2008-2009 season review, Part 1: Analysing the key moments of a very disappointing season
I understand the season is over and almost everyone is looking ahead of the next one, but the website would be missing something if I don’t write a recap on the highs and lows of the 2008/2009 season, a very disappointing one, at least for Arsenal’s high standards.
I don’t know if that fan who after the 1-2 Chelsea win approached Wenger saying “We will never win the League” is a prophet or anything like that, but unfortunately he was spot on, on what our campaign was going to be.
Very little done to solve problems
Speaking of that away win at Stamford Bridge, that was one of the reasons why we didn’t win anything this year. It was a lucky win, almost all of it gifted by Mike Dein and had Lampard scored a glorious opportunity when we were trailing, we would have definitely lost that one. Now usually, and this is why I’m saying that was one of the reasons why we didn’t lift any trophies, after such a game you sit down, you thank the Lord for a win you didn’t deserve and try to analyse why things are not working out.
Instead, that didn’t happen. With the only exception of Arshavin – which let’s face it, was an emergency signing – we kept on playing with the same faces, over and over again, and when we reached the knockout stages of competitions, a stage where a 3-0 defeat away at Manchester City cannot be “cancelled out” by a 1-2 away win against Chelsea – we were completely outclassed and outplayed by our opponents. I’m not saying Ramsey, Vela, Wilshere, Bischoff or any other youngster would have helped us win a cup had they played more, but it would have meant trying to actually do something against problems in midfield, an area where we struggled a lot this season.
I mean, I may understand Wenger’s policy not to sign players because he believes in the youngsters but sometimes I wonder how much he believes in them. I’m sure Aaron Ramsey and Carlos Vela felt miserable when they saw Wenger pick Diaby to play on the left, a player who had a poor season regardless where he played. So where is all this belief in the young ones?
Gallas and the captaincy
For a number of incidents which happened during the season, with his public attack on the team being the main one – William was stripped of his captaincy role, a role which was then given to Cesc Fabregas. We all love Cesc, but you need character to captain a top European side, especially one like the Arsenal and I’m afraid Cesc is too young for that. Maybe it was a desperate move by Wenger to keep the Spaniard at the Emirates but even if he was having a horrid time when all this happened, I believe Toure would have been a better option and if not him, Almunia.
Injuries and more injuries
For many, Rosicky and Eduardo had to be our “true signings” for the year but we saw very little of the Croatian and none of the Czech star. Also, Fabregas, Walcott and Gallas suffered long-term injuries and so did van Persie, Adebayor and others although the extent of their injury was not as serious as the other three. Of course, when you lack in depth just like the Arsenal squad, facing injuries can turn out into a nightmare although to be completely honest, Cesc was not having the best of seasons before being sidelined.
Hopefully, now that many of our youngsters experienced first-team football, they will provide the depth in the squad we will be needing when suspensions and/or injuries will hit us next year.
The good and bad of the 4-4 wins
The four all draw against Spurs is definitely one of the must-forget chapters of this season, contrary to the one at Anfield six months after that which of course is a must-remember chapter. The derby was a game no-one expected us not to win after taking a 4-2 lead but when you have Silvestre playing as centre-back, I’m afraid anything can happen. Arshavin, on the other hand, wrote history by netting four at the “you never walk alone” stadium, something which other players don’t even dream about and now that I think of it, Silvestre was part of the back four that night as well.
Arshavin
Speaking of the Russian, well indeed, he’s one of the best things which happened to us this year. I was disappointed when Wenger went for the Russian instead of a central midfield which we so much needed but magic from Andrey made me realise how special he is and of course, how special he can be next season.
Van Persie
Another major moment of the 2008/2009 season was Van Persie in January. Many are divided on the future of Robin, some want him to stay whilst some would not feel upset if he leaves but what he did in January was pure class, especially the goal away at Everton which I strongly consider as a turning point into the season. Had we lost that game, not sure if we would have ended fourth. Unfortunately, however, yes, Robin lacks consistency but who didn’t lack in that this year?
The Carling Cup
Despite the premature exit from it, this was the only competition where the fans and the players were relaxed and really enjoying themselves. How to forget the memorable party-mood night at the Emirates when we hit three past Wigan? We also understood the potential of the likes of Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, all who hopefully will have a long career at our club.
Part 2 and 3
This has been part 1 of a three-part season review. In Part 2 I will rate the players on their season performance and on part 3 I will try and analyse what signings – both in and out – this Arsenal team needs to be competitive next season.
Until then, take care.
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bit harsh but also very true
hope to see silvestre go
had lamplard scored well he fucking didnt you prick what game were you watching its like saying if we won all the games we wouldnt have lost
Pretty spot on.I don’t think we lack depth.We lack class.We have 52 players on the books.If we cut 20 of them and added 3 or 4 top quality players the whole club could be turned around.Has the manager got the balls to do it ? Or will he continue with his scatter gun policy?
i hope Carlos Vela stays with the club i really like his play and Silvestre needs to leave along with Adebayor, Diaby and Bendtner .
Arsenal needs better midfielders to help Fabregas and Arshavin.
Alot of teams win games they didn’t deserve to – I don’t see the implication. Man Utd didn’t deserve to win 5-2 against Spuds but a blatant referee blunder gave them a penalty and sent them on their way. That game pretty much handed them the title.
What did us in were 2 key things:
Not winning against teams we should in games that we shouldn’t have lost like Stoke, Man Citeh, Spuds, Villa etc. I don’t mind drawing or losing to the other top 4 – as Man Utd have shown you can lose or not win most of your games against the top 4 and win the league because that’s only 6 games out of 38 but it is an absolute must to beat all the teams below you.
That 22 game unbeaten streak added unecessary pressure to the team to maintain it and we fought tooth band nail to get 5 goalless draws to keep that streak going when mathematically it would have been much better to lose 2 and win 3 of those games. Chelsea started to play much better for a spell after they lost their winning home record against us.
Sorry Sean but this ain’t one of those websites where you can write what you like.
Say nothing if you can’t say it nicely.
I don’t really agree with you Luis on Bendtner. If he is sold and Emmanuel leaves as he will presumably do, we’ll be without a “strong” striker and getting someone new means he needs at least 6 months to settle down.
WC, you misunderstood why I mentioned the Chelsea game. The significance is not really winning a game we didn’t deserve. As you correctly said, all teams do. What I meant is that, that particular game showed a lot of problems in the side and nothing was done to even try and fix them.
In fact weeks later we went on to get a point away from Villa, another game where we were lucky to get away with something. Again, the key moment is NOT getting points when not deserving them, it was the hiding of problems because we got something from those games.
good review….agree with most things…
i think though we lost the season before it began. we had the worst summer of any of the top teams
we lost 4 experienced players whose presence in the squad we needed and never replaced. I accept that two at least were past their best but it meant we had even less experience, leadership and strength.
we never solved our major two problems….centre half and defensive midfield
i love nazri and think vela and ramsey will be great but had we kept the team of last year and bought 2 senior experienced and strong players at centre half and defensive midfield we would have been 100% more competitive when it came to the crunch games away and against chelsea and man utd…
Lawrence is right about losing the four experienced players, even if two didn’t play much. This year our only real maturity and experience lay with Gallas and Toure (and look what happened with Gallas). No team is going to be successful without more senior leadership on and off of the pitch. We have some great talent, but it is all very young and prone to inconsistent play as we saw all year. The young, hungry talent needs to be balanced with experienced leadership by more than one or two players. In a couple of years the current squad if kept primarily as is could be quite solid in the experience and leadership areas, but I am afraid we’ll have the ups and downs of this season again next year without any additional veteran players being brought in (and not ones that are way over the hill like Silvestre). Barry or Alonso would have filled that crucial role this season had we gotten them last summer.
It’s not a lack of experience that is missing but steel. I am not convinced that Barry/Alonso would have made the difference, good players though they are.
It’s been an interesting season but a tricky one to navigate. Wenger made some mistakes but hey, come the off season, we’re in a better position than Chelsea and Liverpool.
Well Jonny, I believe the central midfield position was a big experiment this season for two reasons: Cesc’s injury and Flamini’s departure. Diaby, Song and Denilson were all “tested” in that position and as much as people may rate Denilson high, the only Song passed the test with flying colours. Diaby failed miserably whilst the Brasilian showed he can be an excellent back-up, but not a regular.
[...] to Part 2 of my season review. Having analysed our season as a whole in Part 1, what went right and what went wrong, I will today focus on player ratings, where I will rate each [...]
[...] to the third and final part of my season review. In Part 1, I analysed our season as a whole, what went right and what went wrong. In Part 2, I gave ratings to all our players. Today, I will [...]
[...] to Part 2 of my season review. Having analysed our season as a whole in Part 1, what went right and what went wrong, I will today focus on player ratings, where I will rate each [...]