So a season that initially promised little, then promised a slight chance of a title shot, then a two horse race, finally finished in huge disappointment when we ended the season as the forth best team in the country.
Everyone argues about where it went wrong, was it the 4-4 away at Newcastle after being 4-0 up in until the 68th minute? Or was it the last minute loss to Birmingham in the Carling Cup Final? In my opinion these results were simply a result of us not being strong enough when it really counts.
We are fine when it comes to the beginning of the season when the manager always mentions:
“We do not look at the league table yet.”
Because our players play without a worry. The mentality that,
“The result does not really matter… it is so early in the season …we can make up for it later on.”
This play without care attitude is what our players are brilliant at, they love just entertaining and pretending it is like a training match. We usually destroy teams playing this way. This was shown with a 6-0 win at Blackpool, 3-0 away at Manchester City and 4-2 away at Villa.
When the pressure is off we are class. This is also reflective in our brilliant away form. Playing away you do not have the anxiety of the home fans being impatient and wanting a goal from kick-off. Away, teams come out and have a go against us (especially against us!). We come under a lot of pressure and we can hit teams on the break when they have high defensive lines. We were also able to take a few shots on target against us and then go down the other end and score with our first shot. In whole, this seemed to desert us a in the second half of the season. When we started to believe we could be in with a chance of winning something.
Which brings me perfectly on to the Carling Cup final; we bottled it. I am fed up with saying the word pressure, but we just cannot handle it. Is this because we are too young a squad? Perhaps. Is it because we are not a squad full of Winners? Perhaps. Or is it because we do not have enough English Spirit? Not so much.
In my opinion I just believe we do need those couple of additional old players who have won trophies. Players that have experience of winning trophies, be that in England or in other countries.
Paper talk of losing players like Nasri and Fabregas would destroy us. Their experience in the Premiership would be 
sorely missed. We would also not be able to attract as high class signings as we could previously. Players from clubs seeing us finishing fourth and losing players left, right and centre might see Arsenal as a bit of an Ajax. In as much as a training club who buy players young and cheap and sell to a bigger club a few years later. We need players who want to stay at our club for years and years to come.
I think this summer is going to be very busy in terms of transfers. I believe we are going to see a lot of players going and almost certainly less players coming in. It will be sad to see some players go but maybe, it is time for them to move on to another club where they have a better chance of playing more games (Bendtner and Denilson) or to develop their career at a different club (Nasri and Cesc). In both cases, you do want them to look back at their time at Arsenal and think “I should have stayed”
Whatever does happen, I do hope Arsenal fans will not be disappointed with the amount/quality of incoming players.
Speak soon
