A Positive Season For Arsenal

After the debacle at Chelsea it would seem foolish to argue any positives and even more so to try to find positives in a season that has seen us concede 17 goals in three away games to title rivals but that is exactly what I am going to do.

Arsenal face a struggling Swansea side tonight and in theory should be able to come away with 3 points reducing Chelsea’s lead to 4 points. As we saw at Aston Villa, anything can happen and Chelsea are not guaranteed to win all of their remaining games. Liverpool will have something to say and Chelsea’s final two games of the season could well be against teams desperate to stay up. Never write off a desperate team.

Outside of eternal optimism it is quite unlikely that Arsenal will win the title this season as we require not one but three teams to stumble. Considering these teams have games against one another it is not entirely unreasonable to think there may be a few minor stumbles we could take advantage of but probably not to the extent of winning the league.

What is positive about this season and us even potentially finish fourth is the improvement it represents. Winning the FA Cup would be a monkey off our back and should break the mental block the drought has imposed upon us but is it going to make much difference in the title race?

Chelsea and City are often pointed to as winners of the League Cup who have gone on to win the league but I think that is more down to their deep pockets and closely run title campaigns of the previous season than them getting a “trophy winning mentality”. If winning a cup competition helped you to win the title then why haven’t Birmingham come back up or Spurs won the EPL?

The oil clubs had (and have) money at their advantage and used the money to buy better players who inspired them to greater things. Silverware, money and a closely-ish run campaign is usually enough to convince a decent player to join you. The buttering up of “you’ll be the difference, with you we’ll win the league and the Champions League – you’re the final piece of the jigsaw” and “oh, here’s a bag full of cash” probably helped them sign up a few players to improve the squad.

Winning the FA Cup this season could help us to do that because it would mean we are a recently successful club but more than that, our improved league standing would convince many they could be the difference.

You might be thinking 4th or 3rd is hardly an improvement but it’s not just about final position, it is also about points on the board. Based on crude calculations we should finish within 5 points of the eventual title winners – this is a huge step in the right direction.

In 2012/13 we finished 16 points behind the winners.

In 2011/12 we finished 19 points behind the winners.

In 2010/11 we finished 12 points behind the winners.

In 2009/10 we finished 11 points behind the winners. Do you see where this is going?

Most seasons we are out of the race with 4-5 games left to play. This season we could still be in it in May. We probably won’t win it but we would have been in the race until the final 2 games of the season. We might officially be out of it by April but on paper we would be a two game swing away from winning the title. Possibly even one game if we are 5 behind and finish 2nd. The pessimistic among us will turn that into a “what if we have a decent striker” or “if we weren’t so sh*t against Chelsea/City/Liverpool we would have won the title” but there is no hope for those people.

For me, it is a massive positive and a step in the right direction. We would have competed for an entire season against two of the riches clubs in the world and another with the hottest strike force in the league.

If we win the FA Cup we will have recently silverware, a solid foundation to build on, a closely run title race and a bank full of cash to attract better players. We will be able to do what City and Chelsea did but we would have done it with our own cash. 2014/15 was always going to be the season the wallet was well and truly opened and we can open it only needing a few tweaks.

The last few years have been hard but the foundation of our team has been laid, quietly and intelligently, and we now have the money to buy a few choice additions who will join our young core to form a great team for the next 5-6 years. And fourth this season won’t seem so bad.

With the right people we will take our challenge that one step further next season and it will be dulcius ex asperis – sweeter after difficulties.

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