Arsenal end of season review part 1.

This I feel will be a long post so thats why its gonna be a multi part post. Also bear in mind I have just been watching the Robert Pires video on the other page.

First some words about "that" team. Its obvious to me that this was a team bursting with world class talent. Pires was given the "we are not worthy" accolade by his fellow team-mates in 2002 after a spectacular year I believe ended in unfortunate injury and missing the world cup. The components of the team were all there, a fantastic goalscorer in Thierry Henry ably aided by prolific wingers Pires and Ljungberg who each would score in excess of 10 goals a year. Ljungberg was a grafter always working back and always in tune with the number 10. Pires worked the left side magnificently with Henry and cole attacking from the left back spot. Most of the play came through the left hand side. Number 10 Dennis Bergkamp was the orchestrator of this orchestra, while Pires could be the orchestator for the left Bergkamp with sublime slide rule passing worked the middle for Henry and the right for Ljungberg. All of this should be remembered when I get to talking about the present Arsenal midfield. Patrick Vieira was the ball winner and probably the main line of defense before the back four came into play. Vieira broke up play and set the others on attack mode a lot of the time counter attack mode. Edu was also the hard tackling silky skilled midfielder who was much a reason for the teams success as any of the other team. His story is a pre-cursor to a lot of the bad things that have been happening to Arsenal since. More on that later. The back four were tenacious and verocious and teams often gave up when faced with this lot, they were winners and hated to lose. The team had it all and mostly they were full of matchwinners in their own right. Either one player could win games by themselves.

Ok enough with the past, lets talk about the recent present.

On first inspection of the season 2007-2008 Arsenal finished in third place 4 points behind United and with an inferior goal difference so in effect Arsenal finished 5 points behind the eventual winners. Wenger will say this was a vast improvement on the last season, 15 points more and a place more. It is true that the team performed well. It is largely a matter of perception. Some say that the team fell away at the end and seemed to lose focus and stamina for the final run-in. Others will say that if they had been behind in the race early and stormed back late in the race then the whole perception of the team would be different. I of course believe that the former is true, This team was in position to win and with some key moments in the premiership race the prize was gone.

Of course over the course of a full season there can be points that are lost and you may hope later in the year they dont become critical dropped points. The draw with blackburn away and the draw with liverpool away (a game in which the team really played well). Getting to christmas in good shape and losing the first game at Middlesboro - a tough place to play. Then when most pundits expected the team to fail at Newcastle they played a creditable 1-1 draw with a team that played hard for their manager Sam Allardyce. Arsenal had taken only one point from 2 games and with Everton away things looked tricky. This is where Eduardo was starting to come into his own and two goals against Everton secured a 4-1 win. The team had come through a tough period. Through December wins against Chelsea and Tottenham move things along. Adebayor comes on strong now with more goals against West Ham and Man City. Eduardo chipping in with a goal against City. And then a win against Blackburn with United busy with FA Cup duty. The following week United lose to Man City and a 5 point gaps appears with Arsenal at the top of the table. At this point in the season all is not what it may seem.