Losing the big games is not where it went wrong for us,it was losing at home to Villa,drawing at home to Swansea,away to WBA,losing at Stoke
To think had we not ****ed up the Villa, Stoke and Swansea games we'd be champs. Small margins though. 1 or 2 top signings and it could be us instead of City next season lifting that trophy. We do need to improve away against the big teams
They two biggest issues for me are our BMT and our injury issues. We've proved we can dispatch smaller teams with ease but we crumble in big games because we have an inferiority complex. If we actually displayed some confidence we'd do well in these games. Our injury problems are beyond a joke. I refuse to believe it's down to luck. We need a radical overhaul of our systems and structures in that area.
Seen talk of us going for him. Personally, I don't us to sign him as I'd prefer to get someone younger and less injury prone.
To be fair, his injuries have been from leg breaks and he's come back as strong as ever from them. He's not an injury prone player at all, but I can't see him taking a step down to join you lot and I can't see him joining City to play second fiddle to Zabeleta either. I think he'll be off to a foreign club, somewhere where you can buy cheap booze n ***s probably . .. .
4th place is way better than 5th obviously, but it's not enough. However to finish 7 points behind the winers has to be seen as an unexpected improvement. THE FA Cup would be great. I do see this season as a missed opportunity though.
Top 7 Mini League 1. Chelsea..... 8W - 3D - 1L - 27pts 2. Man City.... 8W - 1D - 3L - 25pts 3. Liverpool.... 7W - 1D - 4L - 22pts 4. Everton..... 4W - 3D - 5L - 15pts 5. Arsenal...... 3W - 4D - 5L - 13pts 6. Spurs........ 2W - 3D - 7L - 9pts 7. Man Utd.... 1W - 3D - 8L - 6pts Top 7 vs. Everyone Else 1. Arsenal..... 21W - 3D - 2L - 66pts 2. Liverpool... 19W - 5D - 2L - 62pts 3. Man City... 19W - 4D - 3L - 61pts 4. Spurs....... 19W - 3D - 4L - 60pts 5. Man Utd... 18W - 4D - 4L - 58pts 6. Everton.... 17W - 6D - 3L - 57pts 7. Chelsea.... 17W - 4D - 5L - 55pts Reflection on the season: did great against the other 13 teams, but poorly against our rivals. The four away batterings were so costly.
I don't think it is anything to do with temperament, mental strength or any of that crap. We can't win games where we don't dominate the midfield. Right now our counterattacking is very poor, for a whole range of reasons. If we can win the midfield battle then this is not a great issue, but when we lose that possession battle, we give up too many chances and can't generate much offense.
Reflections on this season: There's always a next season, and another.. and another... and another....
Another reflection: 79 points is the best the club has managed for six years and the fifth best under Wenger. Also, Giroud scored more goals this season than Drogba managed in all but two of his eight seasons at Chelsea
we drew at home to Chelsea, Everton, Manchester City, and Manchester United. if we had turned the 4 home draws to wins the extra 8 points would have won us the title !! thats the hardest bit to take.
Great post. Wenger needs to set us up more cautiously away against the big teams. Getting a point and restricting our rivals to a point on a couple of occasions could have seen us scrape the title.
If it was Palace instead that mounted a title challenge this season playing excellent football they would have been over represented to death. There was more talk about Arsenal during the start of the season than Liverpool with the great start you got off to especially after beating us soundly 2 0 at the Emirates. When the Arsenal wheels fell off the media lost interest.
Of course there was a lot of talk about Arsenal this season as we lead the league for longer than any other team. But it was all "They cant really do it, they'll fail soon, wait for it....wait for it.....ok we can ignore them again and revert to old cliches". The desperation from the pundits for Liverpool to win was off putting though. I like Liverpool and used to always cheer on Liverpool in europe even when i wouldn't for other english teams, but the media have been a nightmare and almost made me want you lot to fail. I don't know if its because so many pundits are ex-liverpool players but it was way over the top and got rid of the 'cheer on the underdog' spirit.
