And so another season draws to its close, and once again we find ourselves in that peculiar emotional no-man’s-land that has become Arsenal’s natural habitat: too good to be truly disappointed, not good enough to be properly satisfied. Third in the Premier League. FA Cup winners for the second consecutive year. Is the glass half full or half empty? The honest answer, as always, is both. Moments like the Crystal Palace victory reminded us that this team could still excite.
The league campaign
Third. The word has a certain familiarity to it, like an old coat you keep meaning to replace but never quite get around to. We finished behind Chelsea — inevitable, given the machine that Mourinho constructed this season — and behind Manchester City. We finished ahead of Manchester United, which is something, and ahead of Liverpool, which is something else. We were never seriously in the title race, which is the sentence that stings more than any other.
The early months were difficult. A home defeat to Swansea on the opening day set a tone that took weeks to correct, and by the time we had found our rhythm, Chelsea had established a lead that never looked like being overhauled. There were excellent runs of form — the winter period was particularly strong — but the consistency that a title challenge demands was beyond us once again.
If I am being generous, and I am trying to be, the league campaign represented genuine improvement on the previous season’s fourth place. If I am being honest, and I am also trying to be that, it represented another season in which Arsenal were the best of the rest without ever threatening to be the best. There is a ceiling to our ambition that we keep bumping our heads against, and the bruise is becoming rather tender.
The FA Cup — again
But then there is the FA Cup. The beautiful, glorious, underrated FA Cup. Having ended the nine-year trophy drought last season with that emotional journey to Wembley, we went and did it again. Back-to-back FA Cups. Arsenal are the most successful club in the competition’s history, and moments like these remind you why that record matters.
The final against Aston Villa was, let us be honest, not a classic. Villa were poor, overwhelmed from the first whistle, and the outcome was never seriously in doubt. But the manner of the victory — emphatic, professional, with moments of genuine quality — spoke well of the squad’s mentality. This was not a team going through the motions. This was a team that understood what the occasion meant and rose to it accordingly.
Alexis Sanchez was, predictably, magnificent. His goal in the final — a searing run and finish that combined Chilean passion with Premier League power — was the highlight of a season in which he established himself as the most exciting player to wear an Arsenal shirt since Thierry Henry. That is not a comparison I make lightly.
Keeping expectations real
The title of this piece is borrowed from the old manager’s phrase book — Wenger has always been adept at managing expectations while quietly raising them. And “keeping it real” is precisely what we need to do as this season fades into memory and thoughts turn to the summer and beyond.
The reality is this: Arsenal are a very good football club that is not quite good enough to win the league in its current form. We have an outstanding first eleven, a squad that lacks the depth of our principal rivals, and a manager whose tactical approach — while often beautiful — has become increasingly predictable to opponents who have studied it for nearly two decades.
Two FA Cups in two years is not nothing. In fact, it is rather a lot. But it is not enough, and pretending otherwise does a disservice to the club’s ambitions and the supporters’ expectations. Arsenal should be competing for the title. The question is whether the willingness exists to make the changes necessary to do so.
The summer ahead
What do we need? The answer is depressingly familiar: a goalkeeper, a defensive midfielder, and a centre-forward. It was the answer last summer, and the summer before that, and the summer before that. The club’s transfer policy under Wenger has become a source of genuine frustration — not because there is no investment, but because the investment so often seems inadequate to the task at hand.
Petr Cech’s name is being mentioned, and if Arsenal can land him from Chelsea, it would represent exactly the kind of statement signing that the squad needs. A proven winner, a goalkeeper of international class, and a player who knows how to handle the pressure of competing at the very top. Whether it happens remains to be seen. We have been here before, watching the transfer express promise much and deliver less.
But for now, with the season’s swan song still echoing, let us acknowledge what was good. An FA Cup retained. A league position improved. A squad that, for all its limitations, plays football that is frequently a joy to watch. And a sense — fragile but genuine — that the pieces are nearly in place for something more significant.
Nearly. There is that word again. The word that has defined so many Arsenal seasons in this era. Nearly good enough. Nearly there. Nearly, but not quite.
Third in the league. FA Cup winners. The season’s swan song plays its final notes, and we listen, and we think: next year. Again. Always. Next year.