As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
donaldo wrote:Five years ago today.Birmingham 2 Arsenal 2
Threadbare squad collapsed in sight of the finishing line.Having sold Diarra in Jan and not buying anyone.Then at the end of the season sold Flamini(still not replaced) and Gilberto and put his faith in Song Diaby and Denilson
We have never been the same since that game. We were never that mentally fragile before this game. But give or take a run of games or two and the ususal flat track bullying we've not thought we can live with the best since that season.
We should have gone on to win the league that season and it would have been on a par with Fergie' winning something with kids'.
It's ironic that it was our senior most player who bottled his responsibilty by having a f**king meltdown on the pitch at a time when he should have been geeing up the youngplayers in the team. That season was also the start of AW's brain fart in choosing utterly poor leaders as captains. I include Cesc,RvP and TV5 in that list. None of them were or are leaders.
The pitch was cut up by the horse of the year show and we got bogged down .
Had Ian Ure not fcuked up twice we might have won it ,but then would we have won the double the year after ?
That match acted as a catalyst to Arsenal ,firstly we ditched Ure and then the Red Machine was born !
Our decline had started way before barca in 2006. We'd been the best team in Europe a few years before that. The best team not to win the CL. But against Barcelona we were plucky underdogs. And even though our last trophy was the fa cup win against utd the previous year we were absolutely mullered in that game & only one it on pens.
For me, we have been on the downhill path ever since the invincible season.
MK Gould wrote:Our decline had started way before barca in 2006. We'd been the best team in Europe a few years before that. The best team not to win the CL. But against Barcelona we were plucky underdogs. And even though our last trophy was the fa cup win against utd the previous year we were absolutely mullered in that game & only one it on pens.
For me, we have been on the downhill path ever since the invincible season.
Which to a degree was inevitable how do you better that!!?? but there was no need to fall to the degree we have now
A late Wigan comeback has all but ended Arsenal's title bid and also virtually secured their top-flight status.
Theo Walcott's neat finish gave Arsenal the lead, which they doubled via Mikael Silvestre's header from a corner.
Three goals in 10 minutes turned the game in Wigan's favour late on, with Ben Watson side-footing in the first.
A mistake from Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski allowed Titus Bramble to head Wigan level and then, deep into injury time Charles N'Zogbia's strike won it.
It was a stunning end to a game that Arsenal had seemed certain to win and in the process keep alive a title bid that was reawakened by Chelsea's 2-1 defeat at Spurs on Saturday.
That result will have altered the pessimistic admission of Gunners boss Arsene Wenger after his side's own 2-1 loss at White Hart Lane on Wednesday that their challenge was over.
He must now revert back to his initial prognosis that Arsenal are destined to finish trophyless for the fifth season in a row.
(3 years later whats changed)
That Wigan game was embarrassing but the rot has already set in by the end of 2008, plus we blew it any chance we had with results at Birmingham and Spurs previously (with more than a helping hand from Comedy Al).
northbank123 wrote:That Wigan game was embarrassing but the rot has already set in by the end of 2008, plus we blew it any chance we had with results at Birmingham and Spurs previously (with more than a helping hand from Comedy Al).
northbank123 wrote:That Wigan game was embarrassing but the rot has already set in by the end of 2008, plus we blew it any chance we had with results at Birmingham and Spurs previously (with more than a helping hand from Comedy Al).
8928. Almunia
I think my hatred for Clown #1 peaked at that time. I went to Birmingham with a non-Arsenal supporting mate and it was a shit game, hated the *word censored* but Nasri scored with about ten minutes left and it would have been a huge result. Their equaliser was one of the worst pieces of goalkeeping from him which is really saying something, I didn't say a word to my mate for the whole journey back.
And then of course he followed that up by his little performance at WHL - punching a corner with nobody near him then staying on his arse too long instead of getting back on his feet and in position in which case Rose's volley would have been a straight-forward save (probably would have let that in too).
MK Gould wrote:Our decline had started way before barca in 2006. We'd been the best team in Europe a few years before that. The best team not to win the CL. But against Barcelona we were plucky underdogs. And even though our last trophy was the fa cup win against utd the previous year we were absolutely mullered in that game & only one it on pens.
For me, we have been on the downhill path ever since the invincible season.
Which to a degree was inevitable how do you better that!!?? but there was no need to fall to the degree we have now
Inevitable that there would be a dip, but great teams go out and try to do the same thing the following year. Ferguson teams regularly win back to back titles....
My disappointment during the Wenger reign (apart from 8 years without a trophy of course....!) is that even with a great side we never had two really good seasons in a row. Same with Graham. Win the league in 1989, dip in 1990. Walked the league with (almost) invincibles in 1991 and then a steady decline from that moment on.... Bit before even my time, but I can imagine that the same was true after the double in 1971. By the time I started going in 1975 we were fighting relegation!
Should have been three on the bounce. Of course if you're at the top for a sustained period you can always point to trophies you should have won no matter how successful you've been - I don't doubt Ferguson will harbour bitterness about 1998 and 2012 PL titles being blown from handsome winning positions.
But 2002/03 was fucking criminal imo - we were a miles better team than United and we absolutely bottled it. May not have been quite as painful in the long-run as the 2006 final or us blowing the CL in 2004 when we were the best team (left) in it by a country mile. But it should have been the double Double and the Invincibles in 3 seasons.
The change of stadium that year, the subsequent loss of Dein, the damaging 'lock down' agreement and the later take over from the wig wearing *word censored* is where it all went wrong
donaldo wrote:Five years ago today.Birmingham 2 Arsenal 2
Threadbare squad collapsed in sight of the finishing line.Having sold Diarra in Jan and not buying anyone.Then at the end of the season sold Flamini(still not replaced) and Gilberto and put his faith in Song Diaby and Denilson
It goes back much further than that Don, I would say us winning the Fa cup in 2005 was the start of Wenger's arrogance getting the better of him.
