So the season has ended and we can take stock of where we are and the way we’ve performed. I’ve decided to a player by player analysis of each player and assign them a mark, just like in school. I just need to find a red pen with which to scribble on their report cards.

It’s broken up into two parts (today and tomorrow), and we start at the back with goalkeepers and defenders.

Goalkeepers

Wojciech Szczesny: Established himself as number 1 and the fact that Arsene Wenger chose to play him when injured, and requiring pain-killing injections, says a lot about the faith he’s got in him and the other options he has. Made some mistakes but I think these are necessary for a young keeper and he’ll learn quickly from them. Perhaps needs some competition next season to push him on but overall positive. B-

Lukasz Fabianski: Played just 6 games, didn’t really do anything wrong, but obviously the manager prefers an injured Szczesny to him and that must spell curtains for his Arsenal career. D

Vito Mannone: Made one substitute appearance against Olympiacos in the Champions League and provided one of the comedy moments of the season when trying to scissor-kick a ball he could have picked up. Has had a good loan spell at Hull by all accounts but like Fabianski will probably leave this summer. D

Manuel Almunia: Sat on the bench a couple of times, didn’t play once. It’s over.

Defenders

Bacary Sagna: Mr Consistent but a season blighted by injury. He returned and immediately improved us but seemed to struggle a bit towards the end of the season before that Norwich bloke broke his leg again. All the same a crucial part of our back four, you could see how much more effective Walcott was with him back in the side, so let’s hope he makes a full and quick recovery. B

Carl Jenkinson: Thrown in at the deep end, struggled as you might expect then, when presented with a chance to fill in for Sagna, spent months out with a stress fracture of his back. Has plenty to learn but works hard, crosses the ball well and there are positive signs. C

Per Mertesacker: I like him and I think he brings an organisational quality to our defence which we missed, especially in the final stages of the season. He made a couple of mistakes as he adapted to English football but criticism of his lack of pace misses the point. Others have plenty of that and make errors. I think he’ll be important next season as we try and find proper balance at centre-half, and I think he was a good, steadying influence on a team that was all over the place at the start of the season. C+

Laurent Koscielny: Our second best player this season and makes a lie of those who say Arsene Wenger can’t sign defenders. Quick, committed, stronger than last season, and at times carried the defence. If this improvement continues he’ll be a real force next season. Deserves all the plaudits he gets. A

Thomas Vermaelen: I love his character and spirit, as well as his determination to get goals (6 league goals this season is a great return from a centre-half), but his forays forward have left us exposed at the back. Also guilty of a number of slips/errors for which others would be crucified. Am not fully convinced that he and Koscielny work as well together as they might. Should do better. C

Johan Djourou: Went from being reliable and strong to timid and flaky. Not helped by being asked to play at full back when he’s clearly not a right back, but will surely acknowledge that his performances have not been up to par. Now firmly fourth in the pecking order, he’s got work to do if he wants first team football. D-

Sebastian Squillaci: Started just four games (2 Carling Cup, 1 Fa Cup, 1 dead rubber Champions League game) and looks like a player bereft of any confidence whatsoever. It hasn’t worked out for him and I suspect he’ll be gone in the summer.E

Kieran Gibbs: Again a season affected by injury when he might have really kicked on, but I think there are positive signs. The competition with Santos is interesting and the block against West Brom may well be one of my favourite moments of the season. C

Andre Santos: The cuddly maverick himself. He’s quite something, left back/inside left/free-roaming playmaker. He plays with an enthusiasm that’s great to see and despite a torrid introduction to English football, improved as he adapted. The injury was a shame, but he’s capable of contributing high up the pitch, something we haven’t had from left back for some time. He’s also better defensively than given credit for and has a stabby tackle that’s very much his own. C+

Others (ungraded): Ignasi Miquel played 9 times and acquited himself quite well but you have to think he needs a loan spell next season in order to progress properly. Nico Yennaris had a couple of interesting and encouraging cameos but the same must apply to him too (he actually went to Notts County on loan but only played twice).

—

So, that’s it for keepers and defence. Tomorrow we can look at the midfield and attacking side of the team.

Other than that there’s very little going on this morning. I have nothing to say about departed players who criticise Arsenal fans for talking about him while he continues to talk about Arsenal. The hypocrisy and classlessness is stark enough for most people to see the true colours there.

And while the Invincibles have rightly been named the best team of the Premier League era, the whole concept of a ‘Premier League era’ is a load of old bollocks. It ignores the fact that football, and great football at that, existed long before Sky and the marketing men got their greedy hands on the game.

“We’ve never seen anything like this”, bleated the pundits after an admittedly exciting end to this season, but frankly anyone who thinks Man City struggling to beat off 10 man relegation fodder at home is more worthy than Arsenal having to beat the reigning Champions by two clear goals at their own ground – and doing so in the final seconds of injury time – is off their rocker.

Till tomorrow.

So, it has begun already. The season is barely finished and the summer transfer madness has kicked in. I say madness because there’s a lot of talk, a lot of hype, a lot of speculation and frankly, it should barely register on our Give-a-fuck-ometers because it’s nothing anyone who has even a passing interest in football couldn’t have predicted.

Obviously it involves Robin van Persie and there are two main stories this morning. In the first, the BBC report that the captain will have a meeting with Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis at the manager’s house on Wednesday morning. The second is in the Mirror who say that Manchester City would like to sign him.

Well blow me down. All season long Robin, and the club, have said that they will discuss his future at the end of the season. The season has ended, it’s time for discussion. It’s good to hear that the meeting is scheduled but this is something we all knew was going to happen. I suspect Robin is more than aware of what’s on offer from us, as he will be as to what’s on offer elsewhere, so the meeting will be about more than money and contract length.

As for the City story, well the only way I’d be surprised is if they weren’t interested. It wouldn’t be a summer without them trying to sign one what they think is one of our best players. The difference this time, of course, is that van Persie is our best player. He’s not a troublesome egomaniac, a rapidly slowing down centre half or a greedy bottler who would have moved to FC Mars if the money had been good enough.

There’s so much misinformation out there that the fear we have of not keeping him adds credibility to it. So van Persie’s agent met Brian Marwood three months ago. And? Of course the risible goal.com stick a headline on it to make it sound covert when it was anything but and the agent’s quotes confirm that. But we can’t let truth or facts get in the way of a good story, eh?

For me, it’s very simple. I think van Persie will stay if he feels his ambitions can be fulfilled at Arsenal. We cannot compete with what Man City (or others) can offer financially, but I don’t think Robin’s decision will be based on that. It might well be a factor but not the main part of it. That’s not to say he doesn’t deserve a bumper new contract, he does, and it ought to be head and shoulders above what anyone else is earning, for all kinds of reasons.

But it’s up to the manager and Ivan Gazidis to assure the captain that he can win things with Arsenal. They cannot do that with words and promises alone, they have got to improve the squad. It sounds simplistic, but some of the players who haven’t contributed need to go and some more productive ones need to come in. And not just in order to keep Robin, you cannot be held over a barrel by one player no matter how good he is, but for the good of the club as a whole. Yes, we have to respect the market and the situation many clubs find themselves in, but we also have go about fixing the problems we’ve created for ourselves.

If van Persie signs a new deal I think it would be a hugely encouraging sign because it would suggest that the improvements necessary for us to challenge for the title will be made. It goes beyond keeping him, it means that we’d become a better team, because we’d have better players. If he goes then it’d be another case of Arsenal seemingly lacking ambition and lacking the ability to hold onto its big name players, an all too familiar problem over the last few years.

Of course there’s another option, and that’s Robin staying, announcing that, but not signing a new deal which leaves him free to leave on a Bosman next summer – without ruling out the possibility of signing a new contract if he chooses too also. But while many are leaning towards that as the most likely option, I don’t feel that’s in the best interests of Arsenal as a club. We need some kind of closure, we cannot have another situation where a transfer saga drags on all summer and the speculation about his future continues throughout the following season. I can just imagine the ‘He’s got his eyes on a move, not committed anymore’ stories and discussions if he went through a bad patch.

One way or the other we’ll get something definitive soon enough, I’m sure of that. For everyone’s sake we can’t let it drag on. We can only hope that the lessons we needed to learn from last summer have been taken on board and that we do what needs to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s not just about making Robin van Persie stay because he’s Robin van Persie, it’s about making him stay because he’s confident and assured that the team he’ll captain next season can challenge for the title. It’s a not quite vicious circle, it could be a very friendly circle if we get it right, so it’s over now to the boss and the chief executive to do what’s necessary.

If the early signing of Lukas Podolski is an encouraging sign, we have to remember we tend to do this every season. An early transfer is followed by a period where we don’t seem to do much business at all (Chamakh in May, Nasri in late June, I think, Gervinho early enough last summer), so while I am optimistic we’ve changed our spots slightly, the proof will be in how efficient the rest of our dealings are.

And speaking of Podolski, we’ve got our first sight of him in an Arsenal shirt and he says both Arsene Wenger and Per Mertesacker played a part in his decision to join us, and also says:

I’m now looking forward to the challenge at my new club and cannot wait to start after Euro 2012.

At which point we should know how central, literally, his role at the club will be next season. In the meantime we’ll await a van Persie update which tells us something we don’t already know because anything else is pointless.

Finally, the makers of the Arseblog iPhone app have a new app made for you transfer loving mofos, check it out here.

Till tomorrow.

Match report – Video – By the numbers

It was the 92nd minute of the game when Arsene Wenger, as fraught with nerves as I’ve ever seen him, clung to Pat Rice as a Robin van Persie chance went begging.

I think we all knew how he felt.  I’d have tried to cuddle Pat too if I were there. It was tense. One goal for West Brom would mean finishing 4th as Sp*rs were leading Fulham 2-0. We were sitting deeper and deeper and struggling to hold onto the ball whenever we did get it. We boffed it long, they’d come back at us, and when it opened up for the Baggies just after that van Persie chance, I thought we were done. Genuinely.

I could see the ball nestle in the far corner, a late repeat of what happened against Norwich, and with it our hearts broken again and our summer made complicated. Just as the West Brom player was about to shoot though, in slid Kieran Gibbs. It had be timed perfectly. Too late and it’s a goal, a little early and he might have given away a penalty. Thankfully, the timing was spot on and he produced one of the finest match-saving blocks I can remember. There were still 3 nail-biting minutes left but I think that moment it was sealed it for us.

And it had started so well. Yossi Benayoun had put us into an early lead when Marton Fulop, making his West Brom debut, dallied over a back pass. Instead of booting it clear he waited for it to come into the area and tried to pick it up. Benayoun’s reward for chasing him down was a tap-in on what’s likely to be his last game for the club. An early Benayoun goal, what could go wrong?

It was, in terms of scoreline at least, a repeat of Norwich. First the home side equalised when Shane Long was not given offside and he went clean through to shoot past Szczesny. The keeper went mad, Arsene went mad, and replays showed he was well and truly offside. I don’t think it’s fair to criticise us defensively for the first goal, although Szczesny might have done better, but for the second the gap between Koscielny and Vermaelen was criminal. Quite why the Belgian was that far up the pitch is anybody’s guess and when Dorrans beat Koscielny to the ball Vermaelen was nowhere as he fired a shot into the bottom corner.

So, 2-1 down, West Brom energised by our flakiness and defensive and it all felt a bit familiar. The script was being written but it was being written by Adam Sandler. Thankfully, Adam Sandler was also playing in goal for West Brom yesterday and when Andre Santos nicked the ball in midfield and lashed a shot from 25 yards, his touch could only help the ball into the back of the net to bring us level. A fine piece of play by the Brazilian but the keeper hardly covered himself in glory.

Ten minutes into the second half it became a hat-trick of Fulop assists when he came for a corner, tried to punch it clear when he could have caught it, and under pressure from his own man punched it back towards goal where Laurent Koscielny poked it home to make it 3-2.

I imagine I’m not alone in thinking another goal would be necessary, the idea of us hanging on for the best part of half an hour plus injury time didn’t seem reasonable to me. In a season full of drama, I was dreading us contributing to it further and it got hairy at times. West Brom had a sequence of about three hundred corners in a row, Szczesny was forced to make a good save from Andrews, Fortuné had the beating of Jenkinson who was a bit too grabby and shirt-pully for my liking, and with just one goal being so crucial it meant hearts were in mouths across Goonerdom.

Fast forward to Arsene clinging to Pat Rice, Gibbs making the block, and somehow being made play 5 minutes of injury time in a game with no injuries and just a few subs. Where the ref got that time from I will never know but for that reason alone I wish him pestilence and plague. Or at least a dodgy chicken sandwich. They had some throws, and a free kick, we boffed it down the pitch again until finally the final whistle went. Arsenal finish third, Sp*rs finish 4th, we get Champions League football no matter what happens in the final and they have to look on with fear, for all kinds of reasons. Happy St Totteringham’s Day, and Benayoun played a part again.

Afterwards, Arsene said:

I am still thinking of suing the referee for the five minutes of added time because my heart suffered immensely!

And of the season as a whole:

In the end we finished with 70 points, which is respectable, and we qualify for the Champions League for the 15th consecutive year. Of course we are very proud of that, especially this season having started where we started.

And today, we ought to enjoy that ‘achievement’ because it is one. It’s not a trophy, I know, but considering the mess we were in at the start of the season, and the bad spell in January, finishing in third is pretty remarkable. When we were 10 points behind Sp*rs in February, when they were 2-0 up at our place, it seemed far from sure that we could end up where we did, and although we ended up crawling over the line right at the death, we did enough to get where we needed to get.

The qualification for the Champions League is vital. We all know why. It means we have a stronger position with which to negotiate with van Persie, and others whose contracts are at that point. It means we can attract the calibre of player we need to improve us, and it means that the financial side of things doesn’t take a massive hit due to the loss of the Champions League revenue. Let’s enjoy that today.

However, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think this is a season that anybody will look back on with great fondness. Yes, the clawing back of the points on that lot will always be a chucklesome memory, but beyond that we can only hope that the mistakes we’ve made are never repeated. The shambolic start to the season must be a blueprint of how not to do things in the future and we know that the squad needs to be replenished and made more efficient.

There’s plenty of time this summer to discuss the intricacies of that but let’s hope that this time next year we’re talking about a team that has properly challenged. As I’ve always said, I can live without trophies if I feel we’ve done as much as we can, as a club, as a playing staff, to try and win. There was too much politics last summer, too little cohesion and that was apparent throughout as we struggled to maintain any kind of consistency. So, while we can be happy that we’ve finished third for all the reasons above, let’s not be blind to the fact that there’s a lot of work to do over the summer.

To be perfectly honest, I’m quite glad to see the back of this season. It can go and sodomise itself with a rusty spoon as far as I’m concerned. We can use the summer to recharge our batteries, take stock of where we are, and then make plans to improve. In the end there was a 20 point gap between us and the champions, and we need to work on closing that.

Still, for today I’m quite happy. The league table doesn’t lie and if we’re in third position it’s because we deserve it. We’ve had some dark times this season but some good ones too. There are plenty of positives, plenty of things we can build on, and let’s not forget that our joy is exacerbated by Sp*rs choking on their own misery. Balance of power shifting my hole.

Goodbye 2011-12, roll on next season.

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