This was the last game of a season that has been frustrating for the most part, but with a few signs of encouragement along the way. We were playing catchup for most of the season, having lost to Fulham, Hull, Stoke, Villa and Man City by the end of November. The last 3 of those defeats came in November, truly an awful month for Arsenal fans, which also saw William Gallas stripped of the captaincy, and the media loving all of our troubles. After that, we went 20 or so games unbeaten, but with far too many 0-0 draws in a frustrating 6 or 7 game spell in January and February. Then Andrei Arshavin came along, some injured players came back, and we all got excited again. Two very disappointing semi final defeats, and a 4-1 capitulation to Chelsea in the League, and we were all down in the dumps again.
In reality, we probably overachieved in a lot of respects this season. With the inexperience of our squad, and some of the injuries we had, we actually did pretty well. But the squad strength is ultimately the cause of our problems - they may be a world beating group of players in a few years, but they have weaknesses at the moment. I like many Arsenal fans fear that the "promised land" will never arrive - that the players won't improve, or that other clubs will keep picking players off during transfer windows, so that we are forever running to stay in the same place. But, I guess we need to keep the faith.
So, last game of the season, in the sunshine, and with nothing to play for. In those circumstances, Arsenal may just be the best team in the world, so we strolled to an easy 4-1 victory, which was all wrapped up by half time. The Guardian report tells the full story, but it was a decent day for Robin Van Persie, who scored 2 goals. So, another season over, and we "look forward" to a long summer of boringness. Thank God we have the Ashes to distract us, but it will still be a long 6 weeks until that all starts.
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