I think it’s fair to say that precious few expected Arsenal to have such a buoyant end to the season. Indeed, had time restrictions not prevented me from completing an Aston Villa preview, you might have read a pretty soul-sucking and depressing post yesterday.
There were relatively monumental occasions, such as the departures of Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky. Despite their shortcomings and the necessity to cut them loose, many Arsenal fans will agree that at different points of time, all three of them offered an X-factor to the side that Arsene Wenger counted on. Arteta, along with Alex Song and Robin van Persie, was instrumental in steadying a ship ready to nosedive like the Titanic. Flamini was part of the Hleb-Fabregas midfield axis that so nearly won us the league in 2008. And the fourth member of that axis – Rosicky – twice resurrected from his hospital bed to scrape us top-fours when it really didn’t seem like we deserved them.
On the pitch, it’s obvious they won’t be missed. Their legs have grown too old for the game and it’s been clear for a while that our midfield needs more grit and gumption (perhaps Granit too?). However, to say that their presence as dressing room figures has been minimal just isn’t true. Like it or not, in the past decade, these were the guys who wrapped jackets around timid young players. They lived Arsenal as much as we did, if not loved it. Arteta’s emotions after the final goal of his career proves that.
Much before that, however, it looked like we were going to end the season as tamely as speculated. Olivier Giroud scored a header early in the day after some terrible defending, but after that the Wengerball and the indecision began taking its toll, punctured by small bursts of excitement whenever Santi Cazorla or Jack Wilshere got the ball. Even after Wijnaldum took the lead for Newcastle in the 19th minute, it didn’t seem like an unlikely story was panning out.
I guess we should have seen the signs when Giroud got his hat-trick. He’s found goals hard to come by in the second half of the season, and I’d possibly advocate his sale in the summer if the price was right, but it’s good to see him get himself back into some form again. Part of that may be because I’m a huge France supporter and I need him to deliver, but there you go.
Doing our job against Aston Villa was elementary enough, but my word was it a surprise when Tottenham did theirs. When the right-back of a relegated 10-men side slotted past Hugo Lloris to extend their lead to 5-1, you just knew a story like this couldn’t be written. It’s fair game to forgive Tottenham’s title challenge disintegrating because that’s not what Pocchetino was set out to do this season, but failing to get five points from four games? I didn’t know old habits died this hard.
I for one didn’t hesitate to burst into laughter when Tottenham refused to make the most of that opportunity. Sure, you could say that on the whole, Spurs have made more progress than Arsenal and that they have more of a plan than we do. You could also cast this moment as a warning sign of some shift in power (harrumph).
But honestly, on a day like this, who cares? If you don’t find pleasure in watching your hated rivals sink to unimaginable new lows, you’re in danger of not enjoying the sport ever. Tottenham would have laughed at us were the situation reversed, and could you blame them? Banter was the very bedrock of football popularity, and to see it shine in our favour is simply magnificent.
Granted, there are managerial and player issues to solve, and regular readers will know that I more than understand them. Describe the ecstasy of yesterday, it is hard to brand this season a success. But it is moments like these – akin to the time when Tottenham got food poisoning and Thierry Henry absolutely nicked fourth – that truly stand unique as an Arsenal fan. They’ve been few and far between this season, but when they do arrive, it’s best to make the most out of them.
There will surely be critics and rival fans who will ridicule celebrating a second place finish and records for Mesut Ozil and Petr Cech. What tosh. The season has been trophyless, yes, but dissing a tale that included a farewell goal, a Tottenham slip-up and a runners-up medal is out of order. Second is something Arsenal have never had for over ten years, and it’s something Manchesters City, United and Chelsea would have readily taken. We should have done better, but really, we could have done much worse.
If not celebrating a title victory, yesterday was an excellent surrogate to get the fans together and share something special. This campaign has been trying and testing at the best of times, so to see it sign off on a relative high is great. The result means that yet again, Arsene Wenger has refurnished a platform for the club to succeed. A lot of the big teams will be in transition next season, and if we play our cards right, we could take advantage of that.
Will we? That’s a question that cannot be approached on a cheery day like this.
P.S. Have a feeling that the controlled explosion at Old Trafford would have been the father of the thought, were the police not so efficient. Hats off to them, they did their job well.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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