How much better would Arsenal be doing had the early season nightmares not taken place?
Painful defeats to Liverpool and Manchester United plus a sorrowful draw at Newcastle ensured a turbulent start to the 2011/12 season for the Gunners, with a small mountain to climb before September had even begun. European qualification may have been secured but the league campaign was looking destined for some degree of failure.
It is clear that it was those early results that sparked the signings of Per Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Andre Santos and Park Ju-Young. While not all of these have played a hugely significant role for the club quite yet – Benayoun and Park in particular – each has offered goals, confidence and, unlike a lot of Wenger signings, experience – three of the five are captains of their national sides. These new squad members didn’t make an immediate impact, the team still looking prone to conceding against anyone, but still managed to lose just one game out of six in October. This 4-3 defeat at Ewood Park may have been painful but it was the point where the revival began. A North London derby loss may have followed but the fixture has become a closer affair in recent seasons and always promised a tough game for the Gunners regardless of their form.
Would Robin Van Persie have been given so much responsibility had Arsenal started well? The pressure that was on him at the beginning of the campaign – and still to a point now – seems to have increased the captain’s willingness to take risks, his desire to play the Arsenal way and his ability to score goals.
The end of last season almost gave the Gunners nothing left to prove. The critics wrote them off as a team that was missing just that little something to push them that extra inch to win a trophy, but they were still expected to qualify for the Champions League and to gain a top four place. It was predicted that it would simply be ‘just another Arsenal season’. The fact that it started so differently for them gave them something to fight for, especially as the tussle for the European places is becoming tougher with Manchester City, the improving Liverpool and the surprisingly flourishing Newcastle emerging as newer challengers for those spots at the top.
Had Arsenal’s mediocre pre-season been slightly more impressive and the Old Trafford result not been so poor, would the season have taken a similar path to the erratic one witnessed so far or did the events of late summer really change its direction?
Trackback: trackback from your own site.
COMMENTS GUIDELINES: ANY COMMENTS WITH SWEARING OR PERSONAL ABUSE WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT EXCEPTION: PLEASE DISCUSS THE SUBJECT IN A FREINDLY AND OBJECTIVE MANNER. SERIAL ABUSERS WILL BE BANNED. PLEASE BE NICE TO YOUR FELLOW GOONERS!
I’ve always felt that the defeat at ManU was a blessing in disguise for Arsenal. Sure as hell I didn’t enjoy the match, and even now I I feel a small twinge when i remember that game.. But had that thing not happened we probably wouldn’t have Arteta and Per in our side.. Also with that defeat the pressure on our team to win the trophy was minimal. We became a side that didn’t have anything to lose and life has taught me that enemies without anything to lose are the ones who’re gonna screw you the most..
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
43 
2
Every cloud has a silver lining. The test of a club, players and manager is how they respond to adversity. The response by Arsenal is pure class and I feel nothing but pride to be a gooner. Those that wanted Wenger out and the board to break the bank should disappear never to be seen again. The spleen venting and bad language that went on showed no class and a fundamental lack of football understanding. We still have a long way to go, still show some lack of tactical nous, but the team spirit has returned and Van Persie has been nothing but fantastic as a leader, player and captain.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
19 
1
One point you can’t measure by statistics is the new passion our players have. The players on the pitch love the badge as much as us. They want silverware more than we do. We flushed out the poo, got some experienced players. And now its time to borrow some of Artetas hair wax and Gel the team abit more.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
15 
0
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
1 
11
I think we were always destined for a poor start, I predicted this before the season even began, so I’m guessing many others did too.
Even with the latest signings and the run of form we’re building up, I feel that our team isn’t as strong as last season. You say that we needed a spark to propel us to lifting a trophy, yet how does Arsenal react… we let two of our best midfielders leave, and didn’t replace the quality like for like.
I was hoping (obviously in fairyland) that we would fight for our best players, keep the core squad and add new players with flair to push us forward. It hasn’t happened, so trophy wise I’m not holding my breath. I think we took 2 steps back and one forward during the start of the season.
Pessimistic yes, although this doesn’t mean I have lost faith in our current squad. I’m really starting to enjoy the “Arsenal” way of play again, its coming together slowly, we just need to keep the ball rolling and the points ticking over, and hope that the teams above us start dropping more points than us.
Sorry for the long windedness, but in summary the poor start could have been avoided if we prepared and managed our players/transfers. The players have the class, its down to the managers to make them use it, losing 8-2 to Man Utd should not have been the wake up call, it caused more damage than good.
Rate this comment:
8 
3
it is always said that it dose not matter how a man started bv how he finished.,,wait and see what these players have in store for you and me…arsenal is the only team that changfed their players yet our tradition remains tip tap football,let jack return we will see that 10million arteta is worth more than that..he is playing off position but yet he still plays better than the world class mildfilders in Epl..rosicky is in form yossi is waiting for a chance Ox will explode when given the chance Ryo is there,,wait let joel return to his parent club he will play that game we know him for…park is gaining confidence let him score his Epl goal then you will always want him,,
Rate this comment:
1 
0
wondered f we hv win those games against newcastle,liverfool,blackburn n spudsy we will go level wit shity on top right now already..
Rate this comment:
1 
2
the injuries to both jack wilshere and then bacary sagna were damaging long-term – but the serious loss was not man.u but blackburn
if you get anything away from home against your closest rivals at the top – its a huge bonus but not expected
but against the minnows, any loss is really felt
i daresay that before the man.u and chelsea games we would have gladly taken two points…to have harvested three is and could be massive later on
Rate this comment:
1 
0
@gary I agree… although you have to ask yourself whether we would have lost against Blackburn if we weren’t humiliated against united? I’m confident that if we had a strong enough team to get something from that game (even if it was pride if we lost by a small margin), the team would be more prepared than they were.
They crushed every single one of those players, nothing positive could have been taken from that game, and it showed its side affects throughout the rest of the month.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
its better f squid,almunia,denilson hu hd that long term injuries..nt sagna n wilshere
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“How much better would Arsenal be doing had the early season nightmare not taken place?” That’s living in the past. There’s nothing we can do about that. We can’t go back re-do the whole start of the season. There’s only NOW. And Right Now, ARSENAL are on the way up. The players have a belief that they can win every game they play. I would much rather they keep this “winning belief” then relive the “nightmare start” of a couple months ago. They have a winning attitude. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda doesn’t help. All we can do his cheer this Arsenal side on– the one that’s playing well together and has belief. Let’s focus on the next game. Go Gunners.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
@rocky. I dont think the manager had to replace fabregas and nasri with like for like. I think the team is growing in confidence, it is becoming a more fighting team ready to roll up sleeves and get a result anyhow and they are gelling well.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
@Andy Bishop I for one was one who criticized Wenger and rightly so. His mistakes were blatantly obvious (defensive issues for 2 seasons, panic buys in the transfer window, lying about letting Fabregas and Nasri go etc etc) these were all things which if dealt accordingly perhaps we would have won the previous season not to mention the carling cup and had a much better start this season. The thrashing at United was a wake up call for Wenger and crew in that his metholology of doing things was stale and easily countered by opposing teams. As someone said that horrible defeat was a blessing in disguise and shook things up. Wenger signed 4 experienced players after that, something which he should have done long before we were forced to bend over for United and company.
I also believe the criticism dealt from fans was called for. If it wasn’t for positive criticism, those in charge would just keep making the same mistakes. If managers are not doing their jobs properly, it needs to be heard and they need to feel it from the fans. Wenger definitely felt it and perhaps it too was one of the reasons why he changed his tune a bit and bought some experienced players.
At the same time, the panic buys he did make, have proven to be worth it and have fitted in very well into our side. Hats off there. The problem was they needed time to adjust which during that time was a major weakness for us. That is why he should have signed new experienced players much earlier in the transfer window before the season began.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Wenger messed up. But he learned from his mistakes and is sorting things out. We can see it in the players and also his selections. So when fans criticize, it’s not because they are not ‘real’ fans and have no commitment bla bla. It is because we genuinely see fault in what the manager does and want it rectified. I think those faults were clear as day.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
@Big Gun as much as i would love to agree with your argument i totally disagree with the level of abuse the likes of you rained at the manager. You can call a spade a spade but you want the spade out as if you could have done a better job. It is very pitiful booing players and managers alike is not a sign of loyalty and would explain while some players felt the need to move on and will not wait around for such abuse. If wenger wasn’t passionate about Arsenal he could have walked and then it would have been dooms day as you have predicted – probably relegation and the rest of the players also taking a walk…So pls keep your argument to yourself now that the club is on it’s way up. We didn’t win the Carling cup nor Champions Lge bcos of the so called Nasri and Fab4 last yr because they were not playing with their heart for Arsenal. Nasri wasted all the chances created and fab4 forgot he was an Arsenal player and gave the ball to Barcelona to go and score…what we have now is players with heart so good ridance to them and you so called wenger out and not coming here to justify your actions so much negativity i stopped reading this blog. If anything you predicted is to go by we are meant to be currently fighting relegation despite the signings.
Rate this comment:
0 
0