Suicidal defending, an inability to keep possession, plenty of pretty passing and an unlikely 3-2 victory… Arsenal�s final league match of the campaign was an entirely accurate barometer of the club�s fortunes this season. Arsene Wenger�s sense of relief at snatching third place, and therefore finishing above Tottenham and guaranteeing automatic qualification to the Champions League, was palpable. After the final whistle, he said: �We only lost 2 of the last 16 games, and created a fantastic run. We had problems getting over the line, and you could see that again today. We just hung on.�

Arguably, his most telling admission about the 2011 � 2012 campaign was: �At some stages, everybody was wondering what we were doing.� Never was a truer word spoken.

The Gunners� season began in total chaos. In July, Wenger spoke confidently of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas staying in North London. The fact that both departed for Manchester City and Barcelona respectively in early August suggested that there was a widening credibility gap between Wenger�s promises and the actual truth.

The team�s results in August suggested that Wenger might be swept away at any minute. Even Alan Hansen, not usually known for making sensationalist comments, remarked in the*Telegraph*after Arsenal�s 8-2 hammering at Old Trafford: �One more result like this, and Wenger could be history.�

The home game against Liverpool, which Dalglish�s men won 2-0, was played against a backdrop of torrential rain, and rumbling thunder. It seemed ominous for the club, and after damaging defeats at Tottenham (2-1) and Blackburn (4-3) (away fans at Ewood Park could clearly be heard chanting at Wenger: �You don�t know what you�re doing�) football writer Patrick Barclay commented on Sky�s Sunday Supplement: �I can see Arsenal in a relegation scrap, the way they�re going.� The worrying thing was, none of the panellists disagreed with Barclay, and he was not taken to task by Gunners fans for his comments either. �In Arsene We Rust,� said one banner at the Blackburn match.

With Wilshere out injured for the foreseeable future, Nasri and Fabregas gone, and van Persie the only top striker at the club, even the most ardent Arsenal fans had to admit that between them, the board and Wenger had badly mismanaged the club�s most depressing close season for decades. The last minute spending spree in August added to the �panic stations� feeling surrounding the club.

Yet the team then embarked on an unexpectedly good league run. The highlight was Arsenal�s crazy 5-3 victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which propelled the team into sixth place, having laboured in 15^th*after defeat at Spurs. It was the victory at Chelsea that opened Gunners supporters� eyes to the fact that, fragile as their team�s self confidence was, Villas-Boas� outfit was also struggling to adapt to the new coach�s defensive changes. Realistically, with the Manchester teams cruising into the distance, Arsenal could only target 3^rd*or 4^th*place, and hope that Tottenham and Chelsea slipped up. By the time the team lost to Swansea, Fulham and Manchester United in consecutive away matches, and were then slaughtered in Milan and lost to Sunderland in the FA Cup within four days, the �You don�t know what you�re doing� chants resurfaced. Again, Wenger�s position seemed under threat.

Then, a miracle occurred. Arsenal won seven league games on the bounce, and came close to a sensational comeback against Milan in the Champions League. It was down to a number of factors… Henry�s return, the emergence of Oxlade-Chamberlain, and the return to the team after injury of Bacary Sagna. But the truth is that Arsenal�s epic fight back (or is that Tottenham�s staggering collapse) at the Emirates in the Gunners� 5-3 home win in late February turned the season around. Had Redknapp�s team won that match, and gone 13 points clear in third place, it�s highly likely that Arsenal�s campaign would have gone irrevocably pear-shaped.

The �Redknapp For England� campaign clearly destabilised Tottenham, whatever their players claim, and the fact they lost in consecutive games to the Manchesters and Arsenal suggested Spurs weren�t quite as strong as the �Watch the Gap� yellers suggested. On April 11^th, after a comfortable 3-0 win at Wolves, the Gunners were five points clear of Spurs in 3^rd*place, and seemingly set to cruise to European qualification.

Over the last month, the team�s early season defensive jitters (and Mikel Arteta�s injury) saw them go four games without a win, and witnessed Tottenham and Newcastle close the gap, leaving Arsenal requiring a win in their final game of the season to guarantee Champions League football. When it came to the crunch, Wenger�s man duly delivered. Just.

He admitted: �I didn�t want to finish 4^th. If Chelsea win the Champions League then you are not in it, if they don�t you are not definitely in it as you play a qualifier.� The ramifications of Arsenal not qualifying for the tournament next season would have been frightening.

A minimum of �20 million less income, considerably less chance of keeping van Persie and attracting the �10 million signings in defence and midfield that the team needs, and less chance of filling the Emirates. The fact that the club wrapped up the signing of Podolski before the end of the campaign suggests that this close season might be slightly less fraught than the last one. Someone at the club at least seems to know what they are doing this time around, although without major surgery, it�s hard to see how Arsenal will scrap for anything other than 3rd.

The overall impression of this campaign is that the Gunners got away with it. Apart from being ridiculously over-reliant on van Persie�s goals, the fact is that Villas-Boas (until February) and Redknapp (after February) didn�t really know what they were doing either.

Next season, having to rely on their London rivals to implode is unlikely to see the Gunners through.

Ian Palmer

2012/2013 CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH

Regardless of whether you consider this season to be a success or a disaster for Arsenal, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of debate about this, the simple fact is the 2012/13 season has to begin immediately.

It�s obvious that this squad has some strengths, such as Robin van Persie and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but there are also some glaring weaknesses. These problem areas need to be addressed as soon as possible if the Gunners are to be serious contenders next year.

Yes, a third-place finish is a hell of a lot better than finishing between fourth and 20^th, but let�s not forget there was a 19-point gap between Arsenal and the league leaders. Wenger has already started well when it comes to strengthening the team by adding Lukas Podolski from Cologne. Podolski is a world-class striker who has to play, not sit on the bench.

Of course, van Persie also has to be retained for Arsenal to remain one of the elite teams in Europe. If he does happen to leave, Podolski is a suitable replacement. But if the Polish-born German becomes the team�s only top-class striker and gets injured, there�s going to be deep trouble. The two main areas that need to be improved on, though, are defending and goalkeeping.

We all know about Arsenal�s deficiencies when it comes to defending and that�s why an elite goalkeeper is needed, at least until Wenger sorts out the defence. Wojciech Szczesny is a good keeper, but he definitely can�t be considered a great one. In fact, goalkeeping has been one of the Gunners’ weak spots over the past few seasons, not just this one.

Wenger should realize how important good keeping is, since West Brom proved today that anything less can cost you games. Arsenal�s 3-2 win may have been deserved at the Hawthorns, but the team certainly took advantage of some atrocious goalkeeping by West Brom�s Marton Fulop.

There�s a lot of work to be done over the summer and it has to start immediately before other clubs start snatching up the best players available. It also includes getting rid of the dead wood at the Emirates and sorting out the payroll by cutting some players loose.

Finishing in third place will provide the fans with Champions League football next season and the club with a fatter bank account, which are both positives. There were also some other bright spots, such as the Gunners fighting their way back to take third place and van Persie winning the Golden Boot with 30 goals.

With a few more pieces added to the puzzle and making sure they�re ready to start the season in August and not a month later, there�s no reason Arsenal shouldn�t be a title contender next season. Wenger just needs to make sure he�s not trying to stick square pegs into round holes when adding key players.

Pat Thrice

A SEASON OF SURPRISES

At 34 minutes, it seemed like the balance of power had indubitably shifted towards the white of North London. 34 minutes later, it appeared as if it had never moved. That’s how quickly Arsenal’s season had changed because if they had lost to Tottenham Hotspur – and they were already trailing 2-0 – they would have been an unassailable 13 points behind. But somehow, and dumped out of two cup competitions beforehand, they summoned extraordinary resources to not only comeback and win 5-2, but to claw back the deficit in the league table.

It many ways it was the defining match of the season – certainly, it was the Emirates Stadium’s most “signature moment” since it opened in 2006 – because it displayed the best and worst of Arsenal – their frailties and their strengths – in 90 exhilarating minutes. To be fair, there have been a lot of those matches which is why this has been such a frustrating season. Yet, for all of Arsenal’s supposed deficiencies, they find themselves in a better position than last season. Looking forward to next season and there’s a different sense of optimism and that might be down to the “panic-buys” that*Ars�ne Wenger made last summer. Because with it, it imbued a mental strength that was once lacking and if Arsenal can make the*necessary technical additions, they can challenge for trophies next campaign.

And that might be the biggest regret for Wenger because his team haven’t been able to exert their style on opponents as they have in the past. Wenger begrudgingly admits that*that the team is a �little bit less good than last year with possession of the ball� and while talk of �philosophy� implicitly imbues it with a kind of moral superiority that tends to irritate, but in the case of Arsenal and Wenger, it’s everything. He ended the season with*Tom� Rosick� orchestrating Arsenal attacks and tellingly, he opted for the fleet-footed artisan he borrowed from Chelsea,*Yossi Benayoun,*on the left, *putting an end to the mercurial three-striker tactic that he led with.

As per usual, it’s not just in attack where Arsenal have been unable to find the right balance because for the fourth season running, the defence has increased the number of goals it has conceded. But in this case, it’s not easy to recommend solutions because Arsenal are just inherently too complicated. Their*rapid and intense brand of football is resource-heavy thus creating undue strain at the back.*Wojciech Szcz?sny has been criticised in the recent run for his save percentage, 64%*(the fourth lowest in the Premier League – average 69%), but it’s down to the quality of chances Arsenal allow teams (more space, less men back, counter-attacks) thus the probability of scoring is higher. It’s evident, then, that Arsenal could improve on their organisation at the back although it’s not just a matter of the back four; the whole team is culpable. The two goals Arsenal conceded on the last day to West Bromwich Albion displayed the route of their problems as failure to press up the pitch allowed their opponents to play it from the back early and exploited spaces behind. The back-four attempted to push up and squeeze the space but the lack of pressing ultimately undid Arsenal.*Put simply, you cannot play a high defensive line without closing down because it invites the opposition to make passes through the backline.

This season has seen Wenger increasingly delegate defensive responsibilities to Pat Rice. Earlier this*campaign*that was a*necessity as Arsenal essentially required new recruits such as Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos to adjust quickly but one wonders whether the compartmentalisation had some effect on the cohesion of the team. Certainly, by separating the defenders and the attackers in training meant less time to practice moving up and down the pitch together but that*would*surely be picking at bones. Arsenal did it in their Champions League run of 2005/06 when Martin Keown was given hands-on access to improve the defence. Put simply, the strategy of relaxed pressing from the front has been all wrong. Last season, Jack Wilshere and Alex Song where able to set platform for Arsenal to press together and they were backed up by the Dutch system of “through-marking” to retain a shape. This season, there has been less structure although they began to get it right when they went on a good run towards the end of the season and especially in the 1-0 win over Manchester City where each midfielder was designated a man.

However, there are plenty of positives to take from the season too although you can’t help but not avoid the caveats. Robin van Persie has delivered on a virtuoso season, scoring 37 goals in 48 appearances although the next highest scorer behind him was Theo Walcott with 11. The winger himself has had a better season than given credit for and van Persie has taken it on himself to acknowledge that impact by the measure of his assists. Alex Song too, who has come to the fore creatively, especially when Arsenal were deprived of any first-choice full-backs and everything had to come through the middle. Backed up he has been by the astute Mikel Arteta who has in a sense, liberated him. In defence, Laurent Koscielny established his self as one the Premier League’s finest centre-backs despite the*chaos that often surrounds him while*Rosick� has finally found the form he seemed to have lost five years ago.

With Arsenal, the same caveats always apply but in this season, they have become masters of the unexpected. And as such, there is always cause for hope for 2012/13.*�My target is to get back to that level (The Invincibles side of 2004/04),” says*Ars�ne Wenger.*”I feel we are not far from coming back to fight for the championship, and let’s hope we can show that next season.�

I had a birthday plan in June of last year. Champions League glory for Arsenal on my birthday, having won the Premier League title. Yeah, I am really going to enjoy today…

As the world prepares for the Champions League final this evening, Arsenal prepare for oblivion. That is the media angle and it is becoming warmly embraced by some. Robin van Persie’s failure to sign a new deal before he departed for Euro2012 is indicative of him not returning. In itself – and because of last summer – that is the signal of implosion. Theo Walcott has not signed a new deal and is apparently upset with Arsenal for not getting into negotiations before he departed for Euro2012. Alex Song is just about to enter the last year of his contract, all the good players are going, the bad ones are staying. The sky is falling in and there is a rush to descend into the madness.

Grow a set.

van Persie’s contract talks were scheduled for this week as was his departure for the Dutch squad. That left four days for Arsenal and the Dutchman to meet and discuss the contract. The presumption seems to be that it was a simple, “I’ll sign for this and three M’vila’s”; it is not that simple and with legal teams viewing the opportunity to relieve their clients of some funds in chargeable time, as unrealistic as expecting Arsenal to have completed their transfer business by now. The season has not even finished in some countries and getting players signed now, before the Euro2012 kick-off when their clubs eye the tournament as an opportunity for transfer valuations to rise, is unrealistic.

Yet still that was expected.

As for Walcott and Song, the smell of agent planted stories and journalistic creativity wafts through, luring the unsuspecting in with its decadent scent. Theo’s upset over negotiations not beginning before Euro2012? I doubt it but if he is, tough, it is his own fault for not starting them during the season. Alex Song is about to enter the final straight of a contract? And?

Agendas are being exposed.

That so many contracts are beginning to come to run their course is unsurprising. The players we are talking about have all broken into the first team around 2005 – 2007. Negotiations happened shortly after and new contracts or extensions signed. The continual process of having a young team means that these cycles happen, as opposed to buying ready-made teams of twenty-five year old – even older players – who have the contract they sign and perhaps minor extensions until their useful footballing life to Arsenal ends. If that sounds like players are assets, in the raw basics they are numbers on a balance sheet, assets that produce a revenue stream from the club’s core activity.

It does not mean bad management.

The result of the move to a new stadium, renewing the squad via a youth system means that this is the path that the club chose to tread reaching the merry-go-round at the end of the rainbow. This cycle of constant contract negotiations is going to become very familiar each summer as the deals and the players mature. When the club do enter talks and get contracts signed, they are criticised for even doing that before the focus turns onto the size of the deal. Arsenal are taking an informed punt, banking that the youthful promise will mature into an outstanding player. It doesn’t always work.

It is a process that the club cannot always control; Cesc would not have signed a new deal if offered, neither would Nasri and van Persie, Walcott, perhaps Song, are hedging their bets as is their right, waiting for a time that is beneficial to them to talk or sign deals or leave. This lays bear the hypocrisy of football supporters with claims that the loyalty shown by Arsenal to each of them in difficult times of loss of form or injury – or both – deserve loyalty from the players. Were you or I in similar situations in our own employment, I am sure that the same ‘tugs of the heart strings’ we might feel are felt by players. I am sure that the same feeling of looking after your own interests that the players feel would be reciprocated by us in our own circumstances.

Yeah, I’m a hypocrite. I expect that loyalty to exist.

I want the season to start so that there are genuine grounds for complaint, for the moaning to at least have some substance from events on the pitch. Please Mr Platini, let Arsenal enter Euro2012.

’til Tomorrow.

I did it again, what a wanker, 6.17pm and I turned on bloody talkshite ‘if they don’t sell him they’ll ruin another season’, ‘he doesn’t want to stay’, ‘they’ll just struggle to get third place like they did this year’, – 6.18pm and the Radio was off! Talkshite fuck me what a bitter little man! Did we sack him as litter picker or what?

You do realise that it’s the eve of the Champions League final? The play-offs? England are going the Euro’s? A GB team is about to be selected for the first time ever? No……… the biggest story is that the press want to speculate about what was said in over a cup of tea in Totteridge! Speculation killed the cat!

We’re told that if we don’t sell our captain it will run and run all summer just for him to leave like Cesc did, but where does it run and run? The papers…….. Talkshite……. oh well you keep printing your rubbish and chatting shit and wishing you actually new what was going on! The media doesn’t run the game, they just like to think they do, who’s the new England manager?

Of course whilst poor little Arsenal are struggling in third place, those shadow dwellers are stiffing shitting themselves that Chel$ki are gonna win the Champions League and the scum will have to sell all their big players……. LOL …….. now there’s a story worth writing about! December title contenders……… March……. in free-fall!

Or we could be Liverhoof, getting turned down by Swansea’s manager, Rodgers don’t want the poison challenge of having to play Wimbledon football to please the Kop! Calm Down! Calm Down!

Still, Arsenal of course are the biggest joke, fucking do one!

Of course all things aren’t perfect, but we aren’t half as bad as the other 17 teams in the Prem, I was gonna continue my season review but that’ll come tomorrow when I pretend the Champions League final isn’t happening. Well if it’s okay for Talkshite surely I can do it! Fucking numpties!

I hope it never happens, but if one day an unreasonable person puts a gun to my head and asks who I�d prefer as a friend � Nasri or F�bregas � I think I�d take the former.

Here�s why – I reckon most footballers are quite difficult to get on with. All that money at such a young age must make them feel a bit too important. And the drive that gets them to the top of their sport means their minds probably don�t work like everybody else�s.

Early on they need to decide between friends and career. As adults they uproot their families and drag them around the world with them. And that�s before we get to fidelity in relationships.

The thing about Nasri is that he�s forthright and he won�t sugarcoat it for Arsenal fans; he left because he wants to win trophies in a team in which more talented players would do the work for him, and was able achieve that at a club that has spent the last four years �building� the most expensive squad ever in English football.

Man City were always going to win the title eventually. If building a winning team is like bridging a ravine, then City have done it by filling the hole with the expensive wreckage of a succession of collapsed bridges. And sorry to get all righteous, but if you look closely at the mess you might even spot a few thousand migrant workers from India and the Philippines.

Anyway, back to our two favourite sons. Nasri like most footballers is unsentimental, disloyal and headstrong. And so is F�bregas, but at least one is honest. While Nasri�s agent, harbouring years of bitterness since the Marseille match-fixing scandal, was waging a personal war against Ars�ne Wenger, Cesc was pussyfooting us with a kind of soft strike.

Because bloody hell, that chronic hamstring knack cleared itself up pretty quick. Within days of his transfer he was on the pitch for Barcelona. And since then he�s stayed fit all season, unctuously claiming his love for Arsenal, probably out of some fixation with being wanted, even by the people he stepped on.

Why am I dredging this up now? Well that is the scene that faced the manager as he planned Arsenal�s 2011-12 season. A flaky captain feigning injury to get a move, and one of the stars of the previous season, also desperate to leave, being used as a pawn in Jean-Pierre Bern�s� scheme to cause as much trouble as possible for his former rival.

They were drawn out, for different reasons, and no doubt demanded all of our administrative resources. When they were finally resolved, as late as possible, we had to get to work and find replacements with the clock ticking. Yes, it was a trolley dash, but we�d figured out the shopping list a long time before. Looking back, only Park�s dramatic hotel raid and kidnap seems like a bit of a punt.

By this point though, the club�s youngsters were stumbling through a brutal fixture list. Udinese are formidable opponents to meet in a qualification stage that in the past had given us teams like FC Twente and Celtic. No weaker for having sold their stars, Udinese are now the third-best team in Italy.

I don�t need to remind you who we had to play in the Premiership and what the score lines were in August and September. It might seem implausible to you, but we really did lose to Liverpool during those difficult weeks.

All of this � losing two important players, trying to get the newer players to integrate into the side, and facing disapproval from most quarters – has made the achievements of the manager and the team since then more impressive. No, we didn�t win a trophy, but I think Arsenal fans are a bit more realistic about the Premier League pecking order now.

When you�re in a league with Manchester United, who are the big worldwide football brand � from which they derive commercial revenue the likes of which the sport has never seen; or when you�re battling Chelsea and Manchester City, who have spent the GDP of developing nations in recent years; it pays to take a little perspective.

And I�m no prophet of the past. I knew the team would improve, but in October I was worried where we were going to end up. I think everybody was. Every time Wenger faced the press he was asked if he was going to resign. At one point they were wondering if he was worried about relegation. He had to cope with all that and keep the team focused on fighting its way back up the table.

Arsenal fans recognised that the situation was grave, and also responded. Whenever I was at the ground last season it felt like everyone was digging in together. In 2011-12 the stadium felt more like home than ever, to me at least.

In the end the turnaround was pretty quick. We were near the top by Christmas, but after that the injuries began to bite. We had to cope without our full-backs and their replacements for three months. Football boffins like Jonathan Wilson have banged on about how important wide defenders are, but I never took them too seriously until we had none.

I�m not sure, but I think in a spending league we sit around fourth or perhaps fifth in the table behind Liverpool. Our wages are higher than Tottenham�s but for Arsenal players, European football isn�t an aspiration; it�s home. We don�t well up when we hear the Champions League theme before matches; for us it�s just the ambient noise on another midweek evening. And it�s been like this for 15 years straight.

So to wrap up, I don�t think footballers would make great friends, but this season more than any other rammed home the fact that in spite of all appearances they are actually human beings. And there isn�t a football fan around who wouldn�t like to see guys like Abidal, Muamba and Petrov playing the game they love again as soon as possible.