Would anything less than the league title be considered a successful season?
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Martin from insidearsenal's post on winning the FA Cup will not be a successful season made me ponder a few things. Although I disagree with the article, I feel the FA Cup has never been a priority for Wenger in his 11 year reign. In fact, I remember during our unbeaten season, he rested Titi in the Fa Cup semis, AGAINST MAN UTD! If that doesnt say how much of a priority the FA Cup is...
Anyway, it raised another question? Would anything less than the league title be considered a successful season?
With Liverpool making the CL finals for the 2nd time in 3 seasons despite playing quite badly both season, the CL has now become more of a cup title, a competition where 'luck' is very important. Those days, during the domination of Real Madrid, every club would dream of a CL final but since Porto's trashing of Monaco, Liverpool winning in 05' despite only being the 5th best team in England and also (this is hard to admit), Arsenal's 06' finale against Barca despite having a horrible season the CL doesnt appeal to me as much. The CL has lost its glory, thats what I'm trying to say.
Seriously, if we had beaten the Russians at Wembley during the Carling Cup finals, would that have made last season a successful one? Some gooners are saying that since we have not won the title for 3 seasons now and finishing 4th for the 2nd time, we should lower our expectations accordingly. I disagree, I feel Chelsea are moving backwards since they started playing 4-4-2, Chelsea under Mourinho built those 2 title winning season from a strong defense and last season, being more attacking minded to make room for Sheva made their defense weaker. Also, Im willing to bet $100 that Drogba will never score that many goals in a season for the rest of his career. Man Utd are signing players but these are players for the future, Man Utd are gonna keep playing Giggs and Scholes next season and Liverpool will never have a consistent first team. Arsenal have team chemistry and that is a very important ingredient in winning the league, just ask the untouchables!
Despite the top 2 ending the season more than 20 points ahead of 3rd and 4th, on one weekend last season, when Chelsea visited Anfield and Man Utd visited Emirates, it was proven that the only difference between these sides is consistency. So why lower expectations? In fact, if anything Arsenal should take advantage of the fact that the other big 4 clubs are rebuilding while Arsenal have rebuilt.
Will I be happy if we finished 2nd? No.
Click the comments button to condemn me all you like. :)
Anyway, it raised another question? Would anything less than the league title be considered a successful season?
With Liverpool making the CL finals for the 2nd time in 3 seasons despite playing quite badly both season, the CL has now become more of a cup title, a competition where 'luck' is very important. Those days, during the domination of Real Madrid, every club would dream of a CL final but since Porto's trashing of Monaco, Liverpool winning in 05' despite only being the 5th best team in England and also (this is hard to admit), Arsenal's 06' finale against Barca despite having a horrible season the CL doesnt appeal to me as much. The CL has lost its glory, thats what I'm trying to say.
Seriously, if we had beaten the Russians at Wembley during the Carling Cup finals, would that have made last season a successful one? Some gooners are saying that since we have not won the title for 3 seasons now and finishing 4th for the 2nd time, we should lower our expectations accordingly. I disagree, I feel Chelsea are moving backwards since they started playing 4-4-2, Chelsea under Mourinho built those 2 title winning season from a strong defense and last season, being more attacking minded to make room for Sheva made their defense weaker. Also, Im willing to bet $100 that Drogba will never score that many goals in a season for the rest of his career. Man Utd are signing players but these are players for the future, Man Utd are gonna keep playing Giggs and Scholes next season and Liverpool will never have a consistent first team. Arsenal have team chemistry and that is a very important ingredient in winning the league, just ask the untouchables!
Despite the top 2 ending the season more than 20 points ahead of 3rd and 4th, on one weekend last season, when Chelsea visited Anfield and Man Utd visited Emirates, it was proven that the only difference between these sides is consistency. So why lower expectations? In fact, if anything Arsenal should take advantage of the fact that the other big 4 clubs are rebuilding while Arsenal have rebuilt.
Will I be happy if we finished 2nd? No.
Click the comments button to condemn me all you like. :)
posted by highbury1913 @ 11:45 pm | |
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