Afternoon guys.
I accidentally skipped a couple of seasons of the Emirates review yesterday, so here it is.
The 2009/10 summer transfer window was awful for Arsenal fans when just one senior outfield player of any note was signed. Thomas Vermaelen, a Belgian international central defender. Yet in the departure lounge sat Emanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure, both of whom moved to Man City. City By this time had been taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group and their splashing of cash was in full flow. In the January of the 2009/10 season, Sol Campbell returned on loan but by then, well, he wasn’t at the level he once was.
18 players were sent out on loan, a staggering number really but most were young players, the most noticeable being Goalkeeper Wojciech Scczesney joined Brentford in November 2009 and stayed their for the remainder of the season, while in the January window Jack Wilshere and Philippe Senderos moved to Bolton Wanderers and Everton respectively.
The season started brightly enough with Vermaelen scoring on his debut but it wasn’t long before Arsenal travelled twice to Manchester. The first time was to face Fergie’s lot when Andrey Arshavin gave us a 1-0 lead just before the before the break but then Almunia had one of those howlers I wrote about yesterday and conceded a penalty which Rooney converted. Diaby then scored the winner, not for his team though as he headed a Utd free kick past his own keeper. Arsene Wenger was angry. Having taken his anger/frustration out on a water bottle, he was sent off. After the game he said: “I have seen a player make 20 fouls without getting a yellow card. If you have seen the game, you don’t need me to tell you who but their player gets away without a yellow card. It’s quite amazing.” Darren Fletcher is the player he was referring to. Some things never change do they as opponents still stick the boot into our players and go unpunished but at least nowadays we are more streetwise.
The other match in Manchester saw Arsenal go up against Adebayor and what a ghastly blond he proved to be. After scoring, he ran the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of fans who once supported him. Television replays also caught him stamp on Robin van Persies’ head. By the end of January, Arsenal were still in with a chance of winning the Premier League but that chance grew slimmer and slimmer over the following weeks. Defeats against Chelsea and Utd and a draw with Villa, pretty put us out of the race.
Then came another awful day for Arsenal and in particular, Aaron Ramsey. Arsenal played Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. We won but the game was overshadowed by an awful challenge by Ryan Shawcross on our Welsh midfielder. Shawcross was shown a straight red card, Ramsey’s season and much of the next, was over because his leg was broken. A “horrendous challenge” said Arsene. No one could disagree. Arsenal drifted to a third place finish. The domestic cups were ended dismally too with a fifth round 3-0 defeat at the now Etihad Stadium in the League Cup and in the FA Cup, Stoke City defeated us 3-1. The Champions League, well, we fell victim of Guardiola’s Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
2010/11.
This really should have been a League Cup winning season.
The summer saw a lot of activity in the transfer window as in came Marouane Chamakh, Laurent Koscielny, Sebastian Squillaci and Jens Lehmann. Sadly, I don’t think any Arsenal fan would have been excited about any of them at the time although Koscielny was meant to be good.
The departure list was long with Gallas moving across north London, Silvestre went off to Germany, Campbell to Newcastle, Eduardo to Ukraine, Senderos to Fulham whilst other younger players left either for free or a pittance.
The standout game of the season was Arsenal v Newcastle Utd but for all the wrong reasons in the case of Arsene Wenger’s side. 4-0 up at halftime and cruising but then five minutes into the second half, things went downhill. Rapidly. Abou Diaby saw red for pushing/shoving the ghastly Joey Barton and the rest as they say, is history. 4-4! To make matters worse for Arsenal, having managed to reach a League Cup Final, Birmingham City beat us in the dying seconds of the game.
In the Champions League, Barcelona proved to be too good again, as did Man Utd in the FA Cup and we finished fourth in the league as Arsene Wenger’s fifteenth season ended miserably. Again.
See you in the comments.
