and just less than one goal a game conceded.  Was this improvement down to Bould, or did Wenger just alter approach enough for it to make a difference. At the start of the season when we had a few clean sheets we were not scoring, then it seemed to chance and we scored more but few clean sheets, and then on our run in we once again let in very few but also found it hard to score more than one goal in any game. 

Some will say the Bould effect, others will say Wenger changed approach, and there will be those saying we just don’t have the forwards or the midfield to get us the goals, so take your pick, but whatever the reason, we struck on a winning formula in those last 11 or so games.  The question is can we build on this formula, that is something I will tackle in next season preview a few months from now.

Our standout players of the season. 

Well for me Theo Walcott gets my vote for our player of the season, 21 goals and a fair few assists from a mainly right wing position is a fantastic return and he has taken another step forward in his development.  Santi Cazorla had a big first season for us too; it was only at the end of the season that the pundits and media woke up to how good this guy is. 

Koscielny and Mertesacker also deserve great credit, they did not end up on the losing end for the last 18 FAPL games they partnered other. Gibbs had another improvement in his game this season. Ramsey finally got to show central midfield is his best position once Wenger stopped playing him all over the place, Giroud and Podolski both had their moments, and both ended with good stats for the season in goals and assists. 

What now

The season is over and now the real work begins, Gooners everywhere are calling for an end to B list signings, we all want a few A listers, more of the deadwood are leaving, freeing up both squad places and wages, the big commercial deals are being struck, so no excuses on finances anymore.  So many empty seats at the Emirates for so many games will have stirred upper management and the word I have received is that Gazidis has finally been able to get Wenger to give him option lists for each position, and many discussions have already taken place with clubs, agents and players.

 Has this B of a season given Wenger the wake up call to go out and really strengthen big time, the cynics will say its the fact no new contract talks have taken place that has lit a fire under him, nothing like a big spending spree to give a manager the upper hand in getting the contract he wants.  Well I don’t care what the reasons are, as long as the needed signings are made.  It was a B of a season, but now its over I kind of miss it, but the comings and goings for the next few months will distracts us all, and we won’t find till the new season is upon us.

End of Season Grade

If I was to give a rating for Arsenal’s season then it really should be a C+, but I’m feeling generous and in keeping with the theme of the article the final rating for Arsenal 2012/13 is B.