Congratulations Cesc + The season is definitely over (sort of)
Add comment April 28th, 2008
Did anyone else find themselves forgetting that we were even part of the Premier League this weekend? With exciting battles at the top and bottom of the table, we have well and truly dropped out of the limelight.
I even found myself forgetting that we were playing Derby tonight. A team almost certain to finish third against a team already relegated. Even Sky Sports would have a hard time getting excited about this one.
There a couple of minor details to be ironed out. Victory tonight would absolutely guarantee third place, which would be an improvement over last season’s fourth. There are also a couple of landmarks up for grabs: Emmanuel Adebayor needs three goals to reach the esteemed thirty mark, whilst in The Battle of the Cripples, Robin van Persie must play in all three remaining matches to have made more appearances this season than his chief competitor, Tomas Rosicky.
Another player who, like Rosicky, will not play again this season is Bacary Sagna. At this point, we ought to congratulate Sagna on an extraordinary first season at the club. Arriving in the Summer as a relative unknown, he has since made the right-back spot his own, and is a leading contender for our Player of the Season. What’s more, he’s restored pride to the Number 3 shirt after the disgraceful conduct of it’s previous incumbent. I just hope, for Sagna’s sake, that he’s fit to go to the Euros.
He absolutely deserves to have been voted into the PFA Team of the Season, alongside Gael Clichy (who is in Arsene’s good books), Emmanuel Adebayor, and Cesc Fabregas. Those four have all been consistently outstanding, and are arguably the only players in our squad we can absolutely guarantee will be in our starting line-up next season.
Special congratulations should be reserved for Cesc, who has (finally) been crowned as the PFA Young Player of the Year. Whilst I expected Ronaldo to win it as much as anyone else, I’m delighted to see Cesc honoured. He’s almost three years younger than the Portugese winger, and with 16 assists and 13 goals this season, he’s been almost as big an influence.
It tells you plenty about our season that no team has more players in the Team of the Year. Tellingly, United players feature in the side at centre-back and on the wing – these are the areas in which we most require improvement. Amusing to note that not a single Chelsea player was nominated for either individual award, or the team, and yet they could still win the title. I’d like to see the look on Ronaldo’s bloated face then.
Where was I? Oh, yeah: Derby. Lukasz Fabianski could make his Premier League debut, whilst I also suspect we might see starts for the likes of Senderos, Hoyte, and Denilson. I hope that any changes to the team don’t give Derby the encouragement they need to try and leave the division with one big scalp. We really should hammer them, and I hope we do.
For those of you who can’t bear to have your heart troubled by false hope once more, stop reading now.
For those who are gluttons for punishment…
Assuming we win our last three games, then were Chelsea and United to fail to win next week, we would still be in with a chance of the title on the final day of the season.
God. Reading that just makes you realise how incredibly close we were. It’s sickening. But it doesn’t half make you yearn for next season.
First, let’s end this one in style. Come on Arsenal.
