2009 – 10

A slight improvement on last season as we finished 3^rd and qualified for the Champions League without having to go through the qualifying round. We improved by 3 points on the season previous where we finished with 72., we also scored many more goals, it went up from 68 to 83. Disappointingly though we lost a total of 9 times, the season before it was only 6 times. 4 of these losses came before November and against 3 of the teams who would be fighting for the top 4 and title, United, City and Chelsea. The loss against City was when Adebayor ran the length of the field to celebrate in front of our fans, he also raked his studs down Robin Van Persie’s face during the game.

Transfer wise for the season we resigned Sol Campbell in January and Thomas Vermaelen came in from Ajax. He made an instant impression away at Everton in our first game and was the best player on the field. We won 6-1 and I was thrown out of the ground after we went 1-0 up. We had arrived in Liverpool early and been drinking all morning. I was slightly worse for wear and got picked out for singing at the Everton fans, was thrown out and went to watch the rest of the game down the road in an Everton pub. The weird thing was some Everton fans had left the game early because we were winning so easily and they recognised me as the guy who got thrown out earlier on!
They were fine though, I got talking to a scouse guy at the bar, he happened to be a Liverpool fan and enjoyed the result just as much as me I think!

We sold Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Man City for a combined £41million, the infamous Bischoff left on a free along with a couple of other youngsters leaving as well. A total of 18 youngsters went out on loan, it was the height of our “youth experiment” and we had so many kids who had been at the club for so long but were never going to be good enough. One of them was a certain Jack Wilshere who went to Bolton for the season, we also saw Szczesny go to Brentford for the season but apart from these two, there were no other players of note and in fact all but one of them have left the club.

Picking up from those losses to United and City then, we went on an unbeaten 7 game run, drawing once and after 11 games, had scored a total of 36 goals which included results 6-2 against Blackburn and the 6-1 I mentioned above against Everton. We then lost 2 in a row against Sunderland away and Chelsea at home. This put us down to 4^th and we were fighting to stay there for the rest of the season.
We didn’t lose again until the end of January when we played United at home and lost 3-1, the week after we went to Chelsea and lost 2-0. Our results against the other top teams in the league had taken a turn for the worse and suddenly we couldn’t pick up a point against the teams we were meant to be fighting with for the top positions.
We won only once in our last 5 games against Fulham, losing 3 times including against Spurs at WHL and drew once against City at home.

It wasn’t a good league season once again and once again we seemed to go backwards with results against the top clubs being the most disappointing.

Would the cups be our saving grace for silverware? Well sadly no, they wouldn’t. Stoke put us out of the FA Cup in the 4^th round when we played them at The Brittania stadium. The kids were put out against Man City in the 5^th round of the Carling Cup in Manchester after we beat WBA and Liverpool in the early rounds.

In the Champions league we again got through our group stage and finished top. Teams in our group were Olympiakos, Standard Liege and AZ Alkmaar. We were drawn against Porto in the next round and comfortably beat them 5-0 at home to make the aggregate 6-2 and saw us through. We were then drawn against Barcelona who many around Europe were talking about as being one of the best ever sides produced for the way they played football and everything they were winning. It was being billed as a clash of the two teams who played football and I remember looking forward to seeing such a good game between two sides who wanted to get the ball down and play football. How we survived the first half of the first leg I will never quite understand, they absolutely battered us but we went in at 0-0. Within seconds of the restart they went ahead and then scored again with both goals being scored by Ibrahimovic. We got one back through Theo and Cesc won a penalty after being fouled by Puyol which saw him sent off. Cesc took the penalty himself and made an injury in his leg worse by hitting the ball so hard, he actually broke his leg!

The second leg away in the Nou Camp was a bit different. We went 1-0 up through Nick Bendtner would you believe it! We then witnessed a Messi masterclass with him scoring 4 to see them comfortably through. Being out there in the Nou Camp and witness that Messi performance was something else. I was happy to go 1-0 up but ultimately you have to put your hands up and say we went out to a better side.

Season 5 and still nothing won then. Some of the highest ticket prices in Europe and we didn’t seem to be advancing or improving. We were selling players who really we should have been keeping and building on to make a better side. It was frustrating also as we didn’t know what the situation was with money. Did we have any to spend and buy new players? Did we need to sell these players to break even? We will never know the full story but I for one believe that we did not have enough money to go out and spend loads on big name top players. We were shopping at the end of the market and needed to sell to be able to buy. The Emirates had clearly put us back financially but the move from Highbury was sold to fans as putting us among the elite of Europe and giving us money to compete finally. I think fans wanted this immediately but there were always going to be tough seasons where we wouldn’t be able to spend a lot of money.  It was clear Wengers experiment with youth was not working and so we couldn’t see how it was going to improve. What would next season bring?

Cheers for reading

Norby

Follow @mattwigley

2008-09

3 seasons without a trophy and last season we had a go at fighting for the league before falling away towards April. It all went wrong after Eduardo broke his leg at Birmingham and we couldn’t continue the good run we had been on.
Semi final of the Carling Cup and quarter finals of the Champions League showed we were moving forward and we wanted a good run at the league this time around.

Transfer wise saw Flamini walk out for nothing and join Milan. This was an incredibly disappointing loss and especially over a contract. We will never know the full story but I think the club offered the deal to late, by that time he had made his decision and left, we should have gone all out to try and keep him and offer him a deal to ensure he stayed. Gilberto left for Greece, Hleb went to Spain and Lehmann went back to Germany to join Stuttgart. We signed Aaron Ramsey, a young talent from Cardiff, Samir Nasri came in from Marseille for £12million, one of the strangest signings was Silvestre from United. As fans I think the feeling was if he isn’t good enough for Man United, why would we want him when we want to battle for the title! This was also the summer Amaury Bischoff joined us, another weird transfer! Arshavin came in during the January window for a club record fee and after much rumour and speculation.

In doing these write ups I have found out how bad my memory is. I knew it was bad but there are whole chunks of seasons and games that I just do not remember, even though I was at them! This season is one of those, I don’t remember hardly anything about it but looking back through our results and league standings I can see that it was once again disappointing. We had lost 5 times before November had finished which meant we never had a chance for the league. We were still losing to the teams we should really have been winning against, Fulham, Hull, Stoke, Villa and Man City. Funnily enough this was the season that Man City were taken over and became one of the richest clubs in the world, they bought Robinho on the last day of the season for a British record fee.

In comparison to our losses Liverpool, who challenged United for the title, only lost twice all season, and United themselves only lost 4 games. Liverpool lost the league with far to many draws when they needed wins.
Despite us losing those disappointing games we did beat Chelsea away and United at home. I was at the Chelsea game, RVP scored twice but I just do not recall it at all. Funny how as a fan you can block out seasons you don’t wish to remember!
During January and February we went on a run of 4 games where the game finished 0-0 in every one of them, its unusual for us to not score in more than one game but to draw 0-0 in 4 games all in a row, we were out of sorts and seemed to be going backwards. We didn’t lose again in the league until May when Chelsea beat us 4-1 at home, but after those early losses and draws throughout the season it meant we were only ever going to finish 4^th, we ended up 9 points in front of Everton who were 5^th and 11 points off Chelsea in 3^rd.
Our draw at Old Trafford in the penultimate game gave them the league and we finished the season winning 4-1 at home to Stoke.

After scoring at Stamford Bridge

My personal opinions on these bad seasons in the league, and especially this one, was that we were way off the pace and not getting any closer to challenging. I put that down to us moving to the new ground and I know that a lot of people are not going to agree with me on this. I will always believe that money has been tight for a good few seasons, we have had to be careful in what we spend and have had to sell players to break even financially as a club. Wenger attempted to get through this period by investing in youth and going down a different route to try and build his team, it was his “experiment” as I’ve heard it called before. We all now know, and Wenger himself knows, that this didn’t work. Most of those youth players have now moved on or been moved out of the club, but I don’t think we had the money to invest in the team and make the squad depth and quality better during these seasons. We were battling through a tough period and constantly qualifying for the Champions League, sometimes reaching a final and that is all we could achieve. I’m not accepting this and sitting here blindly saying that I was happy with that, far from it in fact, but looking at the bigger picture I understood what we were doing.
Chelsea and Man City have only 1 fan who is important to their clubs, and that’s their owners. The other fans of those clubs mean nothing as those 2 people hold all the money and future for them, our club is different. We as fans are all important to Arsenal, they need our season ticket money and shirt money etc. We helped our club to get through that period, we supported them and didn’t stop going. I’m glad to support this club and proud of sticking with it through these seasons.

We had another good Champions League again but still not going the whole way to reach the final. We got to the Semi Finals where we came up against Man United who we didn’t stand a chance against. We lost 1-0 away and 3-1 at home, United went on to play Barca in the final losing 2-0.
We finished 2^nd in our group playing Kiev, Porto and Fenerbache. I went to Fenerbache away and it was a great trip. I think the club tried to scare the fans in to not going but we had a great time, Efes and kebabs along with a 5-2 win! What could be better. We played Roma and Villareal in the next 2 rounds beating Roma on penalties out in Italy, another good trip!

The FA Cup saw us reach Wembley, but only for the Semi Finals. We got beat by Chelsea 2-1 after going ahead 1-0, the same as the Carling Cup Final 2007. Cardiff away in the early rounds was the pick of the games, but we went down there to see a drab 0-0 draw. The trip was more exciting than the game, lets leave it at that!

The quarter finals was as far as we went in the Carling Cup when Burnley put us out, again this competition saw us bringing the youth through and trying to blood some youngsters as we had always done and would continue to do.

In summary it was the 4^th season where we had not won anything and although I cant remember, I can imagine the fans who were already unhappy, had become almost inconsolable. The Wenger out thing had started im sure although again cannot remember, and things were not looking like improving. More high profile sales were to come in the next few seasons with no one of real note coming in to make things even worse.

Cheers for reading

Norby
Follow @mattwigley

Read the previous part 3 here

2007-08
So its two seasons without a trophy going into the 07-08 campaign and as a club we are in transition. We have a new stadium and our invincible players are beginning to move on to pastures new, we are in the process of building a new side and bringing new players in whilst managing to pay for a brand new 60,000 seater stadium.

Transfer wise this summer of 2007 saw Thierry, Freddie and Jose Reyes all move on to new clubs, we brought in Fabianski, Eduardo and Bacary Sagna. We also signed Lassana Diarra who moved on in January as he wasn’t getting enough games! If only he would have stayed he would have had a big part to play in our team for a good few seasons.

Pre season saw the usual trip to Austria which I actually attended with my brother, a week out in Bad Waltersdorf watching the training sessions and 2 friendly games. I met a lot of good Arsenal guys out there and made friends for life through one of the best gooners I’ve ever met, he happened to be staying in the same B&B as us and couldn’t have wished to meet a better mate. The Emirates Cup and also the Amsterdam Tournament finished off the summer and had us ready for the season.

We had a good start to the season remaining unbeaten in our first 15 games, notably beating Spurs away 3-1, we could only manage two draws in consecutive weeks against Liverpool and United in late October/early November. In fact we only lost once in 30 games, that came away at Middlesbrough in December. Apart from that we had a good November and Xmas period, and on New Years day we were top of the league. Overall it was turning into a very good season and the team were clicking, playing well, scoring goals and remaining consistent.
Then we went to St Andrews to play Birmingham City on the 23^rd February. It was a fateful day and our red hot striker Eduardo broke his leg after a shocking challenge from Martin Taylor. They were awarded a last minute penalty after a challenge from Gael Clichy, in my opinion it was never a penalty, he clearly gets his foot to the ball and the ref made the wrong decision. Our skipper Gallas stropped off up the pitch and tried to kick the shit out of an advertising board. He then staged a sit in after the game not moving from the pitch. It was embarrassing to see and although Gallas was a good player for us, I never could call him proper Arsenal, even before this incident.

After this game we went on a run of 3 more draws against Wigan, Villa and Middlesbrough, and a defeat away at Chelsea. By the beginning of April we were 3^rd. We lost to Man United at Old Trafford after going 1-0 up with an Adebayor goal but by then we were out of the race and we went on to win our last 4 games finishing 3^rd.
I often think about that draw at Birmingham and consider how much of an impact it had on our season. It completely threw us off, put that together with losing your in form striker and I suppose its going to have an effect on the rest of your games. The disappointment of losing 3 points in the last minute of that game coupled with a tragic injury knocked us off track and we never recovered in time.
It was the first season since the FA Cup win that we had been able to challenge for the league and was very close. Leading the way for most of the season only slipping away towards April. United eventually won the title and we finished 4 points off them, 2 points off of Chelsea in 2^nd.

Europe was fairly good for us as well, we faced Sparta Prague in the qualifiers and got through with 2 wins. Our group was Sevilla, Steaua Bucharest and Slavia Prague. Our little group of fans went out to the Prague away game to see one of the most boring, wet and cold 0-0 draws you will ever see in your lifetime!
We finished second in the group and the draw paired us with AC Milan. After drawing 0-0 at home we flew out to see the second leg for one of my most memorable and favourite trips. Milan away, the San Siro, and to top it off we beat them 2-0, Cesc and Ade coming up with the goals which had us celebrating high up in the stand. I had the worst headache I’ve ever had coming out of the ground but it was worth it, what a win!

The next round had us facing Liverpool where it finished 1-1 in the home leg. We had a clear penalty shout turned down for a tug back on Hleb by Dirk Kuyt. The second leg at Anfield finished 4-2 and it was quite a game. We went 1-0 up with Diaby before Liverpool scored 2. Adebayor scored in the last 10 minutes after a wonderful run by Theo and pass across the area, this goal had us going through to the Semi Finals but no less than a minute later Liverpool were given a very soft penalty after a supposed foul on Ryan Babel. It was over, they scored the penalty and then scored again as we were pushing for a goal. Ultimately we had a great chance to win the competition this year or at least reach the final. We would have seen Chelsea in the Semi Finals and United in the final.

The FA Cup saw us draw United away in the 5^th round where we lost 4-0, it was the game before our Champions League tie with Milan and we rested players which we paid a heavy price for.

Spurs beat us in the Carling Cup Semi Final 2^nd leg 5-1 to end our run in that competition. Spurs went on to win the final against Chelsea. Again another competition we could have won, or would have been in with a chance of winning had we reached the finals.

I know I’m writing in “maybe’s” and “what if’s” in these reviews but I wanted to show how close we have been over the last 8 years to winning something. I wanted to prove that we havent just taken a back seat and let time pass us by as others improve and win everything. This season had us competing for the 2 biggest competitions we were in, we put a great show on in the Premier League, staying top for most of the season before we fell away, the Champions League saw us go out in the quarters in the final minutes of the 2^nd leg, had we have hung on for a few more minutes we would have been in the Semi Finals and we will never know how well we would have done. We got to the Semi Final’s of the Carling Cup and again could have got to the final.
It’s another season of no silverware but we challenged, we were there and we fought and came close.

Cheers for reading.

Norby
Follow @mattwigley

*You can read part 2 here