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Why last season was a success and Wenger can lead us to the title again

Written on 17 June 2016. Posted in YouWrite

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January 2 2016

At the half way point of the season, we found ourselves top of the table with Leicester 2nd, Man City 3rd, Tottenham 4th and Man United 5th. We were the bookies’ joint favourites: Arsenal 11/8, Man City at 11/8, Tottenham 8/1, Leicester 14/1 and Man United at 25/1. The media hype helped it to feel as though one hand was reaching for the trophy and it was at that point the Arsenal title ‘Great Expectations bubble’ inflated as hope turned into real expectation.

February 14 2016

‘Super Sunday’ was a big turning point in the season. After a great win at home against Leicester we were tied in the league with Tottenham 2 points behind Leicester and 4 points in front of Man City. It was then we became clear favourites for the title with the odds standing at: Arsenal 13/8, Sp*rs 5/2, Leicester 11/4, Man City 7/1, Man Utd 100/1.

At that point, it was no longer hope, we were fully EXPECTED TO WIN the trophy and the media knives were sharpened with quips of ‘…if Arsenal can’t win the title now then they never will’.

February 23 2016

I believe I can identify the exact moment when our ‘Great Expectations bubble’ burst – a moment that was to define our season. Around the 70^th minute of our Champions League match with Barcelona I had turned to my neighbours and said “Do you know what? I think we are better than Barcelona — we can win this”. Then, in the 71st minute, Barcelona cruelly and lethally broke and Messi surgically scored. Flamini then came on and gifted them a penalty. In the midst of the silenced crowd you could almost hear the air gush out of our expectation bubble to leave a shrunken, little balloon drifting aimlessly across the Emirates pitch. Players, manager and fans were all stunned and disconsolate.

March 4th 2016

Something had changed after that unfortunate defeat — the team’s self-belief and confidence had been severely damaged. 5 days later we lost away to Man U and then 3 days after that we lost at home to Swansea. 3 consecutive defeats in just 7 days! Our collapse was sudden and dramatic as we went out of the title chase, the FA Cup and the European Cup.

We had dropped down to 3rd place and 3rd favourites behind Leicester and Sp*rs. There was talk of mathematical chances but we knew it was over and were resigned to a battle for 4^th.

May 16^th

By this stage there had been a mini revival in our fortunes. Leicester easily won the title by 10 points but Arsenal managed to hilariously and amazingly salvage some pride by beating Sp*rs to second place on the final day of the season by a single point.

There was much joy and happiness at the final whistle against Villa as we turned our attentions to celebrating a 21^st consecutive St. Totteringham’s Day. Whilst that joyous day temporarily eased the pain it did not erase the disappointment of our failure to grasp a golden opportunity to win the title.