The Perfect End To An Imperfect Season
May 25th, 2009 by 'holic
Memories of spring games past filled the old grey matter yesterday morning. Shorts and shades were donned, excellent company was enjoyed on the train along with a half-decent glass of cabernet sauvignon to prepare the digestive tract for the onslaught to come.
Friends old and new were greeted and Guinness had to be drunk quickly in the pub garden with the sun at its height. Surely a sunshine performance from the Gunners would ensue, and so it did.
In truth the game was over inside twenty minutes. James ‘Kevin’ Beattie (how’s that, Ollie?) diverted a Cesc cross into his own net for the opener in ten. Six minutes later van Persie was brought down by Shawcross and despatched the penalty with aplomb. The cheering had barely died down when Abou Diaby got on the end of a van Persie free-kick to head a third.
It would be easy to dismiss this as an end of season contest with little meaning. There was certainly a great deal of significance for Vito Mannone, making his debut in goal. His only exercise of the afternoon was to pick the ball out of the net on the half-hour when Fuller was tripped by Denilson and smashed the penalty home himself. I was still trying to work out how Stoke had got that far upfield!
Arsenal’s domination of the opening half was complete when van Persie added to his penalty with a sweet finish. 4-1 at half-time. The team talks were simple. Tony Pulis responded to being three down by instructing all eleven of the visitors to remain behind the ball in the second-half. Arsene, an avid follower of the ‘holic pound, drummed into his team the need to maintain the scoreline and not run up the cricket score that was being threatened. Bless you, monsieur Wenger, if only I had a few more bob than just the fiver on my prediction.
So three quarters of an hour of stalemate followed. Long before the end I was musing over how on earth we had lost to these shambolic opponents at the Britannia. Then the depth of our performance struck me. I may be wrong, but I cannot remember Stoke having a throw-in within range of goal. That was surely more than good fortune?
What followed was the question that had vexed me pre-match. How many would stay for the post match circuit by the players and manager? I was delighted to see the majority stay on to offer their appreciation. Questions aplenty will start to surface in the coming days and weeks, but this was a day to recognise the efforts of a squad we all agree is limited to some degree.
All that remained was to retire to the pub to check out what had happened at the bottom of the table. Sadly the cringeworthy Brown and Horton survived, but I suppose that gives us the opportunity to share some thoughts with them when they return to the Grove next term. I wonder if anyone who has a seat behind the dugout would care to treat me for that one!
Can I just take this opportunity as well to thank you all for reading, and contributing, this season. The comments are a significant part of any blog. I’m mindful of not wanting to just churn over the same rumours and downright lies over the summer months, so if you have anything you would really like to see included to take your mind off things, let me know and I will see what I can do.
Cheers ‘holics.
21 Responses to “The Perfect End To An Imperfect Season”
a guiness for me holic’
this season certainly flew past quickly
and i’m really gonna miss newcastle
……will drink 2 the victory….will still 2 ma stuff though….tu mosi che ba holic….in zambia old man!….cheerz….2 hope!
dunno holic i guess you could do a bit about which youth players might step up next season?or season-long player ratings… thats just two pieces out of a long summer full of media shite
tea?
Have we bought anyone yet?
4 – 1 …as you said. Good stuff. Love the ‘Grove in the sunshine, get such a lift walking out onto the stands, good voice from the fans too…laughed at our response to the Stoke ‘see you next season’ – funny stuff.
Thanks for your thoughts this season mate, much obliged.
will have some gin and tonic holic…lets hope we add in 2 or 3 good players and we can rule europe!
Ideas: I agree with the fellow who said maybe some coverage of the youths, especially who’ll be involved in pre-season as a glimpse of the future.
Also, maybe a discussion of what Glazidis meant the other week when he was talking about long term planning at the club? There was me thinking that the yut’s and the stadium already had us ahead of the game but concerning his questioning from the shareholders he said that when he came in there were no specific long term goals or planning for the club. Just wondered how we’ll expand and move forward from here.
Also, yeah, a great season of coverage 🙂
Cheers for the good work over the season, ‘holic. Much appreciated.
Hopefully the close season won’t be too painful.
Thanks ‘holic. Yours is always a must-read blog. You’ve been one of the few voices of reason in what’s been a difficult season.
I’ll have a pint of cider, with a side order of one or two new signings.
Two excellent posts to finish the season, ‘Holic. You have a very fine ability to create a picture of the atmosphere you’re enjoying. Also, throughout the last several months you managed to maintain a great degree of objectivity and perspective of reasonableness, long after many of your peers had thrown the toys out and jumped on the “everything is wrong and the sky is falling” bandwagon. For that and much more, you’re at the forefront of my “Goods” for the season. Thank you for the time you take and the good work you do.
GOODS
– Goonerholic; where a fine time is had by all
– Entertaining season. I enjoyed all of the ten matches I went to
– Winning the bronze medal in Europe
– Coming within 6 minutes of the FA Cup Final
– A solid qualification for next season’s CL
– The development very evident in a superb young squad
– Emergence of Fabianski, Song, Denilson, Gibbs, Vela
– Arrival of Nasri, Ramsey, Arshavin (and Coquelin, Bischoff)
– Number of goals we scored with RvP, Ade and Bendy in the van
– Very audible travel fans who got right behind the team
– Eduardo’s (albeit brief) return and two great goals
– Eboue’s performance at right back
– Cesc’s captaincy (he needs to be needed)
BADS
– Luck, the ball rarely rolled for us
– Injuries to Almunia, Gallas, Cliché, Cesc, Ade, Silvestre, Theo, Dudu
– Non-appearance of Rosicky
– Hiking from the US East Coast to Le Grove (Stortford is easier)
– Exit from the CL
– Series of nil-nils when Ade wasn’t available to “make it happen”
– Emergence of third rate blogs scribbled by pimple squeezers
– Constant barrage of AW doesn’t know what he’s doing from same
– Number of goals we conceded
– William Gallas absence in last few, critical games. Game changer.
UGLIES
– Sitting beside the purple faced eye popper who booed Bendtner ON!
– Purple eye popper and his likes’ tirades against the youngsters
– Booing Eboue off. (Unbelievble)
– The long booing sequence at the end of the Fulham game
– Fans who couldn’t take CL defeat; emptied Emirates after 60 mins
– Same fans turned up next day in blogland and pilloried team
– Shareholders who’ shares have increased from $400 to $10000
– Same shareholders pouring rat vomit on AW for geriatic hire
– The campaign to oust Adebayor
That’s it from me until September. Not sure I can take three months of idele speculation. See you then. For what it’s worth I speculate that:
– Adebayor will go (if to Chelsea; Kalou part of the deal)
– Ryan Babel will arrive and be played through the middle
– AW will try again to buy Inler (who’ll stay in Ude)
– We’ll buy a centre-back, buggered if I know who.
– Silvestre will go home to France and
– Willim Gallas……will always be William Gallas
Time to move from big balls to small white ones. Enjoy the summer
Congrats. You well deserved a winning bet at the end of this season.
I’ll contend myself with a single malt from your cellar.
Oh, and I didn’t know that James Beattie was nicknamed ‘Kevin’.
Although I can see the original one now :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Beattie
As he was a defender, was he famous for own goals perchance?
Trust me Ollie, first thing this morning it was something of a miracle I could remember who we were playing against, never mind if they were fielding defenders from thirty years ago 😉
Thank you all for the kind words. BtM, you will be missed during the summer. Do I take it your alter-egos will also be absent for a few weeks? 🙂
I heard a rumour that CB went out on a bender of magnificent proportions, had several TC,GM and B’s too may and is likely to be unconscious until kick-off time for the Charity Shield. Chris THA is said be off on a basic creative writing for beginners who’ve never been to the Emirates and who need deep dermatalogical help with the plooks on their backside. I am completely oblivious as to the truth of these two rumours.
Enjoy and we’ll see you back here at the start of next year’s magnificent season. Outside of your writing it hasn’t been an easy season for you off the field on the injuries front. I’m hoping the home squad is nearing full fitness and will be ready and kicking for the challenges ahead.
The ‘holic pound is now a fiver?
Fair play.
Normally it’s more, Pip. That’s probably why normally it loses!
By and large a decent finish to the season. Shame about not making it to the finals of the CL and FA Cup.
Well said BtM – nice post.
It seems as though AW is going to look around for at least a couple of players in the summer going by what he has already said which is in contrast to his public stance in 2007 and 2008. Whether the right players will be available at a price we can afford to pay remains to be seen. I suspect that Ade and Sylvestre will be off – I hope Ade commands a high price – and probably some of the youngsters as well.
Thanks ‘Holic for the best blog out there. Always objective and respectful to the team and staff – even in criticism of same.
Role on August.
Yeah thanks ‘Holic. Always a beacon of common sense, insight and reason in a landscape overrun this year by an hysterical media and unsettled fans, compounded by some underwhelming performances on the pitch, it must be said.
Have a relaxing, sybaritic summer – you’ve earned it.
Nice post BTM.
A coke for me Holic. Thanks for yet another cool piece of writing. To another season with hopefully the pride restored at every level at the club! They are a few little things we have to take care of like those arrogant talking c*nts in the media and the rival clubs.
My only gripes with Wenger this season is 1) mix up the suit from time to time please instead of always wearing that grey one with the red tie and 2) I would have liked to have seen much more of Carlos Vela this season. I believe he is a World Class player. Sometimes I would try to connect telepathically with Wenger through my TV screen, repeating “bring on Vela, bring on Vela” over and over, then I’d get all excited to see Adebayor or Walcott trodding off only to see Niklas “Best in the World” Bendtner standing on the touchline. I enjoyed reading your blog this season Mr Holic. It’s the only one I read. Thanks you.
Thanks ‘holic. You’re words of wisdom this season were refreshing whilst the usual shit was thrown around. You really belie your years 😉
I’ll have a Jagerbomb, and await the next season with optimism and enthusiasm…..