Gunnerblog

Gunnerblog End of Season Awards 2007

1,026 comments July 9th, 2007

Considering that we play our first pre-season friendly this week, this is probably my last opportunity to look back at the highs and lows of last season.  Winners in last years awards, such as the Champions League Final and the last day at Highbury, seem an awful long way away now.  Even memories of 06/07 are beginning to drift, so if you think my decisions seem a little odd, that might well be why.

Before we move on to the awards, a brief bit of site news.  Firstly, if you’ve been “having fun” this weekend and not sat in front of a computer, you won’t have seen the new look here on Gunnerblog.  Don’t forget to get your free wallpaper.

Elsewhere, yesterday’s Sunday Mirror had a piece by the well-connected Steve Stammers saying that a deal for Bakary Sagna would be completed this week.  I don’t know too much about him, but arseblogger described him as “Trabelsi with pace”.  That’d be nice.  Let’s see what happens.

One player we won’t be signing is Florent Malouda, who is set to join Chelsea.

And now, the main course:

Player of the Season
Last season Thierry Henry’s Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year Award was eclipsed by being named Gunnerblog Player of the Season for the second consecutive year.  Well, this season, as you well know, has been entirely different.  Henry suffered with injuries and poor form, and just a few weeks ago was sold to Barcelona for £16m.

In his absence, Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor came to the fore.  Until a metatarsal break ended Van Persie’s season, he was on course to be our top scorer, and in all likelihood would’ve notched around twenty goals.  Either side of a lean streak in spring, Adebayor scored some vital goals and worked harder for the team than just about anyone in the team.  However, the failure of either player to maintain form consistently over the season rules them out of the running.

If the team of 05/06 was built around Henry, the current Arsenal team is built around Cesc Fabregas.  And yet in many ways last year was Cesc’s most difficult to date.  In a team that lacked the incisive running of Henry, as well as midfielders prepared to go beyond the front two, Cesc’s passing was unduly limited.

Henry’s replacement as Player of the Season is likely to be his replacement as captain: Gilberto Silva.  This player has had plenty of ups and downs in his Arsenal career, but last season represented the continuation of an upwards curve that began in January 2006, when his deployment in the holding role of a 4-5-1 helped take Arsenal to the Champions League Final.  Last season, he was back in a 4-4-2, and responded with 10 goals in a storming season.  If the other midfielders can follow his lead next season, we might be on to a winner.

Young Player of the Season
If we’re jealous of other clubs’ established stars, they in turn must be green with envy at the array of wonderkids Arsenal regularly have on display.  Gael Clichy improved hugely over the course of the season,  whilst Denilson showed a Cesc-like awareness and intelligence, and Abou Diaby’s return from injury was one of the highlights of the season.

But still no-one can surpass Cesc Fabregas.  Arsenal.com’s Player of the Year, and a nominee for PFA Player of the Year, he continues to show the potential to become one of the world’s top midfielders.  Despite often being limited by his team-mates’ ineptitude, he still managed to produce some of the highlights of the season – a beautiful pass for Emmanuel Adebayor at Old Trafford and a stunning strike at home to Manchester City.  It’s fitting that our Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season could be next season’s Captain and Vice respectively.

Worst Player of the Season
Handing out this one always makes me feel a bit cruel, but oh well.  Picking this year’s is actually quite tough (Song was out on loan), but prime targets have to be our attacking gruesome twosome: Jeremie Aliadiere and Julio Baptista.  While it’s tempting to award it to Aliadiere on the back of his recent comments about Arsene, I’m afraid in this category The Beast is truly unstoppable. 

Even on his magical night at Anfield he managed to miss a penalty.  Even when he scored two goals in the comeback at White Hart Lane, he clubbed in an own goal and missed from a yard.  For whatever reason, he just didn’t cut it, and his return to Madrid can come as no surprise.

Game of the Season
Whilst we’re talking about Baptista’s four-goal haul, I might aswell just come out with it and say that the 6-3 win at Anfield was undoubtedly my Game of the Season.  To be 4-1 up at half-time was crazy – for it to end 6-3 was the stuff of fantasy.  Bizarrely, it was a night on which two of our poorest performers this season, Baptista and Aliadiere, were absolutely outstanding.  A true anomaly, but possibly the most fun I’ve ever had watching a Carling Cup game.

Worst game of the Season
The most boring was probably our 1-0 win at Wigan, but at least we won.  For a terrible performance and a horrible result, I’ve got to plump for Sheffield United 1-0 Arsenal.  If we’re serious about challenging next year, we must stop dropping points to sides at the bottom end of the table.

Highlight of the Season
Although watching Cesc, Denilson, Diaby and Walcott outclass Chelsea’s midfield in the first half of the Carling Cup Final had a certain delicious savour, the real highlight of the season had to be doing the double over the old enemy, Manchester United.  Adebayor’s winner at Old Trafford made him a cult hero, whilst it’s fitting that Henry’s final major contribution was that stoppage time winner at the Emirates Stadium (a moment of curious symmetry with Patrick Vieira, whose final kick in an Arsenal shirt was an FA Cup Final winning penalty against United).

Disappointment of the Season
Last season I said “Our domestic form”.  This season, I’m going to go for our premature European exit.  Seeing Chelsea, United, and Liverpool in the Champions League Semi-Finals was sickening, especially when we had succumbed, with the greatest of respect, to PSV Eindhoven.

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Last seson I wrote this as my conclusion: 

So there we are. It was a funny one last season. Lots of highs and lots of lows: what being a supporter is really all about. It’s quite unusual for Arsenal to finish trophyless, but going to Paris really felt like winning something.

Next season is all about improving domestically, hopefully with the help of a sprinkling of summer signings.

We’re waiting, Arsene…

Change “Paris” for “Cardiff” and you’re pretty much there.  Still, I suppose that’s progress for you.