Writing

Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t honestly say I’m sad this season is over. In many ways, yesterday’s game could not have been more apt – 37 games of roller coaster emotions somehow condensed into a single microcosmic game.

All the factors were there – home crowd with plenty of reason to cheer and the sympathies of apparently every football fan not acquainted with N5? Check. Opposition with a point to prove, an accurate long ball and a pacy counter attacking forward or two? Check. Tottenham team, complete with media darling of a manager and mouthy forwards, waiting in the wings? Check. Arsenal team bereft of form, confidence, and (crucially?) Mikel Arteta? Check.

Perhaps most concerningly, an early goal by Yossi Benayoun overturned by two pathetically defended replies? Check. Two further goals created by one man (thanks for training him, Sp*rs…!) to put us back in front and needing a back four with the resilience of Arsene’s water bottle? Check.

At this point, football becomes so much more than 22 men running around a field chasing a blown up lump of leather. Watching back on MOTD, it hit me quite how averagely we actually played, and yet at that point in a season, passion and desire are 100% the currency of the game.

So there we are at 3-2 up, 36+5 (5?!?!) minutes are all that stand between us and 3 points, champions league football, and a 17th consecutive year of bragging rights over Sp*rs fans the world over. We watch through parted fingers, as the hopes and dreams of a season are decided in a few moments. The ghost of Morison haunts the thoughts of every Gooner.

Wojciech Szczesny makes *that* save, through 5 weeks worth of pain injections. (Guess we’ll be seeing you then, Lucasz.) Kieran Gibbs makes *that* tackle, with no Phil “Fat” Dowd in sight to decide it should be some kind of ludicrous penalty. ( FA Cup Final ref, really what?!) And with several thousand Gooners baying for his blood, Michael Jones blew *that* whistle which confirmed our status as London’s top club, and the certainty of champions league football at the Emirates next year.

Despite the attempts of idiots like Terry, Suarez, Barton et al. to prove otherwise, Football for Everyone is never better illustrated when you find yourself hugging complete strangers several hundred miles from home, and all because we’ve finished the season above a bunch of…oh, maybe it’s not quite for everyone…

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how badly we played, how many miles we travelled, or how many ridiculous through balls Alex Song attempted, the only thing that matters is that the cannon has fired and the cockerel (chicken? ) has fallen, and fallen mighty low.

A lot of talk before the game was of team selection, and certainly the Gibbs/Santos decision was controversial, and Arsene made the right call to strengthen that side after Gervinho decided that Sunday is a day of (defensive) rest.

More crucially, for me it was the biggest, and the absolutely right, decision to play Coquelin in behind an increasingly ill-disciplined Song. I am in too good a mood to dwell on his antics today, and at times they have come off and got us out of a few holes, but suffice to say that I hope he will revert to his proper trade and skill-set by next season, for if we wanted a creative player in his position, I’m sure we could find someone who could pull off those balls with a little more consistency. I don’t want to jump the gun, but from the few games the Ox has played in midfield, he has shown a pretty good eye for a pass, and he and Walcott link up well in particular.

It’s a particular bugbear of mine that we don’t play enough balls over the top, when you consider how fast our wide men are. Yes, they have to be ready for the pass, but we really didn’t take good enough advantage of the ridiculously high line West Brom dared to play yesterday. Particularly when they, and Norwich before them, did us like a kipper in this very way. Walcott has talked of how he can’t be a one trick pony and always look to get in behind, but to my mind, our wingers have gone too far the other way. When we have been at our best, they have been switching wings, losing defenders, and sneaking in behind with ease. Fortunately we haven’t suffered, but something to ponder for next season, I hope.

Speaking of next season brings me on to two great servants of the club. Firstly, it was brilliant to be able to give Pat Rice the rousing send off he deserves, and I hope the club have the class do something of scale at the first home game of next season. Even MOTD got in on the act. I don’t mind admitting that I am too young to have witnessed Pat playing, but he has served The Arsenal for almost twice as long as I’ve been alive, which tells its own tale. I have said before and I’ll say it again – whatever you think of someone’s quality (and I have every respect for Pat’s contribution towards our success under Arsene) if they pull on that Arsenal shirt and put in 100%, love this club as much as you or I, then they are beyond reproach. Pat Rice is not only beyond reproach, he is a legend, and deserves every moment of the adulation he got last night.

The second servant is one whose future is decidedly less clear – I am talking of course about Robin van Persie. 37 goals for the season is impressive by anyone’s standards, and only two others have bettered his Premier League haul ever, over the course of 38 games. Securing third place is the first key stepping stone towards getting his signature on a shiny new contract.

With comparisons with Fabregas rife, the real question is, will he sign? And of course, there is only one person who knows. If we look at the facts, this is his first proper successful season, after an unbelievable amount of faith from Arsene, given his injuries. He is settled in London with his family, his friends. He is captain of the greatest club in the world (obviously) and has the respect of both fans and teammates alike. He seems a down-to-earth guy, with a healthy philosophy, and thoroughly professional. He earns more money in a year than most of us will in a lifetime. (Yes, Citeh, what’s an extra £6m a year when you’re already earning mega bucks?) Money, and the accumulation of it, is the key driver for some (Na$ri) but for many others, all that is important is to have enough.

Yes, we haven’t won a trophy for some apparently unknown number of years, and we can’t afford to offer him £1m a week, but I truly believe that he is a more mature, professional and loyal player than any others who we have doubted before.

Ultimately if he does go, it’s for either money or a better chance at trophies. If it’s the former, there’s not much we can do, and if it’s the latter, for goodness sakes, go out and buy pretty much whoever he wants, Arsene! And if he does go, there’ll be sadness and disappointment, for sure, but he will be the latest in a line of players who could have gone from being great players, to being regarded as the sort of Arsenal men like Tony Adams, Theirry Henry, or Pat Rice. No player is bigger than this club – we’ll keep coming back, driving this club forward to more victory and glory. Already, I’m looking forward to next season, and seeing us kick on without making a hash of the first few months. (or January!)

I’m the pretty much same age as Fabrice Muamba, and there have been far too many tragedies this season to want to put my heart through such an ordeal again. And yet, inevitably I will, because every second of every minute of every game is worth it, a million times over, to enjoy the relief, celebrations and pure unadulterated glee of yesterday.

Ooh to be a Gooner!

You can follow me on Twitter @nellypop13

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Yesterday one of the most dramatic and emotional roller coaster seasons of Arsenal ended. After having the worst start in more than half a century, dropping as low as 17^th place, losing every game in January, selling those two player that shall not be named, we still ended up 3^rd and above our lovely neighbors.

Besides all that, Arsenal had a very interesting season statistics wise. The most common score line this season was “one nil to the arsenal”, scoring the most amount of own goals in the premier league (5), having 17 different scorers (tied 2^nd for most in the league), having the most goals in one game (Manchester United 8-2, sorry), having the most points awarded from a losing position, scoring the most goals for the losing team (Blackburn 4-3, sorry again), having the highest number of combination in the back four (over 30 different combination), being awarded 0 penalties at the Emirates, and witnessing the most amount of twitches that ‘Arry Redknapp has ever done in a match (Arsenal – Tottenham 5-2).

(Click for a clearer version)

Above is a table of the goals scored and conceded at home and away. As you can tell, our defense has been very leaky. They conceded 67 goals in 54 games, the worst record in Wenger era. It’s not like they are leaky all over, their weakness was away. About 64% of the goals were conceded away versus at home (36%). Besides that, our defense did hold its own in 18 matches keeping a clean. The best form of defense is the offense where we score 96 goals in 54 matches, which is a few short of last season’s amount. The team did struggle when it came to scoring in 9 games showing our lack of attacking depth. The table below will show the number of games score lines with the same goals scored or conceded.

(Click for a clearer version)

This shows the comfort level the team has when it comes to scoring at home (the highest was 7 goals, most was and average was 1.93 with a standard deviation of 1.53) than away (the highest was 5 and average was 1.6 with a standard deviation of 1.26). Altogether the mode was 1 goal and average was 1.91 with a standard deviation of 1.5). On the other hand is the goals conceded where the comfort of defense was found at home (the mode was 0 goals, the highest was 3, and the average was .83 with a standard deviation .83) than away (the mode was 1 goal, the highest was 8, and the average was 1.72 with a standard deviation of 1.76). Altogether the mode was 1 goal and the average was 1.24 with a standard deviation of 1.41.

(Click for a clearer version)

The table above showcases the types of wins, draws, and losses at home (top) and away (bottom). Emirates for the first time in years was close to a fortress as it can get by allowing their opponents in all competitions only 14 points. The rest is pretty self explanatory; we are stronger at home than away (which is the opposite of the 2010-2011 season).

(Click for a clearer version)

And now to the individual player’s statistics which is located in the table above. Only the League and Champions League statistics are calculated due to lack of statistics on domestic cups.  Our best defender was Bosscielny, midfielder was Arteta, and forward was, of course, Robin van Persie. Some of the statistics is overly exaggerated (such as success % and per game) due to those players playing one or two games. I also used Whoscored for some of the statistics and the rest is my own calculations). The highest amount is highlighted in orange and everything else in the table is pretty self explanatory.

In a few days there will be a Part 2 of this with statistics on every combination in the back four, middle three (or four), and front three (or two) used this season.

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A – Arsene – At times this season I have genuinely feared for Arsene’s health on the touchline.  Waterbottles have existed in a state of terror and not even the stunning sight of Pat Rice’s legs in his short shorts could distract Arsene from ranting like a loon as his Arsenal side insisted on finding new and improved ways to cock things up this season.  He’s got some stuff wrong and some stuff right, but he’s still Arsene and we love him. Well, most of us do.

B – Big games – This season saw an improvement when it came to playing big games, well, as long as those big games didn’t happen at the start of the season, or involve a big game against a not-so-big side.  We continued our trend of offering a care in the community type scheme in helping newly promoted teams get a few points on the board, but we defeated Chelsea away (he fell over), Man City and humiliated Sp*rs (two nil and you fucked it up). Plus there was also that home match against AC Milan if we just ignore the away leg which preceded it.

C – Champions League – This season has been all about gaining automatic qualification so that we can continue our run of a gazillion years straight in the competition.  The away game against AC Milan was one of the season’s low points, and in a season which contained a rock bottom, 20 layers of shit and then Arsenal at times, the home performance against Milan stands as one of the highlights.  Didn’t want to win it anyway.

D – Defence – I’ve heard about it. I’ve seen glimpses of it, but like most of the Arsenal team, I’m not sure I truly understand it.  If defending is an art then we are the three year old with fingerpaints at times.  Granted, a lot of our issues arose when we were without a recognised full back and had to play centrebacks out wide but the fact remains that we have conceded more goals through individual errors than any other side in the league.

E – Emirates – The Emirates and the home crowd has been criticised in many quarters for its silence at times and for getting on the players backs too easily but in the second half of the season something changed and it became a different place.  Anyone who hasn’t been to the Emirates lately will likely not know because the positives never get mentioned by the press, but it has become a place where the crowd is now that valuable 12^th man. Long may it last.

F – Free kicks – We get them, we waste them, we don’t seem to know that not only can we practice taking them but we can practice defending them too.  Dread fills the heart of every Arsenal fan when we concede one in our own half while when we win one up the other end we giggle about which row it will hit.  We got a few right this season, but mostly we didn’t.

G – Gary Neville – Not strictly Arsenal related but worth a mention nonetheless.  Just snaffled by England to join the coaching set-up Neville astounded football fans all over the world who had previously hated him with a passion by actually being a fair, unbiased and bloody good pundit.  The best on TV by some distance and thankfully his contract will allow him to carry on in this role otherwise we’d have had to put up with even more of Jamie Redknapp and his inability to find trousers that actually fit.

H – Henry – He returned. It was a fairytale that’s for sure.  Arsenal’s leading goalscorer came off the bench to score the winner against Leeds in the FA Cup and then with his last act scored the seventh in a rout against Blackburn. Of course, the FA took that goal off him so his last official goal was the one which grabbed the points against Sunderland.  It could have all went so horribly wrong but instead it cemented his place in Arsenal history and gave the statue makers some work to do outside the Emirates.

I – Injuries – They are commonplace at Arsenal now and for the second season running we finished runner up in the injury league.  Jack missed the whole season and Diaby played a total of 98 minutes with not one start and ended his last appearance by getting injured.  We went through a whole month with no full backs, watched as midfielders dropped like Joey Barton when someone has looked at him the wrong way, and prayed every single second of every single match that Robin could survive in what was perhaps the biggest shock of the season – he didn’t get injured at all!

J – Jack – My how we missed him.  What could we have done with him strutting around our midfield? Losing Cesc was a blow, Nasri not so much, but to lose Jack as well was crippling.

K – Koscielny – Much maligned when he was first signed Kos was Mr. Consistency this season and had valid claims to be the top centreback in the league, bettered perhaps, only by Kompany.  Kos has made a lot of people have to eat their words.  He is composed and considered and the best centreback at Arsenal without question. He made the most tackles (85) and most interceptions (81) of any centreback in the league this season. Fact.

L – Luck – Given how we finished the season you could say that it was on our side however at times throughout the season it seemed like it had abandoned us altogether.  We finished second last in the debatable decisions table with an overall record of negative ten when it comes to wrong decisions in our favour pitted against wrong decisions that went against us. That being said, the way these things work we still would have ended up with 70 points but would have been one behind Sp*rs instead of ahead. Football is weird.

M – Manchester – If Manchester didn’t exist we would be champions.  We also wouldn’t have had to endure *that* match at the start of the season.  Reason enough for me to see it wiped from the face of the planet.

N – North London – Is red. It will always be red.

O – Own goals – We love them, we love them so much that we scored more of them than anyone else this season, five to be precise.  Kos scored two all by himself bettered only by Scott Dann who recently had Henry’s 229^th Arsenal goal given to him.

P – Penalties – We don’t get them anymore.  We didn’t get one single penalty at home this season and there were some pretty blatant ones which were ignored.  Ever since ‘Eduradogate’ there has been a feeling amongst Arsenal fans that we don’t get the penalties we deserve.  Funny how one dive which wasn’t even a dive by a player who has never done that sort of thing since or before impacts on people’s views of clubs whereas when you have a player who is known to be a serially-diver people just sort of go ‘oh, it’s him, he dives all the time.’  It doesn’t make sense.

Q – Quality – We had it in patches and some of our defending was quality comedy.  Lacking it in abundance like we are used to but it will come with the return of Jack, Ramsey getting his form back and Gervinho getting over the African Cup of Nations.  Throw RvP in to the mix alongside Podolski and another signing or too, add the Ox and a more consistent Theo and we suddenly look a lot more Quality Street and a lot less Tesco Value.

R – Records – Robin broke some and narrowly missed others such as falling one short of Alan Shearer’s 35 in a calendar year target, Arsenal set them, though granted not at the right end of the spectrum with *that* game at Old Trafford. Robin was also the first goalscorer to reach 10, 20 and 30 goals this season.

S – Silverware – Robin won it all, PFA Player of the Year, Football Writer’s Player of the Year and Golden Boot, Golden Boot Landmark 10, Golden Boot Landmark 20, and Golden Boot Landmark 30, which aren’t quite silver, but, well, are you complaining? Yes, I know, seven years blah blah.

T – Transfers – Was it supermarket sweep or a considered transfer policy? I don’t think anyone will say it was the latter but I don’t think it was quite the former as many have made out either.  Apart from Park, he’s like a player who came in a tin with no label.  Arsenal spent over £50m last summer which isn’t too bad for a manager who apparently only likes to hoarde all our money in the bank so he can look at it. Arteta was magnificent and so was Per before his injury. The Ox? I remember a load of people going mental when we signed a kid for £12million.  They’ve probably passed on now, choking on their own drool after watching him play.

U – Underachievers – That’s what we are. After our start to the season many would say that we overachieved, but the potential that is within this squad should have had us closer to the top and not dumped out of the FA Cup by Sunderland.  A team that can both lose to AC Milan badly and thrash them. That’s what we are.

V – van Persie – Do I need to say more? Oh ok then.  His first ‘proper’ season for Arsenal since his arrival in 2004 managing 47 appearances during an uninterrupted campaign when previously the most he’d managed was 44 (higher than I thought too, 2008-09 season and ended that one with 20 goals and 15 assists).  Boy did we get to see what that could do for him – he scores when he wants you know.  37 goals, 14 assists and a contract that is rapidly expiring.  Robin has a reputation for never being fit, but when you look at his stats he’s managed 40 appearances in one season for Arsenal on three occasions and an average of almost 35 per year.  If you compare that to Henry who doesn’t have that reputation and you see that Henry averaged around 10 appearances more per season. Strange huh? Incidentally, Henry was at Arsenal for eight years and Robin has just completed his eighth season.

W – War – I put this in when I was coming up with the words but can’t remember why now. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

X – X-rays – Arsenal have had more broken legs over the past few seasons than all the other teams in the Premier League combined. I don’t have the stats to back this up but I know it’s true. Sagna had two broken legs this season alone for god’s sake!

Y – Y U NO MIND THE GAP TOTTENHAM? –  They declared they were better than us in October and they could win the league.  They stretched their lead to 10 points (13 if you consider where we stood at 2 nil down in *that* match) and they were laughing.  The press talked about a ‘power shift in North London’ despite the fact that we have finished above them every year since Wenger took charge of Arsenal and one season does not a power shift make.  They printed tshirts, ‘Mind the Gap’ they giggled.  We reminded them that final league standings are not decided in October. Nor in January. We asked them to come back in May.

They crashed out of Europe and thus had only the league to concentrate on.  They were playing the best football seen at their club for some 50 years while we had our worst start to a league campaign in 58 years.

We still finished above them.

Perhaps they couldn’t see the gap because of that perpetual shadow they reside in?

Z – Zombies – We played like them sometimes. That’s pretty much the only thing I could think of for Z.

Follow @ladyarse

A – Arsene – At times this season I have genuinely feared for Arsene’s health on the touchline.  Waterbottles have existed in a state of terror and not even the stunning sight of Pat Rice’s legs in his short shorts could distract Arsene from ranting like a loon as his Arsenal side insisted on finding new and improved ways to cock things up this season.  He’s got some stuff wrong and some stuff right, but he’s still Arsene and we love him. Well, most of us do.

B – Big games – This season saw an improvement when it came to playing big games, well, as long as those big games didn’t happen at the start of the season, or involve a big game against a not-so-big side.  We continued our trend of offering a care in the community type scheme in helping newly promoted teams get a few points on the board, but we defeated Chelsea away (he fell over), Man City and humiliated Sp*rs (two nil and you fucked it up). Plus there was also that home match against AC Milan if we just ignore the away leg which preceded it.

C – Champions League – This season has been all about gaining automatic qualification so that we can continue our run of a gazillion years straight in the competition.  The away game against AC Milan was one of the season’s low points, and in a season which contained a rock bottom, 20 layers of shit and then Arsenal at times, the home performance against Milan stands as one of the highlights.  Didn’t want to win it anyway.

D – Defence – I’ve heard about it. I’ve seen glimpses of it, but like most of the Arsenal team, I’m not sure I truly understand it.  If defending is an art then we are the three year old with fingerpaints at times.  Granted, a lot of our issues arose when we were without a recognised full back and had to play centrebacks out wide but the fact remains that we have conceded more goals through individual errors than any other side in the league.

E – Emirates – The Emirates and the home crowd has been criticised in many quarters for its silence at times and for getting on the players backs too easily but in the second half of the season something changed and it became a different place.  Anyone who hasn’t been to the Emirates lately will likely not know because the positives never get mentioned by the press, but it has become a place where the crowd is now that valuable 12^th man. Long may it last.

F – Free kicks – We get them, we waste them, we don’t seem to know that not only can we practice taking them but we can practice defending them too.  Dread fills the heart of every Arsenal fan when we concede one in our own half while when we win one up the other end we giggle about which row it will hit.  We got a few right this season, but mostly we didn’t.

G – Gary Neville – Not strictly Arsenal related but worth a mention nonetheless.  Just snaffled by England to join the coaching set-up Neville astounded football fans all over the world who had previously hated him with a passion by actually being a fair, unbiased and bloody good pundit.  The best on TV by some distance and thankfully his contract will allow him to carry on in this role otherwise we’d have had to put up with even more of Jamie Redknapp and his inability to find trousers that actually fit.

H – Henry – He returned. It was a fairytale that’s for sure.  Arsenal’s leading goalscorer came off the bench to score the winner against Leeds in the FA Cup and then with his last act scored the seventh in a rout against Blackburn. Of course, the FA took that goal off him so his last official goal was the one which grabbed the points against Sunderland.  It could have all went so horribly wrong but instead it cemented his place in Arsenal history and gave the statue makers some work to do outside the Emirates.

I – Injuries – They are commonplace at Arsenal now and for the second season running we finished runner up in the injury league.  Jack missed the whole season and Diaby played a total of 98 minutes with not one start and ended his last appearance by getting injured.  We went through a whole month with no full backs, watched as midfielders dropped like Joey Barton when someone has looked at him the wrong way, and prayed every single second of every single match that Robin could survive in what was perhaps the biggest shock of the season – he didn’t get injured at all!

J – Jack – My how we missed him.  What could we have done with him strutting around our midfield? Losing Cesc was a blow, Nasri not so much, but to lose Jack as well was crippling.

K – Koscielny – Much maligned when he was first signed Kos was Mr. Consistency this season and had valid claims to be the top centreback in the league, bettered perhaps, only by Kompany.  Kos has made a lot of people have to eat their words.  He is composed and considered and the best centreback at Arsenal without question. He made the most tackles (85) and most interceptions (81) of any centreback in the league this season. Fact.

L – Luck – Given how we finished the season you could say that it was on our side however at times throughout the season it seemed like it had abandoned us altogether.  We finished second last in the debatable decisions table with an overall record of negative ten when it comes to wrong decisions in our favour pitted against wrong decisions that went against us. That being said, the way these things work we still would have ended up with 70 points but would have been one behind Sp*rs instead of ahead. Football is weird.

M – Manchester – If Manchester didn’t exist we would be champions.  We also wouldn’t have had to endure *that* match at the start of the season.  Reason enough for me to see it wiped from the face of the planet.

N – North London – Is red. It will always be red.

O – Own goals – We love them, we love them so much that we scored more of them than anyone else this season, five to be precise.  Kos scored two all by himself bettered only by Scott Dann who recently had Henry’s 229^th Arsenal goal given to him.

P – Penalties – We don’t get them anymore.  We didn’t get one single penalty at home this season and there were some pretty blatant ones which were ignored.  Ever since ‘Eduradogate’ there has been a feeling amongst Arsenal fans that we don’t get the penalties we deserve.  Funny how one dive which wasn’t even a dive by a player who has never done that sort of thing since or before impacts on people’s views of clubs whereas when you have a player who is known to be a serially-diver people just sort of go ‘oh, it’s him, he dives all the time.’  It doesn’t make sense.

Q – Quality – We had it in patches and some of our defending was quality comedy.  Lacking it in abundance like we are used to but it will come with the return of Jack, Ramsey getting his form back and Gervinho getting over the African Cup of Nations.  Throw RvP in to the mix alongside Podolski and another signing or too, add the Ox and a more consistent Theo and we suddenly look a lot more Quality Street and a lot less Tesco Value.

R – Records – Robin broke some and narrowly missed others such as falling one short of Alan Shearer’s 35 in a calendar year target, Arsenal set them, though granted not at the right end of the spectrum with *that* game at Old Trafford. Robin was also the first goalscorer to reach 10, 20 and 30 goals this season.

S – Silverware – Robin won it all, PFA Player of the Year, Football Writer’s Player of the Year and Golden Boot, Golden Boot Landmark 10, Golden Boot Landmark 20, and Golden Boot Landmark 30, which aren’t quite silver, but, well, are you complaining? Yes, I know, seven years blah blah.

T – Transfers – Was it supermarket sweep or a considered transfer policy? I don’t think anyone will say it was the latter but I don’t think it was quite the former as many have made out either.  Apart from Park, he’s like a player who came in a tin with no label.  Arsenal spent over £50m last summer which isn’t too bad for a manager who apparently only likes to hoarde all our money in the bank so he can look at it. Arteta was magnificent and so was Per before his injury. The Ox? I remember a load of people going mental when we signed a kid for £12million.  They’ve probably passed on now, choking on their own drool after watching him play.

U – Underachievers – That’s what we are. After our start to the season many would say that we overachieved, but the potential that is within this squad should have had us closer to the top and not dumped out of the FA Cup by Sunderland.  A team that can both lose to AC Milan badly and thrash them. That’s what we are.

V – van Persie – Do I need to say more? Oh ok then.  His first ‘proper’ season for Arsenal since his arrival in 2004 managing 47 appearances during an uninterrupted campaign when previously the most he’d managed was 44 (higher than I thought too, 2008-09 season and ended that one with 20 goals and 15 assists).  Boy did we get to see what that could do for him – he scores when he wants you know.  37 goals, 14 assists and a contract that is rapidly expiring.  Robin has a reputation for never being fit, but when you look at his stats he’s managed 40 appearances in one season for Arsenal on three occasions and an average of almost 35 per year.  If you compare that to Henry who doesn’t have that reputation and you see that Henry averaged around 10 appearances more per season. Strange huh? Incidentally, Henry was at Arsenal for eight years and Robin has just completed his eighth season.

W – War – I put this in when I was coming up with the words but can’t remember why now. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

X – X-rays – Arsenal have had more broken legs over the past few seasons than all the other teams in the Premier League combined. I don’t have the stats to back this up but I know it’s true. Sagna had two broken legs this season alone for god’s sake!

Y – Y U NO MIND THE GAP TOTTENHAM? –  They declared they were better than us in October and they could win the league.  They stretched their lead to 10 points (13 if you consider where we stood at 2 nil down in *that* match) and they were laughing.  The press talked about a ‘power shift in North London’ despite the fact that we have finished above them every year since Wenger took charge of Arsenal and one season does not a power shift make.  They printed tshirts, ‘Mind the Gap’ they giggled.  We reminded them that final league standings are not decided in October. Nor in January. We asked them to come back in May.

They crashed out of Europe and thus had only the league to concentrate on.  They were playing the best football seen at their club for some 50 years while we had our worst start to a league campaign in 58 years.

We still finished above them.

Perhaps they couldn’t see the gap because of that perpetual shadow they reside in?

Z – Zombies – We played like them sometimes. That’s pretty much the only thing I could think of for Z.

Follow @ladyarse

Well. I’m not going to say I’m not glad to se the back of what has been a traumatic and extremely stressful season.  We managed to grab third place, one point ahead of Sp*rs though, if we’re honest about it, we did everything we could to try and mess it up.

A team full of nerves against a team with nothing to play for but a manager they clearly respect.

It was the Norwich game all over again, the only difference being Martin Fulop, who once, I believe, worked as a lasagne chef, was in goal for West Brom.  We couldn’t have made it harder for ourselves but, what matters is that we got across that line, battered, shattered, and a big bit bruised.

From being 17^th at one point we made third.

From losing 8-2 at Old Trafford we made the Champions League.

From losing to Blackburn, Swansea, Fulham, Wigan and more, we did it.

From having no full backs for over one month we somehow got there.

From losing all our league games in January we were still up there.

From having no Jack all season, losing our captain during the summer, and finishing second, once again in the injury table, we made it.

We did not do it the easy way, that would not be the Arsenal way it seems, but somehow, some debt that the footballing gods seemed to owe Arsene for delivering us the Invincibles, we made it in to the Champions League for the 15^th straight season, a truly remarkable achievement when you consider the constraints he has had to operate under since we moved to the Emirates.

How we felt all season

Don’t get me wrong, amazing achievement or not, there are some very serious flaws in this side that must be addressed in the summer. Our inability to defend is one, the fact that we have a defensive midfielder who would prefer to be up the other end is another.  We’ve looked to add a helping hand to the one-man show that Robin ran up front all season by signing Podolski, but that shouldn’t be the end of it.

I don’t really know what else to say, I’m still half asleep, and the less I say now the more we’ll have to talk about over the coming days when things will slow down.  The other guys who write for this blog will be along with their take on things as well, but for now I’m going to go, try and wake up and work out just what I’m going to fill this site with every day for the long, hopefully hot, summer.

Thank you Arsenal for getting there in the end, we know at times you seemed like you didn’t really want to, and I’m pretty sure we will all be receiving a supply of anti-anxiety meds with our membership packs for next season, but today, just for one day, we can sit back and think ‘job done’ – tomorrow we can pick over the bones of needs to be done ahead of next year to make sure that it’s ‘job done better.’

EXCLUSIVE – Arsenal’s Away shirt revealed

Koscielny – Robin will be here next season

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I honestly don’t know what to say in this blog. I really don’t.  All words seem so empty, so worthless (apart from these).  We know what we have do, the team should know what they have to do as well and that’s all there really is to it.

Good news and Szczesny and Walcott both travelled with the squad and there’ve been no sudden illnesses or lasagne-induced trots reported so far.  West Brom aren’t going to just turn up to make up the numbers, not that any team ever does when they play us. They want to send Roy out with a win or at least not a defeat.  Speaking about the game, Peter Odimwingie said

“If we win, you will see people smiling, especially if we can beat another big club.

“It would be reassuring them that progress is being made in the team and the club is moving forwards.

“So, hopefully, we can get a positive result, even though we already know the club and the supporters are pleased with where we have ended up this season.

“We have had many victories this season that we won’t forget and this would be another one of them.

“It’s reassuring that we are a very good team with a lot of potential and next season that will expect a lot more joyful moments.

“It is Roy’s last game and I’m sure seeing him smile and shake everyone’s hands to say goodbye after winning a game like this would help him to leave on a positive note and go to his job with the national team with a little bit more confidence.”

But it’s not about them tomorrow, it’s about us. Arsenal on top of their game should always beat West Brom on the top of theirs and it is a reflection of our ability to shoot ourselves repeatedly in the foot that we are even concerned about this game.  I’m normally incredibly optimistic but this game is scaring the crap out of me, like I’m sure it is you.  This should be a formality, turn up, I mean actually ‘turn up’ play, win, go home, plan our summer holidays.

If we don’t, well then, anything from having to wait and see the outcome of the Champions League to preparing for the Europa League awaits us.  It really doesn’t get any simpler than this for the team, for the club, and for the fans.

Win or bust. Can we really rely on the Footballing Gods to once again deliver us from the Europa and save St. Totteringham’s Day? We shouldn’t have to and that’s the bottom line.

Away from home we’ve averaged 58% possession, 84% pass success, 51% aerial duels won, 12 shots conceded, 2 shots blocked, 21 tackles and made 17 interceptions.  Offensively we’ve managed 15 shots with only six of those on target.  We need to be at the top end of those stats today.  No playing for individual glory, this needs to be a team effort to match those we put in against Man City at home.  Our weaknesses when it comes to defending, well anything really, needs to be cut out, we need a defensive midfielder who will actually sit and defend and we need to find whoever keeps supplying the team with stupid pills and kick the crap out of them.

Do that and take our chances and we win. Seriously. It doesn’t get simpler than that.

Finally, check out the Global Gooner Photo Project which still needs photo’s from a ton of countries. Help out if you can and check out the image as it stands already.

Good luck Gooners, wherever you may be watching this.  I’ll be online having a nervous breakdown, follow me @LadyArse or if you can’t get on Twitter I’ll be posting my Tweets directly to the blog so you can follow the madness there.

See you on the other side!

Yesterday’s LadyArse Gossip:

Van Persie’s wife hints at Arsenal stay

·        Oxlade-Chamberlain – ‘Henry gave me belief’

·        Bendtner wants away

·        Arsenal target Youssef Msakni

·        Arsenal sign Nigerian Guinness on Three Year Deal

·        Kalou refuses to rule out Arsenal move

·        Mertesacker impresses at German camp

·        Podolski still feeling effects of relegation

·        Barcelona monitoring Theo situation

·        Santos denies Botafogo interest

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