Perhaps it was fitting for Arsenal and the way this season has gone that the game which effectively ended the fading title hopes for another year was pretty much the perfect definition of the season as a whole, as explained in a Sky Sports report. As the writer put it, the early promise, the collapse in the middle and the comeback just not quite enough to beat West Ham sums up our whole campaign.
Perhaps it was also fitting that it was against the same team that inflicted that shock opening day defeat and started to make the Arsenal fans have doubts after a perfect pre-season and Community Shield victory over the Chelsea of Jose Mourinho. Back then we all took that win as a great sign after Chelsea’s romp to the title the previous year but that loss to us was just the start of their problems this season.
Just like in the first half of the season, not only did we look like winning the game at Upton Park today, we played the sort of football that suggested we could be champions, with Ozil pulling the strings like some kind of footballing magician, until it all went spectacularly wrong in the middle section. Some dreadful defending from the Gunners, a bit like the Boxing Day battering in Southampton, left us reeling and when the comeback did start it was too late.
And just like the season as a whole, this game should make the boss realise he needs to act in the transfer market if he does not want the same thing happening yet again next year. Yes we may have had some bad luck with the injury list and some referee decisions but these things happen and surely having a stronger squad would have helped.
The question is, will the prof accept his mistakes and do something about them?