At the beginning of the season, I had felt Arsenal had the kind of squad that could sneak into 2nd place. Sadly it was the bare minimum again for the Gunners. 16 years straight of qualifying for the Champions League is great and all but a trophy would’ve been a nice add on, oh well, take what you can get I suppose.
-Squad-
I think it’s safe to say that this squad proved they don’t need RvP to get results, though probably need a little more help to push forward more. I feel after rethinking it that Arsenal’s early season struggle was due to adjusting to life without Van Persie and Song. Once they got things situated, a little later than I would’ve liked, things just clicked.
Grade: B
-Transfers-
Not sure how he did it, but Wenger again found diamonds in the rough. Podolski was a great threat when he was in form, Giroud took a bit but when he finally hit the ground running, he proved just how good he can be. Then there’s Cazorla, the man who was criminally left off the PFA’s Team of the Year, sure he had his problems against top clubs, but he was virtually unstoppable at times when we needed him to. Monreal is still probably considered a panic transfer when Gibbs ended up hurt, but he was fantastic when we used him, far better than Santos by a country mile.
As for who left, Van Persie was the one that stands out the most. Alex Song, not so much, the whole “worst La Liga transfer signing” thing shows how much. Some of the players who were loaned out, particularly Bendtner, I still question why we still pay their Wages to go elsewhere.
Grade: B
-Manager-
At times this season I have thought that it was time for Wenger to call it a career. He’s blatantly obvious stubbornness towards adapting and Arsenal never appearing to have a Plan B was increasingly frustrating at times. Also his late decisions with substitutions have cost Arsenal points in a couple key matches. But at the end of the day he did make some good calls and they paid off in the long run. For him, next season is make or break for him, if we don’t win a trophy then he has to pass the torch and retire.
Grade B-
-Final Verdict-
Like I said, I was hoping for 2nd place, but we got 4th. The team is getting criticized for their celebrations at the end of the season finale, some people claiming that it shows the team’s ambitions and priorities have dipped. I look at it like this: If this is how we celebrate 4th place, imagine how we’ll celebrate a trophy. That aside, I’d say this club performed better than they did last season. Sure 4th place is a worse finish than last season’s 3rd. But looking deeper into it, you see that Arsenal finished with 3 more points, a better Goal Differential, conceded 12 less goals(I wonder what the look on everyone's face is like when they realize Arsenal had the 2nd best defensive record), and scored virtually the same amount of goals as last season(Ended up the EPL's 3rd highest scoring team). I feel the Gunners got a good return for our 3 summer signings. And despite a slow start, the finish shows some promise for next season. Arsenal’s summer could be better than it’s been the past couple years with no one aside from deadwood players expected to leave.
Grade: B
To be brutally honest, the final grade was gonna be a B or a C depending on if Arsenal won against Newcastle.