What would be your measuring stick for success next season?
Posted by Chris Rivers on July 1st, 2009
Having been trophy-less for the past four seasons it is becoming difficult to measure the success of the current team. Obviously they were a long way off the Premier League title this season but having reached the semi finals of the Champions League and FA Cup they were marginally close to shaking off their trophy-less tag.
Every football fan would love to see their team better the season they had before and gradually improve as a squad. Having finished 18 points adrift of leaders Manchester united, Arsenal have left a lot of room for improvement and every fan would love to see this gap bridged. But for the Arsenal faithful, it isn’t just the gap they want bridged
- they would love to see Arsene Wenger win another Premiership crown to add to the three he has already won.
Can you see Arsenal overturning an 18 point gap on the season previous? I find it hard to believe Arsenal will be able to outsmart Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool next season. To overturn such a significant gap in one season would be extraordinary and I’ll be measuring next season’s success on how competitive they are amongst
the top four.
Having been mildly successful in the FA Cup and Champions League this season, reaching the semis in both, they were close to having a successful season. However, the ‘Premier League never lies’ so they say, and over the course of the season the table always reflect what position the club is in. With their defensive frailties throughout the
season it’s fair to say fourth was a realistic outcome on the season as a whole.
Arsene has strengthened the defence with the signing of Thomas Vermaelen and if reports across various newspapers are to be believed he is in the hunt for a holding midfielder also. If they manage to keep hold of their core squad as well (which is looking likely as the summer progresses) the first team squad should be stronger than this time last year.
With two key areas hopefully being strengthened this summer, what are your expectations for next season and what would you regard as a successful season?
July 1st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Either a Premiership, FA Cup, or Champs League crown would be a reasonable marker of success.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Nothing short of the Quadruple will be acceptable.
I’m kidding.
Deep down, Arsene knows he could reasonably have won the FA Cup last season and that would have placated an awful lot of doubters. Now in my view, the doubters can fuck right off; if you can’t accept defeat, you don’t really support a football team and you are by definition a ‘glory hunter’. But that bit of silverware would have been an interesting twist at the end of a particularly eventful season.
Although I don’t want to, I have to agree about the Premiership. We won’t match MU, C or L for squad depth (or bank debt, while were at it) and that does seem to be the deciding factor in the league title. But one of the cups is ours for the taking; which one depends on Arsene’s willingness to accept defeat in one competition and focus on the remaining goals.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Just like fourstar mentioned above, I think winning the Premier League would be really awesome but it still feels a little out of reach. At the same time, we have the other three to go for, and if we do that and win any of them, (OR ALL OF THEM) I think it would be a success. Saying that, I love Arsenal no matter what, so even if they dont win anything AGAIN, I will be bruised but definitely not battered.
Let the new season begin!! I think there are two trophies waiting for us
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:04 am
new arsenal fan here, started supporting them in their tropy less spells. what attracted me to them? style and unbelievable potential in youths, economics of wenger and the most eye catching football on the planet. this season coming is definetly going to be better. manchester will not be the big dogs as they were last few seasons, its just like what happened to arsenal. departure of teves n ronaldo is huge, but what ppl arent looking at is that Giggs and scholes jus dont have the stamina any more to impact more than 20mins on a field, for the other minutes, they must make sum new signings, unless they do so, arsenal can win the primership and FA cup, prob semis for champions league. arsenal can pick up 2trophies next season. chelsea are the biggest treats
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
i have been a supporter for many years and have loved this magnificant team
also i belive he should sign big mean men like like viera cambell and mean strickers that could scare any defence adebayor is too lazy for me nad RVP is gud but is the sort of working wid the mid field striker
rosicky and eduardo will be like new signings but mainly we need the defencr strenghted when clichy git injured we got attacked bare time and who can remember gibbs cock up
cant wait need a mean meat man and 4 me thomas is kinda small but i hope he proved me wrong
GOME ON GUNNERS!!!!!
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
well i think beating out chelsea, liv, or manu and landing in the top three would be a realistically succesful season in the epl. the FA cup i think we have potential to win; like said before we had a somewhat broken squad last year and we still made it to the semis. as far as the champions league goes im hopefull that we can make it to the top four again, but with Rmadrids RIDICULOUS spending it may be hard if we play them along the way.
But i think a trophy this season in any competition would be deemed a success and im pullin for them gunners!!
and im hopin we can get anothr signing or two to add the depth that chelsea, liv and manu have. that would almost garuntee we would be a wrecking machine and even hihg up teams would fear our speed, talent and youth
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 am
connor good point but remeber lat times galacticos where did they fair in CL WID ZIDANE RONALDO BECKMAN ETC
I THINK WE CAN WIN CL BUT ITS BEST WE GOT 4 FA AND ATLEAST COME 2ND NEXT SEASON
AND BTW U ARSENALIST GET THE PLEMIER LEAGUE FIXURES ON THIS SITE OK
July 5th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
i think we just need to win one trophy next year, this will strengthen the belief in the team to show that we can challenge for trophies and will start the ball rolling.
July 6th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Success, to me is when the keeper is able to keep enough clean sheets. Look at ManU, they have Van der sar, Chelsea has Cech. Both capable of pulling off stunning saves. When you have these kinds of keepers, it makes your team want to put in more effort to play and win. Arsenal used to have David Seaman, Mr Safe Hands… now?
July 7th, 2009 at 11:26 am
To break into the top three will be success next season. Liverpool and Chelsea were comfortably ahead of us this time, even if the points say it was closer. We will have our work cut out fending off Villa and Man City. Being realistic, a lucky cup run might bring us a trophy, but a movement of one place up the table would be a more realistic sign of success given our opposition.
July 7th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I say this every season, but this season i feel like wenger is slowly (painfully always) build the bulk of our team up. Which lets be honest thats what we needed against Chelsea and Man U in both Semis for the UCL and FA cup.
Rosicky and Eduardo and Clichy are back, Im sure hungry to place them selves back in the premiership greats. Ashavin showed us he is ready to kick arse. Vermaelen looks like a mean bastard and if the reports of us going for Cana are true then we are well on our way to winning something and hopefully shutting up all the Yids, Mancs and Chavskis.
My belief just wasnt there last season especially in the semi finals. But i do get a good feeling about this season.
Just hope Cesc dont fuck off to Barcelona just yet, and leave another Hleb/Flamani shaped hole in formation.
“Oh Arsenal we do! Arsenal We do!…………….”
July 9th, 2009 at 5:45 am
I suck dick.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
FA Cup, League, or CL Runner up or Champ.
otherwise, Fab goes, Arshavin might, and we try something else.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
this team is destined for greatness.
alot of people seem to forget that in 2008 the title nearly looked like it was ours up until a bevy of injuries hit us!
we missed the 2009 title cause of injuries to key players & impact players not eligible for certain competition
honestly we need to win something though this year or i can see this team going a completely different direction. Foreign take over, Guss Hiddink as manager & an influx of Russian players
yo J Dilla does not suck dick! that guys makes some dope beats.
we need Melo or some holding midfielder for sure! one more piece of the puzzle
July 27th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I think vermaelen is not as gud a player of being worth 11 mil pounds, they shud’ve gone for hangeland instead and how da fuk does sunderland get cana and we dont…. we needed a strong defensive midfielder who can make tough and accurate tackles, and he wuz perfect for us