There have been many discussions about Arsenal’s failings last season and how they can improve on those performances in the next campaign. Most Arsenal players think that we have improved considerably as the season progressed, and Hector Bellerin simply thinks we need to keep up our end-of-season form to figure in the title race next year.
Hector told the Star: “We didn’t do that great at the beginning of last season but we showed by the end how we can perform, that we have great players and we were really doing well as a team. So we just need to keep that momentum up for the new season and start on the right foot.
“It will be really important to start strong, to let people know that we have the same way of playing last season and can get the same results.
“We want people to know that we will be aggressive and that we are coming to fight for the title.”
Thomas Rosicky also thinks that we didn’t see the true Arsenal team until after the New Year, but agrees with Bellerin that we need to start in the same way we finished the campaign, and most importantly, maintain some consistency all year.
“I thought we would challenge last season but obviously the first half of the season was not good,” Rosicky said on Sky Sports. “We did not play well at all and it wasn’t the Arsenal style of football we were playing. You could see from January we started to play our way and it was Arsenal. Now we have to show we can produce these kind of performances for the whole season and not just for half.
“Every player realises we have to carry on that momentum,”
The Czech international has been at the club for nine years, and believes that this is the best collection of players he has seen here. “It’s definitely the strongest squad,” Rosicky continued. “Numbers-wise it’s the most talented squad I have played with.
“Is it the best team I have played in? It’s difficult to say. The 2007/08 side was a great team as well and we were top of the Premier League until February. Three or four injuries was the reason we weren’t champions that year.
“But the current squad in terms of its depth is the most talented since I’ve been here.”
That is a very telling statement from the veteran midfielder, but who better to make a comparison with our previous squads than our very own legend Thierry Henry, and he is hoping that the current crop can emulate the feats of his own generation. “It’s a difficult task to win the FA Cup back to back, but they have done that,” Thierry told Arsenal Player.
“You could see right from the start [against Villa] that Arsenal were going to win the game, and that made it easier for us fans to watch; it was less nerve-racking than the year before.
“So, the progress is there. Now, what we are waiting for is the consistency in the league, because that is very important. That is where you can judge a team, in the league.
“Having said that, our generation started by winning the cup and went on to win a double and stayed unbeaten — that is all I can hope for this group to do.”
That is all that every Arsenal fan hopes for. The signs are good for next season and we just have to maintain our supreme confidence through the summer, and come back fighting!
Onwards and Upwards!