Why last season was a success and Wenger can lead us to the title again

Did we lose the title race to Leicester because we were the inferior team or was it because we were more handicapped in the race by long term injuries; mental and physical fatigue; media and fan expectation; a more congested fixture list; having no opportunity to rest; receiving fewer favours from the refs?

We certainly weren’t inferior because we beat them home and away — so the answer lies with a look at the greater handicaps we carried. It was never an even race between two similarly handicapped teams. I do not wish to look as though I am denigrating their amazing achievement but the ground over the run-in was always in Leicester’s favour. Plus Leicester had the support of Buddhist monks whilst all we had was John Bercow who — although he looks like a Buddhist monk and is the Speaker of the House of Commons — is a Tory and therefore doesn’t have quite the same powers of wisdom and influence. But we do have Jezza on our books – Jez we can!

Given all this we should not have been too surprised that Leicester finished 10 points clear but I believe we still should, and could, have done better and that includes Arsène. Mesut Özil summed up why we didn’t do better:

“I think we dropped a lot of points that we shouldn’t have dropped like against smaller teams and I think that was the point in the season where as a team we weren’t strong enough to take just a point and go ahead. Especially after the Barcelona game we lost some points. That was a time when we weren’t good enough to just take points and go. It’s a long season and a lot of things must go right in the season. One of the things is players getting injured which is one factor definitely. On the other hand we just have to focus more and with stronger players maybe coming in be competitive for next season and we will see where we end up at the end.”

The squad’s fitness, focus and quality are Arsène’s responsibility and I think he failed to add sufficient players to the squad last summer.

As to the team’s mental fitness — that was a tough one to address — even Barcelona experienced a mental car crash this season after their dramatic defeat by Real Madrid. In Barcelona’s case the pundits put it down to bad luck but when it happens to Arsenal it’s the team choking! When it happens to Sp*rs it’s hilarious!

Our expectations are in part a product of Arsène’s success over the last 20 years — unique achievements like 20 consecutive top 4 finishes, the 49ers and 6 FA Cup wins (okay, that’s a joint achievement) plus the recent signings of 3 world class players — and being top of the league at the half way point of the season. We expect so muchbecauseof this spectacular record so in a way Arsène is a victim of his own success.

Why do we expect the Arsenal team and Arsène to meet our expectations when we ourselves all fail at times to meet our own expectations in life? Why should they be viewed any differently to ourselves? Is it not part of the human condition to come up short at times? Why do we elevate these people – our idols — to super human status when in fact they are just like us warts and all? Why can’t we treat them as human beings and show more understanding and even compassion when they fall short?

Or, are we entitled to feel angry and dissatisfied because football is now a ‘commodity’ and as ‘customers’ (paying a lot of money!) we expect so much more for our money? Is this all part of the ‘instant gratification’ society? Is it the failings of the application of the market model to our beloved football and Arsenal? If you are disappointed with Sky you can switch to Virgin or BT but if you are disappointed by the Arsenal – you can’t switch to another club – ergo it has to be the manager that goes?  I have to say I really do tire of these spoilt brat reactions to the ‘failure’ of second place. As my mate Dick from Huddersfield Town FC emailed me to say after the final match of the season:

“Nice end to the season for your chaps today. How finishing second in the world's best league can be regarded as failure I cannot imagine. But there are many miserable fuckers in the world.”

This review of the season would not be complete without including Fergie’s reaction to the recent criticism of AW (Daily Mirror):

 “He’s been fantastic. Now he gets a lot of criticism, but I admire that you’re not going to bend to the will of the critics. He stays with what he believes in. And I think people who do that are outstanding coaches. When you talk about consistency, Arsène's never changed the way that his side has played."

Whatever the reasons for our disappointment, I have to agree with Fergie and say I don’t agree it’s time for a change of manager. We need to get a new top quality striker, maybe a tricky winger, another defender and another midfielder on top of Xhaka but I don’t think we are far away from the title.

For next season let’s all live in hope and not expect too much from Arsène and the team otherwise these wise words of Samuel Johnson on disappointment will haunt us Arsenal fans for ever more:

“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.”

We’ve gone 4th in 2013/14, 3rd in 2014/15, and 2nd in 2015/16 — let’s complete the sequence and get that 1st in 2016/17. What better way for Arsène to say farewell to his amazing time at the Arsenal? Bring it on; I can’t wait!

By Terry Barry

Goonersphere's view

Well that really was some article Terry! Thank you for sending it in. You make some excellent points and certainly there is balance to be found between fair criticism of the manager and understanding what is beyond his reasonable control. It's hard not to think of this past season as a failure but in the grand scheme of things it was generally positive given the circumstances and a good step forward. What is not often said enough is that of all the "old guard" Arsenal performed the best last season and the final table shows that. It's now on us to go one better. 

Over to the readers to give us their views.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook, add us to your G+ circle and follow us on Twitter.