What Did the Last 3 Weeks Teach Us?

Apologies for the lack of recent posts...I should have said beforehand that I would be out for three weeks, but I didn't, so apologies to regular readers. Anyway, I'm back now, and ready to review those last three weeks of the season. Specifically, what did we learn from them?

The game against Chelsea was first; I did do a full match report on it, but I feel I should point out once again what I think we should have learned from the match. We learned just how good this Arsenal team are, and at the same time how unlucky. I don't think there can be any doubt that we dominated the game against the Chavs, and yet we were battered 4-1. How can something like that happen and it not be bad luck?

Sure, blame the defense, but remember that we were missing three of our first choice back five. No team missing that many quality defenders is going to defend at a top level. I get so tired of hearing how bad our defense is, when if you actually look at it our defense is quite excellent. We hardly conceded at all in the months from January to March, and then when the injuries came we started defending badly again. How can one honestly expect a patched-up defense to play as well as a first choice one? It's unrealistic and ridiculous.

Chelsea, then, taught us that football is not always fair, and that anti-football can indeed win the day sometimes. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality of modern football. At least we can take comfort from the fact that we dominated the game and with some better finishing surely would've won.

Man Utd was next up, the game where the Mancs sealed their Premiership crown. Well, United were simply toothless, and for 90 minutes we were the better team, with more energy, more shots, better passing, and much better possession. We really did deserve to get something out of the game, but I was simply proud to watch the lads play so well against the team that is supposedly so much better than us. They weren't on the day.

The Stoke game to end the season restored some pride more than anything else. There was surely cause for concern before the game began that our makeshift defense might have problems with the Delap long-throw, but in the end it had little effect on the game. We went out and battered Stoke, completely destroying them within 45 minutes. The second half was always going to be a stroll in the park, and we didn't need to create any big chances to be impressive: we simply had to enjoy the last 45 minutes in the Emirates sunshine.

Ultimately I think what we learned in the last three weeks was that this team really are not far off the top in England. The league table may say otherwise, but we outplayed Man Utd and Chelsea and were very unlucky to get the results we did, and then we destroyed Stoke in surely one of the most comfortable games of the season. We learned that this Arsenal team is a good one, and if we can hold it together this summer and get a decent start to next season, we can once again be a top challenger for honours.

Thanks for reading; I'm planning a multi-part season review in the next few days, and to help it along, I hope you'll all vote on our new poll on the right-hand side of the page, asking you who was the best player of our season. I'll review my picks in part of the upcoming review, and look at yours as well. In the meantime, make sure you check out our new Twitter page, and watch this space for more.

Fab 4