Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
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Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Jay29 Wed May 22, 2013 4:25 pm
Due to the sheer size of this write-up, I'm going to put the sections into spoiler tags. I'll be doing this in Player Review, too.
The way I've done this is to talk about our performances in the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and Capital One Cup, how we've done overall, how are tactics were this season and what we should do in the summer to improve and progress.
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Premier League
Champions League
FA Cup
Capital One Cup
Conclusion
Tactical Review
The Summer
The way I've done this is to talk about our performances in the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and Capital One Cup, how we've done overall, how are tactics were this season and what we should do in the summer to improve and progress.
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Premier League
- Spoiler:
- To begin with, let's recall what our expectations for the league were. With van Persie sodding off to United and with no quality replacement, expectations were probably at their lowest for a while. For the second season running, the expectation was that this would be the season where we finished outside the top four. Even if Arsenal did finish fourth, it would only be seen as a bare minimum achievement.
Strangely enough, Arsenal were considered title challengers for about a month. We drew three and won two of our opening five games, scoring nine goals and conceding only twice. One of those wins came after an excellent performance at Anfield, while we came away from the home of the Champions with a well-deserved point. At that point, the feeling was that if Arsenal could keep up their much-improved defending and if their attack could click, they could perhaps mount a title challenge.
Podolski celebrates his and Arsenal's first goal of the season
That feeling quickly evaporated after a very disappointing home defeat to Chelsea. Despite bouncing back with a good 3-1 win at West Ham, Arsenal entered a troubling period of form after the first international break.
It started with a surprise 1-0 defeat at Carrow Road. Arsenal were expected to win fairly comfortably, but their performance was worryingly poor and something that you'd expect from a team who was at the bottom the league having lost their last three games, not one that had won it's last game and had only lost one game up to that point. We managed to win our next game at home against QPR, but did so with another poor performance and a scrappy offside goal.
Things continued to go downhill after a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford. Although it is not unexpected for Arsenal to lose to United these days, that scoreline flattered us. We were downright awful on the day and played with little passion; so much so that the game was over as soon as van Persie netted after a minute of play.
It was a strange period where Arsenal were playing with no confidence for a reason I still can't work out.
After a 3-3 home draw against Fulham, Arsenal went into a vital North London derby with one win in four behind them and no semblance of form. Spurs took the lead early on, but Adebayor's red card swung the game back into Arsenal's favour and they went on to win 5-2 with some ruthless attacking. There was a strong feeling of de ja vu after that.
Mertesacker celebrates his equaliser against Spurs (Giroud seems to be enjoying touching him a bit too much)
Unlike last season, though, we failed to build on our derby day success. A poor draw against a struggling Villa side and a decent draw away at Everton followed before we were outplayed and outclassed by Laudrop's Swansea at the Emirates Stadium. The calls for “Wenger out” were everywhere and they were with some justification as not only were Arsenal not winning, they were playing very poorly and being deservedly beaten by sides they should be beating comfortably. The excellent defending at the start of the season had been replaced by calamitous errors, and the team struggled to break down teams and score goals.
Things began to look up with the return of Jack Wilshere at the start of December. Arsenal defeated West Brom 2-0 at the Emirates with, for the first time in a while, a good performance. Arsenal then turned on the style against a hapless Reading side, winning 5-2 at the Madejski Stadium thanks to a Cazorla hat-trick and goals from Podolski and Walcott. For the first time in the season, we strung three wins together with a hard-fought 1-0 win against Wigan. An unthinkable fourth straight league win came after a mental 7-3 victory over Newcastle, a game remembered for Walcott's excellent hat-trick whilst playing as the club's central striker.
Walcott put Newcastle to the sword with an excellent hat-trick
Back to winning ways and with players who were finally finding form, people felt reasonably confident that Arsenal could pick up a couple of vital results away to Chelsea and at home to Manchester City. Unfortunately, though, Arsenal would go on to establish an unwanted trend this season: they couldn't beat the top sides or their direct rivals.
Arsenal went on to lose both games, both with, again, disappointing performances. They responded well with a Podolski-inspired 5-1 thrashing of West Ham, but then drew 2-2 with Liverpool, having to come from 2-0 down to do so. Whenever Arsenal threatened to put a good run together, they would be halted after three or four games by one of the bigger sides.
So it proved again February and early March. Arsenal defeated Stoke, Sunderland and Aston Villa, all sides below them in the table, but lost 2-1 to Spurs at White Hart Lane. Arsenal had played without the usual big-game tension they had suffered with this season, but their hard work was undone by some woeful defending that allowed Spurs to score two quick and decisive goals. After that result, we were eight points behind Spurs with 10 games to go. Our defence was in tatters, we weren't scoring many goals and looked destined for the Europa League. The transfer window had also long closed and the decision to only sign Monreal, a left back, seemed to be a poor one.
What the hell happened, lads?
This result and the nature of it prompted Arsenal to take a long, hard look at themselves. Tired of their constant errors, Wenger ruthlessly dropped Szczesny and Vermaelen from the line-up and replaced them with Fabiasnki and Koscielny. More emphasis was put on defending as a team and keeping leads intact as opposed to keeping possession and trying to score goals.
This change of attitude, coupled with a determination and desire not to finish outside the top, formed the basis of Arsenal's best run of form this season.
We immediately got back to winning ways with a good 2-0 away win at Swansea. This was followed by a 2-1 win at West Brom and a 3-1 win against Norwich, where we received a fair amount of good fortunate regarding referee decisions. We failed to beat another rival, Everton, where a win would have helped us greatly, but it turned out to be a minor blip as we defeated Fulham 1-0 the following weekend. Once again, we failed to beat a big team, Manchester United this time, but going into April we had put ourselves in pole position to secure fourth. Destiny was in our own hands.
April looked a tricky month with games against a struggling QPR side scrapping for every point, a struggling Wigan side scrapping for every point and a struggling Newcastle side scrapping for every point. However, we lucked out. By the time we played QPR, their relegation had been confirmed and although we were hardly inspiring, the 1-0 win was routine. The Wigan happened to be a mere three days after the FA Cup final. Although they were on a high after a great performance and victory, they were always going to be the more tired side and we exploited that with a ruthless 4-1 win. Finally, Newcastle were safe going into the final day and had little to play for but pride, and like the QPR game, we won fairly comfortably without being particularly great.
Arsenal celebrate winning the 4th placed trophy again
Ultimately, the season ended in something of an anti-climax. Unlike last season when we struggled over the line on the final day, we were in control right until the last game. We had some luck along the way, but to go the final 10 games without defeat, winning 8 of them, is quite an accomplishment for a side which had struggled for consistency all season. To end the season with the second best defence in the league and the best away defence is also remarkable and irrefutable proof that our defence, and our attitude towards defending, has improved. It makes you wonder what might have been had we been better against the bigger sides this year.
To be frank, 4th place is not where we want to be, but for various reasons, it's still an achievement to finish there this season. It could have been much, much worse.
Champions League
- Spoiler:
- Having finished 3rd the season before, Arsenal enjoyed the benefit of going straight into the group stages this season. Our group could have been best described as “tricky”: French Champions Montpellier, Greek Champions Olympiakos and the German side Schalke. Each of them had one thing in common: they were tough propositions in their own homes.
Still, you would have expected to qualify comfortably and things did get off to a good start with a comeback win in France. Montpellier took the lead early on with Belhanda penalty, but we stormed back with goals from Podolski and Gervinho. The second half was difficult as we came under a lot of pressure, but we hung onto the three points.
The first home game was against Olympiakos. As was the case against Montpellier, our performance in this game wasn't great, but goals from Gervinho, Podolski and Ramsey ensured another three points. Six from six – things were going well at that time.
The third group game, and our toughest on paper, against Schalke turned out to be a disaster. Arsenal's performance was lifeless, Schalke were easily the better side and were deserved 2-0 winners. The proud record Arsenal had of not losing to foreign opposition on home soil for a number of years had been obliterated. The only positive that came out of that game was Serge Gnabry coming on and mugging someone off.
The reverse fixture was better, but didn't end as well as it should have. 2-0 up at half-time due to goals from an in-form Walcott and Giroud, Arsenal should have gone on to win the game. However, they contributed to their own downfall as Schalke scored twice in the second half to tie the game. At that point, both Arsenal and Schalke had seven points while Olympiakos had six with games against both sides to come. People doubted whether we would even qualify from the group, given our form at the time.
Fortunately, qualification was sealed in the next round with a 2-0 win agaisnt Montpellier. The defeat against Olympiakos meant that we didn't win the group, but with the way qualification worked out else where, we were guaranteed a tough opponent whether we won the group or not.
Last year, we got Barcelona. This year, we got Bayern Munich.
The home leg against Bayern promised to be special for about nine minutes before they gained control of the game. We were thoroughly outclassed on the night and deservedly lost 3-1.
We made amends for that by winning 2-0 in the away leg. Bayern were complacent and far from their best, but it was much, much improved performance from us and it restored a lot of pride.
FA Cup
- Spoiler:
- A competition Arsenal made hard work out of before dropping out in pathetic fashion. It took two attempts to get past Swansea in Round 3, and the 3-2 win over Brighton in Round 4 was much too close for comfort. Still, in the 5th Round, with a home tie against a struggling Blackburn Rovers side, there was a genuine chance of Arsenal going far this time round.
Such a shame that we proceeded to lose 1-0.
Capital One Cup
- Spoiler:
- This year, the Capital One Cup was completely mad. Arsenal scored an amazing 13 goals in Rounds 3 and 4, seven of them coming in a 7-5 against Reading where we somehow went 4-0 down in 30 minutes and then somehow scored four goals in the second half to force the game into extra-time where Chamakh somehow scored twice. I had never seen such a crazy game before. Just... completely and utterly mental.
In summation: shit happened.
Our “reward” for all that was a quarter-final against League 2 Bradford City, the lowest ranked side left in the competition. Surely we won that one too, right?
…
It's highly disappointing, but we played a part in the Bradford City fairy tale. They had knocked out Wigan in the previous round and lead us 1-0 for a large portion of our game. Vermaelen's equaliser got us into extra-time and, eventually, penalties, and we lost. Somehow, a team containing Vermaelen, Koscielny, Wilshere, Gervinho, Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud lost to League 2 Bradford.
And that's the last time I'll ever speak of it.
Conclusion
- Spoiler:
- Now that everything has been said and done, just how did we do this season? Well, the undeniable fact is that we didn't win a trophy. Again. I don't know how many seasons it's been, since nobody seems to be keeping count for some reason, but it's been a while since we've won something. This season, we could have quite easily achieved a semi-final appearance in the Capital One Cup and a semi-final appearance in the FA Cup, yet on both occasions we went out to lower league sides. I know not many value those particular trophies, but the chance was there and we really should have taken it.
There's not a lot to say about the Champions League, either. Bar the win against Bayern, it was a very forgettable campaign that we had no chance of succeeding in in the first place.
At the very least, Arsenal did achieve their minimum expectation in the league. 4th place is not where we want to be, but it's essential for the club to be in the Champions League every season. Some of our performances this year suggested that we might have finished a few places lower than that, so we've done well to get into the top four again, especially when we were supposed to be a one-man team that's lost it's one-man.
So really, it's a case of “same old, same old”. It's been a very up and down season with a lot of drama, most of it instigated by our own performances. We had the usual “Wenger is a genius” period, followed by the usual “Wenger should leave” period, followed by the usual “actually, Wenger really is a genius” period. Spurs were destined to finish above us again, yet didn't. Amusingly, we've been known for our strong defence this year than for our amazing, fluent, orgasmic attacking play.
At the end of it all, we're left with the usual feeling of relief and cautious optimism. We haven't fallen off the map completely yet, and the upcoming summer present yet another opportunity for us to become challengers again.
Tactical Review
- Spoiler:
- Just like their performances this season, there's been precious little middle ground with Arsenal's tactics. With three new attackers to integrate, it was understandable that our attack wasn't particularly productive in the first few matches. We managed to compensate for this, though, with much improved shape and defending that had clearly been the work of hard pre-season work.
You may recall that in pre-season, Arsenal lost to Manchester City in a friendly, then drew to Kitchee in Hong Kong. In both games, the defending was atrocious; so much so that Wenger himself had to acknowledge that a lot more work would be required on the team's defending. Such was the improvement that Arsenal kept three clean sheets in their opening three games, including an excellent defensive/counter-attacking display at Anfield. The things that had been lacking so long from Arsenal's defensive game had finally arrived. The team was keeping a solid shape with two banks of fours, the midfield was covering for the defenders and the defenders were working as a cohesive unit.
The problem was, though, that the team seemed to be incapable of coping with the physical demands of prolonged defending and transitioning from a defensive shape to an offensive shape. They didn't keep the ball as long as before and were more content to let the opposition keep the ball in certain areas. What this eventually lead to are a couple of abject, lifeless performances against Norwich, Schalke, QPR and Manchester United which was very worrying so early in the season.
As a result, Wenger reverted back to our familiar style of play, with an emphasis on keeping the ball over keeping our shape. However, we then encountered another problem: for all the possession we kept, we couldn't break teams down and score many goals. This lead to another problem: we begun to concede too many goals.
The problems were many. Firstly, Arsenal's midfield was weak to opposition pressure and therefore struggled to control games. Further exasperating this problem was the front-line being disconnected from the rest of the team too often and being unable to hold the ball up in the final third. Unable to keep the ball and unable to create, the defence came under regular pressure.
Don't even get me started on the individual errors.
There were times when our attacked looked absolutely brilliant, especially when they played quick and direct football. The absence of a quality goalscorer like van Persie was keenly felt, but the front four of Cazorla, Podolski, Walcott and Giroud did well enough to compensate. The problem was, it lacked consistency and wasn't backed up well enough by what was behind it.
So up until the 2-1 defeat to Spurs, we had to endure a lot of up and down performances where the only thing you could be certain of was that Arsenal would be poor in the first half and excellent in the second.
However, Wenger ended up doing something miraculous by actually changing the way we play. He improved our attitude towards defending. The defence went away and studied what they were doing wrong and learnt that they had to cover for each other (which should have been bloody obvious years ago) and the system changed slightly. The most apparent change was the switch of Cazorla from the centre to the left hand side. This allowed one of Wilshere or Rosicky to push up into the no. 10 role and for an extra midfielder to come in – in this instance, it was Ramsey.
The extra midfielder allowed Arsenal to keep the ball for longer periods and to keep a better shape. Ramsey really excelled in the deeper role and formed an effective partnership with Arteta where they regulated possession and protected the back four. The team played with a renewed work ethic and weren't afraid to shut up shop and win ugly.
Balance-wise, it wasn't perfect. Movement up front was still lacking and there was a clear lack of width and both Cazorla and Walcott liked to drift inside and become an extra midfield and an extra striker respectively. We still had problems creating chances and scoring, but at the very least, we weren't conceding, either. Our success towards the end of the season was built on this newly improved defending.
Funnily enough, it's almost an identical way of playing to the way we played at the start of the season, where we performed so well.
It's amazing that it's taken this long for Wenger and his players to realise that defending is a collective effort and not just the responsibility of a select few. We've now got a base we can work from. From here on, Arsenal should be looking at integrating a consistent pressing system and improving their movement up front. I feel like we can go places if we maintain this attitude towards defending.
I sincerely hope Wenger feels the same way, too.
The Summer
- Spoiler:
- There are few things as boringly predictable as the transfer window for Arsenal fans. After months of headlines and stories and so called “Internet Bullshit Artist” knowledge saying Arsenal will finally go on a spending spree, absolutely no one has any idea just what Arsenal plan to do this summer.
For the first time in a couple of seasons, Arsenal will go into a transfer window without a major saga waiting to happen, which a nice bonus. Whereas before we've had to worry about the potential sales of Cesc, Nasri and van Persie, this time the only one we're worrying about leaving is Sagna and while I love Bac, he is much more easily replaced than a Cesc or a van Persie. Apart from him, there is little indication that another high profile and important player will be leaving the club.
While any Arsenal fan can come up with a plethora of names that the club should sign to get back to trophy winning ways, few have acknowledged the importance of continuity. For Arsenal to actually build and progress, they need to retain their current foundation, otherwise we'll have to go through another period of players bedding in to key positions and our squad will once again be a couple of players short of where it should be.
Really, what Arsenal desperately need is a summer with no first team departures and two or three first team additions.
One of Arsenal's first priorities must be to offload the unneeded players to free up space in the squad and on the wage bill. The wages that the likes of Squillaci, Denilson, Park, Bendtner and Chamakh “earn” could very easily be given to a high-profile arrival. Although it won't be easy, it's of great importance that it's somehow done.
The two positions that must be strengthened are defensive midfield and centre forward. Mikel Arteta has done a very good job playing as our defensive midfielder, but you still can't help but feel that we need another option who has a bit of physical presence about him. Maxime Gonalons or Geoffrey Kondogbia could, perhaps, be a solution for a reasonable price. Gonalons is similar to Arteta in style, relying more on his intelligence and reading of the game than his athleticism, while Kondogbia resembles Abou Diaby with his height and power. Vitally, both possess the technical quality that would allow them to seamlessly fit in to Arsenal's set-up in addition to their defensive qualities.
Up front, it's a case of needing a player who can either convert the majority of his chances or someone who's mobility, intelligence and technical ability allows to create chances for others and link-up well with the midfield. It's unlikely that Arsenal would be able to obtain a striker who can do both. Olivier Giroud can do both but only does so to good level, not an excellent one. Robert Lewandowski is an ideal choice but is the target of the other top European clubs currently in need of a striker and therefore may be very difficult to obtain.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, any top striker they target will cost £20mil or more. It seems like the targets have been narrowed down to Gonzalo Higuain, a pure goalscorer, and Stefan Jovetic, a creator, and neither would come cheap. Moreover, it's unlikely Arsenal will find a striker that possesses all the skills that our system requires him to have. As such, they may have to buy someone who can do one thing well and see if they can improve the other parts of his game.
Between Higuain and Jovetic, Higuain has the better goalscoring record. However, Jovetic is the more creative and versatile striker, would be a better fit for the way we want to play and could improve his goalscoring; one only has to remember that van Persie was hardly prolific before the second half of the 10/11 season.
Whichever options are available, Arsenal will have to be ambitious if they really want to improve the forward areas of the team.
The other positions Arsenal have to strengthen depend on departures. If Sagna leaves as expected, then we'll almost certainly need a right back. While Jenkinson has enjoyed has a good season, he's not yet ready for the burden of 40+ games as Arsenal's first choice right back. It would be beneficial for Arsenal and for Jenkinson for an experienced right back to arrive and be first choice while Jenkinson and Bellerin continue to develop.
There has been some talk of a centre back arriving should Arsenal opt to sell Thomas Vermaelen. The Belgian hasn't had the best of seasons and there have been persistent links with the likes of Dragovic and Williams, which may suggest Arsenal are looking around for a new defender. Personally, I don't believe a fourth choice centre back needs to be as good as the other three, but we'll see what happens.
Finally, the other position that there has been some talk about is goalkeeper. We've been strongly linked with keepers since last summer; names like Reina, Begovic, Mignolet, Valdes, Adler, Julio Cesar and even Casillas have been thrown about as potential targets. Hamburg's director of football even claimed that “everybody knows Arsenal is looking for a keeper”. It's one to keep an eye on. Again, I don't believe we need to replace Szczesny and the signing of any of the above keepers would almost certainly see Szczesny leave the club in search of first team football, be it on loan or permanently.
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Sri Wed May 22, 2013 6:47 pm
Brilliant post Jay. Hard to disagree with any of your assessment there. Special mention to the objectivity to your analysis 
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by urbaNRoots Thu May 23, 2013 1:04 am
Great post Jay 
Such a frustrating and inconsistent season... I hope we can build on from this and start being more competitive than what we've been in the last 2 seasons. A start would be not changing anything defensively, approach games the same way we've done in the last 10 games and with better options upfront we should be more comfortable creating chances.
Such a frustrating and inconsistent season... I hope we can build on from this and start being more competitive than what we've been in the last 2 seasons. A start would be not changing anything defensively, approach games the same way we've done in the last 10 games and with better options upfront we should be more comfortable creating chances.
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Wilson37 Thu May 23, 2013 1:19 pm
excellent work Jay.. 
good idea to split them into parts.. just went through the PL one..
we got results in the last 2 months because of our defence.. we are defending well more as a team but this has affected our ability to go forward and create chances.. many a time we managed to hold on to win a game protecting a scrappy goal.. this is a very good quality needed to beat small teams but for defeating bigger teams we certainly need our attack..
and now i believe more in the "attack wins u fans, but defence wins u titles" thing.. but i badly miss the dominating chance creating Arsenal game.. we certainly lack creativity and need a quality CAM.. Rosicky is doing the job, but his chance creation rate is not high and his injury problems and age are a concern.. Cazorla has not worked out well, cant understand what he lacks, but something is missing, he cant penetrate good defences.. Wilshere is the only potential option, but he needs to make a significant step up to do this.. so if we get a quality CAM like Cesc we can still manage to create enogh chances playing this defending as a team strategy with double pivot of Ramsey and Arteta..
good idea to split them into parts.. just went through the PL one..
we got results in the last 2 months because of our defence.. we are defending well more as a team but this has affected our ability to go forward and create chances.. many a time we managed to hold on to win a game protecting a scrappy goal.. this is a very good quality needed to beat small teams but for defeating bigger teams we certainly need our attack..
and now i believe more in the "attack wins u fans, but defence wins u titles" thing.. but i badly miss the dominating chance creating Arsenal game.. we certainly lack creativity and need a quality CAM.. Rosicky is doing the job, but his chance creation rate is not high and his injury problems and age are a concern.. Cazorla has not worked out well, cant understand what he lacks, but something is missing, he cant penetrate good defences.. Wilshere is the only potential option, but he needs to make a significant step up to do this.. so if we get a quality CAM like Cesc we can still manage to create enogh chances playing this defending as a team strategy with double pivot of Ramsey and Arteta..
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Raptorgunner Thu May 23, 2013 1:53 pm
Amazing work Jay.
It never easy being Arsenal fan all the sadness and joy this team brings us.
I just hope we our problems behinds us, we have a great team and with 2-3 quality players added to this squad we will be a force in EPL and Europe again.
The best time for us to attack the EPL and become champions again is next year, so many new managers and pressure for the other teams.
It never easy being Arsenal fan all the sadness and joy this team brings us.
I just hope we our problems behinds us, we have a great team and with 2-3 quality players added to this squad we will be a force in EPL and Europe again.
The best time for us to attack the EPL and become champions again is next year, so many new managers and pressure for the other teams.
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Chumlum Thu May 23, 2013 2:18 pm
Nice job Jay! A clear and even-handed grasp on the season's overall level of achievement and what is needed in the summer. Hard to disagree with much, or add to it.
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Wilson37 Fri May 24, 2013 8:35 am
"We had the usual “Wenger is a genius” period, followed by the usual “Wenger should leave” period, followed by the usual “actually, Wenger really is a genius” period."
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by RealGunner Mon May 27, 2013 10:27 pm
Finally got across to read all of it. Was a wonderful review Jay. Excellent effort.
For me, the season was not any different to last year in general sense. It's pretty sad that at no point we were at the top of the table, or even 2nd. It was merely a repeat of last year where we had to battle our way through and get to the top 4. However this time the competition was harder. And without a doubt it will get even more difficult next year.
We ended up with no trophies. FA Cup and COC was a disaster. CL was really poor too. The home defeat against Schalke was one of the low point in the CL. Probably our worst performance in the CL in a long time. People will remember the Bayern win at the Allianz, but i will remember this year's CL campaign for our defeat to Schalke and that we only managed a shot on target all match.
The positives for me was our last 3 months form. The improvement of several players and that our financial situation has improved significantly well. Good enough to challenge for the trophies if not win it.
Speaking in terms of tactics. I would say that the first 6 months was basically wasted. We tried and tested a lot of formations, pressing system, attacking variation and defensive structure over and over again to no success and when we did find the right system, it was too late for anything. The reason why i think we failed at the start was because of many reasons. First, our team which was built around van persie had to be broken up. The new players found it difficult to adjust and Arsene himfself found it difficult to find the right system to function.
he tried the 4-2-3-1 at the start. It was good defensively, but very poor in terms of going forward. We kept 3 clean sheets in a row, however at no point Arsene seemed satisfied. because our attacking prowess was suffering. We looked dysfunctional. He changed it to 4-3-3 and we suffered defensively despite keeping most of the ball. Our attack didn't improve much either. Giroud found it difficult to work with Podolski and Gervinho upfront. Arsene then tried Gervinho in the middle and it clicked a bit since Gervinho was better bringing the other wide forwards into the attack. But Gervinho is a form player and very inconsistent. It didn't work.
This continued till the Tottenham away game. We did lose that match, but Arsene finally saw the light as cliche as that sounds. I am quite sure that had Koscielny-Mertesacker played and Gibbs at LB, we would have won that match. The system was perfect, but individual errors prevailed.
Arsene benched the captain and benched Szczesny as well who was under immense pressure. Things took a turn for the better. We started using a 4-1-3-2 formation and each player had their individual role which suited them and they all relished in that role. Ramsey was the key in our defensive stability in terms of giving Arteta a bit more freedom at the DM. Cazorla played a role which he was well familiar with and this time he had Rosicky with him to share the creative burden.
We went unbeaten in the last 2-3 months and did the job. It did come at a price where we played really poor at times. but 3 points made up for that.
Overall, a 5/10 season.
In terms of next season. I think our system is right and we just need quality additions to this team. Let's see how this summer goes
For me, the season was not any different to last year in general sense. It's pretty sad that at no point we were at the top of the table, or even 2nd. It was merely a repeat of last year where we had to battle our way through and get to the top 4. However this time the competition was harder. And without a doubt it will get even more difficult next year.
We ended up with no trophies. FA Cup and COC was a disaster. CL was really poor too. The home defeat against Schalke was one of the low point in the CL. Probably our worst performance in the CL in a long time. People will remember the Bayern win at the Allianz, but i will remember this year's CL campaign for our defeat to Schalke and that we only managed a shot on target all match.
The positives for me was our last 3 months form. The improvement of several players and that our financial situation has improved significantly well. Good enough to challenge for the trophies if not win it.
Speaking in terms of tactics. I would say that the first 6 months was basically wasted. We tried and tested a lot of formations, pressing system, attacking variation and defensive structure over and over again to no success and when we did find the right system, it was too late for anything. The reason why i think we failed at the start was because of many reasons. First, our team which was built around van persie had to be broken up. The new players found it difficult to adjust and Arsene himfself found it difficult to find the right system to function.
he tried the 4-2-3-1 at the start. It was good defensively, but very poor in terms of going forward. We kept 3 clean sheets in a row, however at no point Arsene seemed satisfied. because our attacking prowess was suffering. We looked dysfunctional. He changed it to 4-3-3 and we suffered defensively despite keeping most of the ball. Our attack didn't improve much either. Giroud found it difficult to work with Podolski and Gervinho upfront. Arsene then tried Gervinho in the middle and it clicked a bit since Gervinho was better bringing the other wide forwards into the attack. But Gervinho is a form player and very inconsistent. It didn't work.
This continued till the Tottenham away game. We did lose that match, but Arsene finally saw the light as cliche as that sounds. I am quite sure that had Koscielny-Mertesacker played and Gibbs at LB, we would have won that match. The system was perfect, but individual errors prevailed.
Arsene benched the captain and benched Szczesny as well who was under immense pressure. Things took a turn for the better. We started using a 4-1-3-2 formation and each player had their individual role which suited them and they all relished in that role. Ramsey was the key in our defensive stability in terms of giving Arteta a bit more freedom at the DM. Cazorla played a role which he was well familiar with and this time he had Rosicky with him to share the creative burden.
We went unbeaten in the last 2-3 months and did the job. It did come at a price where we played really poor at times. but 3 points made up for that.
Overall, a 5/10 season.
In terms of next season. I think our system is right and we just need quality additions to this team. Let's see how this summer goes
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by REWB Wed May 29, 2013 4:46 pm
RealGunner wrote:Finally got across to read all of it. Was a wonderful review Jay. Excellent effort.
For me, the season was not any different to last year in general sense. It's pretty sad that at no point we were at the top of the table, or even 2nd. It was merely a repeat of last year where we had to battle our way through and get to the top 4. However this time the competition was harder. And without a doubt it will get even more difficult next year.
We ended up with no trophies. FA Cup and COC was a disaster. CL was really poor too. The home defeat against Schalke was one of the low point in the CL. Probably our worst performance in the CL in a long time. People will remember the Bayern win at the Allianz, but i will remember this year's CL campaign for our defeat to Schalke and that we only managed a shot on target all match.
The positives for me was our last 3 months form. The improvement of several players and that our financial situation has improved significantly well. Good enough to challenge for the trophies if not win it.
Speaking in terms of tactics. I would say that the first 6 months was basically wasted. We tried and tested a lot of formations, pressing system, attacking variation and defensive structure over and over again to no success and when we did find the right system, it was too late for anything. The reason why i think we failed at the start was because of many reasons. First, our team which was built around van persie had to be broken up. The new players found it difficult to adjust and Arsene himfself found it difficult to find the right system to function.
he tried the 4-2-3-1 at the start. It was good defensively, but very poor in terms of going forward. We kept 3 clean sheets in a row, however at no point Arsene seemed satisfied. because our attacking prowess was suffering. We looked dysfunctional. He changed it to 4-3-3 and we suffered defensively despite keeping most of the ball. Our attack didn't improve much either. Giroud found it difficult to work with Podolski and Gervinho upfront. Arsene then tried Gervinho in the middle and it clicked a bit since Gervinho was better bringing the other wide forwards into the attack. But Gervinho is a form player and very inconsistent. It didn't work.
This continued till the Tottenham away game. We did lose that match, but Arsene finally saw the light as cliche as that sounds. I am quite sure that had Koscielny-Mertesacker played and Gibbs at LB, we would have won that match. The system was perfect, but individual errors prevailed.
Arsene benched the captain and benched Szczesny as well who was under immense pressure. Things took a turn for the better. We started using a 4-1-3-2 formation and each player had their individual role which suited them and they all relished in that role. Ramsey was the key in our defensive stability in terms of giving Arteta a bit more freedom at the DM. Cazorla played a role which he was well familiar with and this time he had Rosicky with him to share the creative burden.
We went unbeaten in the last 2-3 months and did the job. It did come at a price where we played really poor at times. but 3 points made up for that.
Overall, a 5/10 season.
In terms of next season. I think our system is right and we just need quality additions to this team. Let's see how this summer goes
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RealGunner- Admin
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Re: Arsenal Season Review 2012/13
by Rev Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:06 pm
Most of our goals which were down to individual errors came in the first half of the season so it's even more frustrating to watch that graph/statistic. 
Finally found the time to read the whole thing. Awesome work Jay, you and all the others pretty much summed up my thoughts.
There's some reserved optimism about the club. Mainly because of our strong finish and I hope we build on that momentum and start strong next season.
Finally found the time to read the whole thing. Awesome work Jay, you and all the others pretty much summed up my thoughts.
There's some reserved optimism about the club. Mainly because of our strong finish and I hope we build on that momentum and start strong next season.
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