Season Review: Let's talk about progress

I won't summarise what has happened in the season since we all know what has happened and the reasons why have been discussed to death. Instead, I will talk more about the progress, or the lack of progress depending on which side of the fence you sit on, from the previous season and then where we should be going next season.

When you look at our position in the table compared to last year, it's easy to say that no progress has been made at all. Whereas Liverpool jumped from 7th to 2nd in one season, Arsenal have gone from 4th to 4th and this is a source of consternation for many Arsenal fans, especially when you compare the two clubs' resources and squads. Many would argue that Arsenal were just as, if not more, capable as winning the title this season as Liverpool were, yet they managed to challenge to the final day while Arsenal dropped out at the end of March.

For the time being, though, we need to look at ourselves and delve a bit deeper into how we've got our points this season in comparison to last. The previous season, Arsenal finished 16 points behind Manchester United and were not in the title race at any point in the season. This season just gone, Arsenal finished 7 points behind Manchester City and were top of the table far longer than any other side and were in the title race until the end of March. So although Arsenal haven't won the title or even challenged towards the end, our league form has improved.

In terms of results, Arsenal's record against teams outside the so-called top 7 has been better this season. In 2012/13 Arsenal dropped points against Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich, Fulham, Aston Villa, Swansea and Southampton. In 2013/14, Arsenal dropped points against Aston Villa, West Brom, Southampton, Stoke and Swansea.

Against those sides in the “top 7”  - Everton, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United – Arsenal actually made some marginal progress. In 2012/13, Arsenal accumulated just 11 points. In 2013/14, Arsenal managed 13 points. However, what mitigates this progress are the results. Arsenal's worst result against these sides last season was 2-0, against Manchester City at The Emirates. This season, Arsenal's worst result was 6-0, against Chelsea, and before that it was 6-3 against Manchester City and 5-1 against Liverpool.

We've talked about those results a lot, so I won't linger on them too much, but it does lead me nicely into the off-field issues. Arsenal played a few of those games without key players due to injury and this is a situation that has remained unchanged from seasons past. Arsenal's approach to some of those games was incredibly naïve, playing with an openness that was just asking to be exploited for a reason we've yet to really figure out, so tactically we have not improved, either; we've not built on the defensive solidity and balance that we found at the end of the previous season.

Offensively, we've been hindered by the long-term absence of Walcott and Chamberlain, and then Ramsey and Ozil later in the season. Three of these players are key players and that they suffered avoidable long-term injuries was a major contributing factor behind some of our struggles this season. A lot of results this season came about from our efficiency and not from performing particularly well. Certainly, if not for Ramsey's remarkable early season form, we may not have gotten anywhere near the top of the table.

Strangely enough, though, Arsenal could have taken those thrashings and still could have finished close to the title had they not dropped points against the likes of Stoke and Swansea. Two wins there would have yielded an additional five points. So the margins are smaller than we think they are.

Arsenal are progressing, but for many they aren't progressing quickly enough. Rather than make huge, cash-laden leaps, they're taking baby-steps, seemingly improving certain areas every season but still remaining frustratingly static in others. Last season saw us discover defensive stability and balance, and this season we've added consistency and a £42.5mil player to that. But both seasons we've struggled with injuries and have had a poor approach to the big games and that's held us back from achieving better things.

As far as the domestic cups go, we've made major progress in one, but not much in the others. This was the third year in a row that we failed to progress past the Last 16 of the Champions League, again knocked out by Bayern Munich. While there's certainly no shame in losing to Bayern, the fact we drew them came about from failing to win our group. Granted, it was the most difficult group we've had in a long time, but nonetheless, that's what happened. Our Capital One Cup run didn't get started at all and isn't worth talking about. It's the FA Cup where we've made real strides.

Our run to the final was as tough as it could have possibly been. Spurs in the third round, Liverpool in the fifth, Everton in the sixth and the cup holders Wigan in the semi-final. Our performances against those bigger sides were considerably better in this arena, playing a more counter-attacking game and being devastating on the break. The Wigan semi-final was done the hard way, with us struggling to break them down and we needed penalties to get past them, but while we were being lambasted for over celebrating beating a Championship side, we knew just what an opportunity we had to finally win a trophy.

That final against Hull was also done the hard way, but any doubt about our strength of character will have been put to bed. We needed to dig deep and find something to get back in the game and it cannot be said that we didn't earn the trophy.

At the start of the season, many would have been happy with a domestic trophy and finishing closer to the Champions. As the season progressed, though, the goalposts moved. Arsenal's form was so good, and their rivals' form so inconsistent, that people were starting to believe that a league title was well within our grasp. Not getting that title in the end lead to disappointment, compounded by how close Liverpool got, even though nobody realistically expected us to win it when the season started. We went from one extreme to another, reaching new levels of crap when Everton beat us 3-0 a couple of weeks after Chelsea stuck 6 past us at a point in a season where we couldn't recover. Had those games been spread out over the season, I don't think fans would have reacted so poorly.  

But after everything has been said and done, I think many would agree this has been a very good season. Undoubtedly it's been something of a missed opportunity not to do better in the league, but ultimately we have gotten closer, players have improved and we've won the FA Cup. This is an excellent spring board to move forward and achieve better things.

Squad-wise, it would be another case of needing “one or two more” if certain other players weren't leaving. Fabianski's and Sagna's departures means they'll have to replaced, on top of the defensive midfielder and striker that Arsenal need. If Vermaelen decides to leave, we'll need a new third choice centre back as well, and could do with a 4th choice coming in to bolster our depth in that area. So we're looking at needing five or six new signings this summer to have a complete squad, which may mean that we won't see a big money signing.

More importantly than that, though, is that Arsenal need to sort out their injury problems, because clearly it's counter-productive to spend £42.5mil on a player only to have him miss two months of the season due to an avoidable injury, or to have your best player from September to December miss three months of the season due to an avoidable injury, or to have your most prolific player only play 6 times because of an avoidable injury. Overcome this and we might actually see the top class players already at the club make a difference, and not end up begging for us to sign more because we apparently don't have any.

If Arsenal make good signings, and if they can sort out their persistent injury problems, then the expectation next season has to be a title challenge. Given that we've got a good, experienced squad, and plenty of money to improve that squad, anything less would be unsatisfactory. Rather than make another small step, it's time for us to make large strides towards becoming a title winning team again.

Tactics Review:

Tops of the Season:

Good summary assessment as always, Jay.

I think you are right about something regarding season performance, which is that if you understand it from a narrative standpoint, it looks like we've fallen short yet again in many respects. And there is some truth to that.

But from a less narrative perspective, where we look simply at results and compare with prior performance, we can see progress. Not huge progress, but still clearly there. Seven points from the champions ... that's the closest Arsenal have been to the top, points-wise, in years. (This was also the tightest top 4 in years as well.) Arsenal's highest points tally in years, as well.

Add to this league performance, an FA Cup triumph (woohoo!).

There's a great platform to build upon. The team needs a rethink about how they play against "big" teams, because I think so much of it is mental (not solely tactical) ... which is why Man Utd had plenty of joy against us, even in their annus horribilis. But now with a trophy win, and a couple of the right players added to the squad, some of that mentality may be sloughed off like old skin, and hopefully Wenger approaches these matches next season with a little more guile and shrewdness.

The biggest high of the season, for me, had to have been Ramsey's goal yesterday. I don't know if I've ever yelled louder in celebration of a goal before ... maybe once or twice during the World Cup. Definitely it was the loudest I've yelled during a game I was just watching at home on TV. Cathartic.

Player of the Season: Ramsey.

If you're looking for high quality videos of the goals in this FA Cup Final, look no further than .. the official FA Cup channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thefacup/videos

I think We should be proud of the progress we have made this season. The target at the start of the season was to close the gap between us and the title challengers, also end the trophy drought with a cup.I think we did better than that by actually being involved in the title race. We topped the table for 124 days and finished 7 points off the champions which is an improvement on past seasons.

I understand that after topping the league for so long that finishing 4th and winning the fa cup might feel a bit like a consolation for some but we have to be proud of the progress the team has made.

I feel that losses against the likes of City, Chelsea and Liverpool hurt our title chances more than the injuries we picked up. What I don't understand is when we played the average team, we played a more patient game where we chose our moments instead of the gun ho approach we used in past seasons. Against the big teams for some reason Arsene chose to play a more expansive game.

I hope Arsene makes the signings required to bolster our title challenge, we will loose Sagna, Flappers and Vermaelen this season which means depth wise we will be thin again.

Favourite goal, i am sort of torn between Rosicky's goal against Speerz or Jack's one against Norwich. I will pick Jack because of the technical quality of the goal, typical Arsenal goal, all the media cliches and all that etc

Player of the year: I will say Ramsey, second place goes to Koscielny. Lolo has been amazing this year, he is so underrated mainly because we keep shipping six goals in big games.

Nice post.

My yearly gripe with Arsenal is Wenger's lack of vision. As a manager/ coach/ inspirator, Wenger hasn't done much. He's lack of vision, long term vision, for that matter, has hampered Arsenal on the field and commercially,

His total control of the management structure and recruitment has left us consistenly beind when it matters. 4th place trophy is our absolute target. Yes, winning the FA Cup should be a platform to reinvogorate the current crop; but it should've actually been the end of an era for Wenger, as well.

I am ecstatic that we won the FA Cup...but extremely dissapointed to have Wenger at the helm for another 3 more seasons.

Going forward, what I'd like to see it a more pro-active manager who get his business done quickly - not 20 minutes before deadline day bringing in fracture spinal cord players.

-Alternative strategies and tactics to deal with the likes of City, Chelsea and Utd. The 69th minutes substitutes every game has proved beneficial at times, but coincedntally, damn right predictable.

-pre-emptive measure that ensure our players are suffering from fatigue like injuries. Are they being over trained? should we best taking players off at between 45-60min instead? do they get enough rest?

-upper echelon signings. No more Girouds and Artetas. Let get in some real athletes.; imposing players who will and can make a different. Just greater quality. Coming out and stating 3 players is all we need, when we have close to 5 leaving, is silly from Wenger.

Lastly, if Wenger is serious, he needs to complete his deal if not beofre the WC, then the first thing after the WC finishes. He can't be left spectating while the like of Chelsea and Utd are being pro-active signing genuine class players.

Arsenal's 2013/14 season review "Paint the dream": https://youtu.be/FTGvEqollAQ

Overall, it was a strange season. I want to say it was a great season but I don't know. I guess it was great in terms of a trophy and our league points despite finishing 4th. But I can't forget how we threw away the season.

I think we will all agree that Injuries were to blame for our failure to do better in the league. But that's not a problem which can't be blamed on someone else. As Arsene already said, there will be a review for the fitness and physio department and I think it's been a long time coming. Saw one table the other day and Arsenal are ALWAYS in top 3 of the injury table within the past 5 years. Something is obviously wrong somewhere.

In terms of tactics. This season will be remembered for our thrashings by the other teams in the league. I actually watched highlights of those matches again to pick up something that might help us identify the problems. I don't think it was the defence. I personally think we had the best defensive back 4 in the league. The problem came from midfield. In all of the matches, our midfielders(mainly Arteta) couldn't handle the pressing by the opposition which led to our defence being overrun with no adequate help around. Our second problem was breaking down mentally. We really give up after conceding early. That's one of the things I've noticed as well. For some reason the team stops believing itself when they things doesn't go according to their way. They are so much better than they think. In the chelsea game, despite being 10 men, we should not have conceded 6. Same with the City game. Liverpool was an exception because they really did beat us.

In terms of progress. I think we had our best season since 2005 for obvious reasons. It's great to finally win a trophy again and maybe it's a sign that things are changing. Hoping for a better season next year

My player of the season was obviously Ramsey
Second place Mertesacker
Third place Gibbs

Goal of the season was Wilshere vs Norwich

Best match was Arsenal vs Napoli

Best moment was Ramsey's goal vs Hull.

RealGunner wrote:
In terms of tactics. This season will be remembered for our thrashings by the other teams in the league. I actually watched highlights of those matches again to pick up something that might help us identify the problems. I don't think it was the defence. I personally think we had the best defensive back 4 in the league. The problem came from midfield. In all of the matches, our midfielders(mainly Arteta) couldn't handle the pressing by the opposition which led to our defence being overrun with no adequate help around. Our second problem was breaking down mentally. We really give up after conceding early.

I think that is absolutely right.
Your central defense was incredibly solid.
In the games away at Chelsea and Liverpool you played a very high line from minute one, had Arteta plus either Wilshere and Ox, or Cazorla even?, in defensive/central midfield.
The best central defense can't do anything when being run at by accomplished counter players like Suarez, Sturridge, Schürrle, Hazard, with loads of space around.
Wilshere/Ox didn't behave properly tactically for the position, Arteta was out of his depth defensively.

I think for example the Spurs game, where you won 1:0 after having Spurs run at you for, what, 89 minutes after the goal, proves how incredible Merte and Koscielny were.
Even Spurs could walk through your midfield at will, but being pinned back your central defense was insurmountable.

The mental thing I think is overrated. Both the  Liverpool and Chelsea game you entered tactically abysmal plus caught early goals, and had more or less lost the game after 15 minutes. It's hard if you catch a goal with every attack, plus against Liverpool you made early mistakes at set pieces, then it was practically over already.
I don't think you have a mentality problem, imo this myth can be put to rest.

Anyway, goes to show how urgently you need a defensively strong midfielder.
Also Wenger needs to draw lessons to set you up more cautiously in such games. It's as if he doesn't realize facing those teams away is actually an uphill battle, and needs to be treated like that.

SUPERCARTTS wrote:Nice post.

My yearly gripe with Arsenal is Wenger's lack of vision. As a manager/ coach/ inspirator, Wenger hasn't done much. He's lack of vision, long term vision, for that matter, has hampered Arsenal on the field and commercially,

His total control of the management structure and recruitment has left us consistenly beind when it matters. 4th place trophy is our absolute target. Yes, winning the FA Cup should be a platform to reinvogorate the current crop; but it should've actually been the end of an era for Wenger, as well.

I am ecstatic that we won the FA Cup...but extremely dissapointed to have Wenger at the helm for another 3 more seasons.

Going forward, what I'd like to see it a more pro-active manager who get his business done quickly - not 20 minutes before deadline day bringing in fracture spinal cord players.

-Alternative strategies and tactics to deal with the likes of City, Chelsea and Utd. The 69th minutes substitutes every game has proved beneficial at times, but coincedntally, damn right predictable.

-pre-emptive measure that ensure our players are suffering from fatigue like injuries. Are they being over trained? should we best taking players off at between 45-60min instead? do they get enough rest?

-upper echelon signings. No more Girouds and Artetas. Let get in some real athletes.; imposing players who will and can make a different. Just greater quality. Coming out and stating 3 players is all we need, when we have close to 5 leaving, is silly from Wenger.

Lastly, if Wenger is serious, he needs to complete his deal if not beofre the WC, then the first thing after the WC finishes. He can't be left spectating while the like of Chelsea and Utd are being pro-active signing genuine class players.

Oh well

SUPERCARTTS wrote:Nice post.

My yearly gripe with Arsenal is Wenger's lack of vision. As a manager/ coach/ inspirator, Wenger hasn't done much. He's lack of vision, long term vision, for that matter, has hampered Arsenal on the field and commercially,

His total control of the management structure and recruitment has left us consistenly beind when it matters. 4th place trophy is our absolute target. Yes, winning the FA Cup should be a platform to reinvogorate the current crop; but it should've actually been the end of an era for Wenger, as well.

I am ecstatic that we won the FA Cup...but extremely dissapointed to have Wenger at the helm for another 3 more seasons.

Going forward, what I'd like to see it a more pro-active manager who get his business done quickly - not 20 minutes before deadline day bringing in fracture spinal cord players.

-Alternative strategies and tactics to deal with the likes of City, Chelsea and Utd. The 69th minutes substitutes every game has proved beneficial at times, but coincedntally, damn right predictable.

-pre-emptive measure that ensure our players are suffering from  fatigue like injuries. Are they being over trained? should we best taking players off at between 45-60min instead? do they get enough rest?

-upper echelon signings. No more Girouds and Artetas. Let get in some real athletes.; imposing players who will and can make a different. Just greater quality. Coming out and stating 3 players is all we need, when we have close to 5 leaving, is silly from Wenger.

Lastly, if Wenger is serious, he needs to complete his deal if not beofre the WC, then the first thing after the WC finishes. He can't be left spectating while the like of Chelsea and Utd are being pro-active signing genuine class players.

:facepalm:lol sorry cartts, but tbh, deep down, we all knew he'd never change, he's an old man after all.

bittersweet victory for Cartt, the most vocal WOB among us

Cartts was the most vocal AKB 6 years ago as well lol when I first met him.

How things have changed

Whats AKB?

arsene knows best.

RealGunner wrote:arsene knows best.

SUPERCARTTS?

RealGunner wrote:Cartts was the most vocal AKB 6 years ago as well lol when I first met him.

How things have changed

Think he was already converted when I joined goal back in 2010. Also remember Sam was so passionate & vocal after every game , not quite professional and mellow like this day.

I miss Goalol/Boss's optimism

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:I miss Goalol/Boss's optimism

Makes two of us then

you can always ask me to provide an motivational and inspirational post, if needed.

Hapless_Hans wrote:you can always ask me to provide an motivational and inspirational post, if needed.

Don't joke, you didn't know Goalol.. One of the best lads I have ever had the honour of knowing on GL He's not been around for a couple of years now..

Also Aj, Fadi ( Iceman) Wenger biggest fan, hope he's ok

Progress after all.


http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-announce-170million-cash-reserves-in-latest-financial-results-9744322.html



We increased our cash reserves.