Worst Arsenal squad of the century?

[spendsum4uckingmoney]

Arsenal 05/06 did have a good on paper squad, but in reality most of those players were in decline. Lehman I remember had a shocker. Ljungberg was past it. Alex Hleb was shite. Never rated him. Preferred to do all these innefectual passes and pointless dribbles to know where than actually release the ball or shoot. We were lucky IMO to break even.


And the defence! OMG the defence! Senderos and Eboue as first team REGULARS! and Cygan.

Also didnt Campbel go AWOL that season?

[northbank123]

Arsenal 05/06 did have a good on paper squad, but in reality most of those players were in decline. Lehman I remember had a shocker. Ljungberg was past it. Alex Hleb was shite. Never rated him. Preferred to do all these innefectual passes and pointless dribbles to know where than actually release the ball or shoot. We were lucky IMO to break even.


And the defence! OMG the defence! Senderos and Eboue as first team REGULARS! and Cygan.

Also didnt Campbel go AWOL that season?

I'm not saying that Lehmann, Senderos and Eboue (and Flamini at times) inspired me with confidence or that I'd relish a similar defence now but you can't just analyse the players in isolation of how they worked as a squad. That season was our 4th best defensive record in PL history and our joint-best since the Invincibles, not to mention that we broke the European record for consecutive clean sheets (most being in the knockout stages too!). I think our squad must have been fairly decent to be able to cope without Campbell and Cole for large parts of the season and for all their faults that team has defended better than just about every side we've had since over the course of a season.

We had a striker who scored 30+ league goals that season and although past their peak the likes of Bergkamp and Pires were still extremely talented players. As I said before, I don't understand how the following season (1 point more but season over by mid-Feb after losing to PSV) can be viewed as a better squad.

[spendsum4uckingmoney]

I sort of see a continuation of crapness from 05/06 and 06/07. I just have horrible memories of the 05/06 season. It haunts me. Atleast 06/07 we finished in the top 4 well with room to spare. What if we hadn't of qualified? Remember the final day? We would probably have done a Newcastle and been completely irrelevant.

We lost 9 games in 06/07, which is nothing to brag about but it was still 2 less than 05/06.

[jrthgooner]

It has to be this year because it is almost an entirely Wenger bought squad and when you consider he has been allegedly buying technical players to play ala Barca he clearly has failed!!

It also has plenty of players who would struggle to make mid table premier league sides but are regulars for us who the manager continues to put blind faith in.

His inability to buy and handle star names has caused the problems and next year will be very interesting to see because surely the same crap will still be here forming most of the squad because nobody will buy them

[LDB]

2008/2009 should be up there. Our center back options were a washed up Gallas, a fat Kolo Toure, Silvestre and Djourou. In goal we had Almunia first choice and Flappy as back up. Clichy and Traore left back. Sagna and Eboue right back. Denilson and Song started most of the games in our midfield. Na$ri had just joined and was settling in. We had a half-arsed Adepaymore upfront for the majority of the season backed up by fucking Bendtner. Cesc missed half the season with injury and he was basically the only midfielder worth his salt at the club that year. I think JVP had a rare injury-free season that year and helped us along with new signing Arshavin to overhaul Aston Villa and finish in the top 4. Walcott was still shit that year also and Rosicky was in the middle of his 2 year lay off and so too Eduardo. Fucking dire.

This is a good call imo. We were shite that year and made top 4 against much flakier competition then we've had for the last couple of years. We had a longer run in Europe that year but only because we managed to avoid top quality opposition until the semi finals when we got dicked by the mancs. I found us almost unwatchable that season, individual errors all over the place and a devil-may-care attitude from a lot of the players. We're probably slightly less flash now (although we still have some very talented players) but far more professional which makes us easier to watch imo.

[northbank123]

I sort of see a continuation of crapness from 05/06 and 06/07. I just have horrible memories of the 05/06 season. It haunts me. Atleast 06/07 we finished in the top 4 well with room to spare. What if we hadn't of qualified? Remember the final day? We would probably have done a Newcastle and been completely irrelevant.

We lost 9 games in 06/07, which is nothing to brag about but it was still 2 less than 05/06.

We were comfortable in the end but looking late Feb/early March we were in a far better position in 2007 than 2006.