Traditionally (only once, actually), I ensure the blog has an end-of-season review on 30th May. On the next day, I put up a ‘Season Blogged’ – yes, two Gunnerblog ripoffs – and consider the season ended.
However, with Jamie Vardy and the EUROs rapidly approaching, needless to say I all but forgot about these fictional deadlines I set for myself. So here they are; tardy as it may seem, the winners and losers of 2015/16.
Best player of the season:
NOTE: This award is handed to the player who put in the best number of performances throughout the campaign. It is given to the person with the most talent, as well as the most likeable personality.
The recipient of this intangible award is so obvious that it seems futile to try and build it up. Mesut Ozil‘s season played out almost exactly as we wanted it to, assisting goals, creating chances and even making the odd unexpected tackle. To say our squad is way beyond his league and that we’re entirely reliant on him is a bit of a stretch, but at the same time, it’s hard to fathom where our season might have gone were he not up to the races.
Credit to Petr Cech, Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin for solid and progressive seasons, but I have a thing for appreciating attacking play more than defensive ones. It’s also worth noting that despite being our best player, Ozil had unavoidable holes in his game. The very fact that he yet won it tells you all you need to know about how our individuals fared.
Worst player of the season:
NOTE: This award is handed to the player who has had the least impact and is becoming a liability to the team. Also in consideration should be the number of performances the player has made. Mikel Arteta, for example, cannot be a candidate for this award since he’s hardly featured.
So many to choose from, yet the answer for me could not be more symbolically obvious. I had initially penciled Theo Walcott as the letdown of the season, before realizing there was no one in the squad a bigger disappointment than him. Despite being paid all the millions in the world and given plenty of chances to thrive, Walcott’s promptly gone backwards to the point where it’s very difficult to see him reignite his stasis.
It’s a shame since many of us have found ourselves emotionally invested in him (much like with Arsene Wenger too). He seems like a genuinely nice guy and a likeable bloke, but as a football player, he just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore.
Revelation of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the person who, despite all odds, rectifies a lot of his faults, shocks the critics and becomes an integral member of the team.
Despite the high this season ended on, looking back there were very few players who took massive strides. Ozil and Bellerin were some of them, but we all knew they had the quality, and it didn’t feel much of a surprise. Mohammed Elneny and Joel Campbell performed above and beyond what was expected, but probably didn’t have as meteoric a rise as expected.
Alex Iwobi, though, definitely was someone who sprung right out of the blue. An academy product on barely a thousand pounds per week, the hunger in him was apparent by a set of consistent displays in the FA Cup, earning him a brief promotion to the Premier League. He faded towards the end of the season – as did everyone – but did enough to win this prize.
Letdown of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the player fans had high hopes of, but ultimately failed to live up to the hype. He didn’t necessarily have a bad season, but could have, and should have done much better.
There were a fair few, that’s for sure. Nearly everyone’s performance levels dropped a few notches when the pressure was on, something too typically Arsenal. Olivier Giroud faced a goal drought, Aaron Ramsey was abject, and stalwarts like Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers were nowhere to be seen.
My ‘winner’, though, is Gabriel Paulista. Signed to provide a faster alternative to Per Mertesacker, the Brazilian instead made a bunch of insipid, rookie errors when given an extended run in the team. His current predicament certainly provides cause for concern for Arsenal’s defensive coaching setup.
Best match of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the most entertaining match, or the one that provided most happiness and optimism.
To my mind, only a handful stand out. There was the obvious 2-0 win over Bayern Munich, a superb 3-0 victory over Olympiacos and the last day shenanigans against Aston Villa.
My winner was the efficient 3-0 dismantling of Manchester United. The reason it edged above the false dawn against Leicester City was because it was much more of a blueprint of how Arsenal should be. An opening blitzkrieg with some beautiful goals in front of a rocking Emirates Stadium, followed by a professional see-out of the game in the second half. The fact that we did it to United, the old foe, makes it all the more sweet.
Worst match of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the most anguishing, disappointing or damaging game for the club. Perhaps also one that rubs salt in old wounds.
My, was this hard to decide. There were the Champions League losses in the group stage, some ‘off-days’ like that time at St. Mary’s, and end-of-season collapses against United, Swansea (almost a tradition) and Watford.
Somewhat unexpectedly, I picked that drab 0-0 draw against Sunderland. In essence, this probably was Arsenal’s worst game of the season. The football was poor, the passion was absent, chances were few and Cech actually had to make some saves to ensure we left with a point. There are few games I can’t wait for Arsenal to ‘do away with’. Sadly, this was easily one of them.
Highlight of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the moment, the person, the action, or the decision that had a vastly positive impact on the team, a moment that the season will be remembered by.
To me, St. Totteringham’s Day quite easily takes the cake. To see the hugely overrated media-mollycoddled Tiny Totts utterly lose the plot and not even manage to get five points from four games (????????????????????), culminating in a 5-1 loss to 10-men relegated Newcastle United was written in the stars. Nabbing second was obviously some quality sugarcoating over a terrible season, but to see us finish above Spurs at a time when phrases like “negative spiral” and “power shift” were about to reappear is simply hilarious.
I get that we need to set our sights above a small club like Tottenham (and yes, they are a small club) but it’s moments like these that will remain truly unique in the life and laughs of an Arsenal fan. We really should have finished higher than a point above Spurs, but in a season where it felt they would race ahead of us and use that as consolation for failing to chase Leicester, it was marvelous to see that achievement nabbed from them too.
Lowlight of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the moment, the person, the action or the decision that had a negative impact on the game, and broadly the season.
It took a while to decide, but in the end, no failure was greater than losing the Premier League, especially after being handed the miracle of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool writing themselves off as contenders. Leicester City’s win will always be a special moment in football, but it certainly wasn’t special for an Arsenal fan, because we knew we had bottled the easiest chance of a league title since English football was branded.
Plenty are wondering if we will sign the requisite players to give us a good start for next season, but if last season was any lesson, it was that we need to work on the way we finish them.
Goal of the season:
NOTE: This award goes to the most technically perfect goal or one scored after some sublime passing. However, the importance of the goal with respect to the game (or season) is a major factor.
It could have been the two Alexis goals against Manchester United, or the Aaron Ramsey backheel. It may also have been Theo Walcott’s rifled curler past Joe Hart, Flamini’s screamer at Spurs, or the goal against Bayern Munich where Hector Bellerin ran like Barry Allen.
However, my favourite goal is something that sticks with me. It probably won’t even be on the top 10 list of Arsenal’s goals this season, and from a technical point of view, it wasn’t even the best goal of the day! Even so, the gravity of the situation, the quality of the player and the general sucker-punchiness of the situation awards a most unexpected goal the winner.
When Mesut Ozil scored Arsenal’s second goal past David de Gea, euphoria ensued. Almost immediately after Sanchez had flicked the ball past de Gea, United were trying to build something from the back and recover. Cue one of my favourite moments from last season, when Santi Cazorla nabbed the ball off some bloke, quickly played it to Alexis, who flicked it onto the path of Ozil. Mesut released Walcott, Theo returned it to the German, and Ozil made de Gea look like a standing idiot by easily slotting it past him.
Don’t you just love them? The kind of goals that leave keepers standing foolishly, looking like they have no idea of what just happened? It’s why Andrei Arshavin’s goal against Barcelona was one to cherish. It’s why this goal – coming off the back of Louis van Gaal looking like a right twat – was for me, one of the iconic moments of our season.
On some level, the manner of the goal reminded me that as an Arsenal fan, not everything can be predicted. Sure, Arsene Wenger’s predictability as a football manager or Arsenal’s predictability on the way they operate is not that hard to discern, but it’s moments like these that provide gleeful anomalies and make supporting the club worth it. I’m sure there are many other better goals than my pick – and feel free to debate them – but on a purely emotional level, this goal really resonated with me.
Picture of the season:
NOTE: This award is given to the most iconic photograph in Arsenal’s 2015/16 season.
That time when it felt like the Emirates Stadium was united in inevitable crowning glory. That time when a single seismic moment gave Arsenal the illusion of feeling like a footballing giant.
That picture when Danny Welbeck lost himself among the crowd after nudging an Ozil cross past Kasper Schmeichel, 95 minutes into the game.
Oh, how things could have worked out.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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