By Eduardo
June 10 2014

Part 3 of the 2013-14 season review ends on a high with the cup final, the Parade and the player of the season. Parts one and two can be found by clicking on the links beneath the article.

Wembley for the Cup Semi Final

Wembley was awash with red and white, with Gooners outnumbering their Wigan counterparts at least 3 to 1. Things looked to be going from bad to worse, when Mertesacker gave away a needless penalty with a badly timed tackle, and Wigan took the lead. Our BFG made amends with less than ten minutes remaining by knocking in the equaliser. Extra time failed to see a winner, and so it was on to penalties. Fabianski was the hero with a couple of saves, and the injured loan signing Kallstrom was one of our penalty scorers, who said bringing him in was pointless, Arsenal had won their second shoot out of the season and were off to Wembley.

With a cup final to look forward to Arsenal got down to business in the race for a top four finish and did not disappoint, with a run of 5 straight wins in the league. Only conceding one goal, and that was in the first of the five games, West Ham (H), getting a comeback 3-1 win for the second time this season over them, Podolski with two of the goals, and he followed this up with another two v Hull (A), where Ramsey returned to scoring form. Newcastle (H) were brushed aside 3-0, and WBA (H) were downed 1-0 by a Giroud goal, which also confirmed a top four finish. The final league game was away to Norwich and a spectacular goal from Ramsey, and Jenkinson’s first ever Arsenal goal sealed a 0-2 win. FAPL season over and it was 4^th again, but the feeling that it could and should have been so much more still lingers.

What did she wear

She wore, she wore,
She wore a yellow ribbon,
She wore a yellow ribbon,
In the merry month of May!
And when, I asked,
Oh why she wore her ribbon,
She said it’s for The Arsenal,
And we’re going to Wembley!
Wembley,
Wembley,
We’re the famous Arsenal,
And we’re going to Wembley!

FA Cup Final day arrived and it was a sunny summer’s day at Wembley. Hull City were raging underdogs, but after 2 minutes they had the lead, and after 8 minutes they were 2 up, Gooners were suicidal, how could this be happening. With about 15 minutes gone it was almost 3-0, Gibbs heading off the line, was this going to be one of those days, was this how Wenger’s time as manager would end. It’s at times like these that your big players have to step up if you are to make a comeback, and so it proved. Cazorla scored a peach of a free kick to haul Arsenal back into the game and from that point it looked as if it would be when and not if Arsenal level the game. Koscielny was the man to make it 2-2, taking a hard knock as he put the ball in the net.

Arsenal were now in control and looked like they would score, but full time came and it was still 2-2. Extra time first half saw Arsenal dominate and come close a number of times, but no goal. Rosicky and Wilshere were brought on for the final 15-minute stint, and Arsenal upped the tempo even more, Hull struggled to get out of their own half and eventually the pressure told. Who else but Arsenal’s player of the season Aaron Ramsey popped up with the winner, a class finish from a class player. Oh what might have been if he had not missed that two-month spell mid season.

This being Arsenal they seldom do it the easy way, a comical fall from Mertesacker gave the ball to Hull and Fabianski came charging way out of his area, only to completely miss the ball and attacker. Here we were, only seconds remaining, finally in the lead, and we had a defender lying on the ground, and our keeper forty yards from his goal. The Hull guy panicked a little and shot from a poor angle well out on the wing, when he had support up with him. Koscielny and Gibbs were charging back to cover the goal, in the end thankfully Gibbs done well to not make contact with the shot that was missing the goal. All Gooners exhaled a big sigh of relief, well all that could still breathe by this time. One last Arsenal break should have led to a fourth goal but it was messed up, and seconds later the final whistle went and journos everywhere are now in search of a new mantra seeing as their “haven’t won a trophy in …..” has gone.

Islington a Sea of Red and White

An estimated 250,000 Gooners lined the streets of Islington the morning after the Cup Final win, to celebrate the success with the Arsenal squad. Jack got himself into a little bit of bother, uttering foul language (he said Tottnum, I hope the censors let this by so as to verify what he said), fans pleaded with Sagna to stay, and it seemed that the entire squad finally realised not only just how big Arsenal are, but how much Arsenal mean to the supporters.

Player of the Year

For me many players deserve a mention for their consistent performances over the course of the season. Szczesny is fast developing into one of the best keepers in the league; he shared the Golden Gloves Award, for most clean sheets, with Petr Cech. Sagna was his usual solid self in his defensive duties, pity he is not up to it when helping the attack. Mertesacker won over many of his doubter with his steady Eddie type season, his central defensive partner Koscielny had a superb season. Ozil and Cazorla had moments of pure brilliance, but need to be more consistent.

Walcott was great the short time he was fit in an injury-ravaged season. Giroud may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he scored over 20 goals and when we had our best players fit he was a vital cog in our overall play. Jack and Ox both continue to show flashes of their undoubted talent, lets hope they are the next players to go to the next level, as Ramsey did this season, he was our standout player, and I’m sure but for his two months out injured he would have won the FW and the PFA’s Player of the Year, and not only Arsenal’s.

3 More Years

As I write this review news has broke that Arsene Wenger had signed a new 3 year contract with Arsenal that should it been seen to its end would mean Wenger will hit 20 years as Arsenal manager. He seems to be promising a big summer for the club and if that is the case then maybe we can have a big season.

Now we are in the silly season and are being linked with dozens of players from all over the globe. Fabianski has joined Swansea and Sagna is expected to leave on a Bosman very shortly too. So we can expect four or five players to be added to our squad this summer. I am reliably informed that Arsenal are trying to bring in some high calibre players, and that if we get our top target we will be breaking our transfer record again this year, let’s hope these moves are more successful than last summer’s pursuit of Higuain and Suarez and more along the lines of the pursuit of Ozil (but not so late in the window please).

Season Review 2013/14 The Cup run hots up Player of Season

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 10/06/2014 17:18

Arsenal Times
10/06/2014 17:18

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014:06:15:22:48:09 by Padre Pio.

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plonky
13/06/2014 15:02

well done Ed. Good summary of a season with a decent ending.

Like many other on here you mentioned Sagnas shortcomings going forward. He scored 1 goal and gave 7 assists last season. Our combined LB brigade contributed 2 goals and 9 assists for the season. Nothing in it really.

And Ed can you tell PK the £80m I mentioned for Cesc included wages and can you also tell him I wish Cesc was coming home.

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PKGooner
13/06/2014 22:17

Quote:

plonky
well done Ed. Good summary of a season with a decent ending.
Like many other on here you mentioned Sagnas shortcomings going forward. He scored 1 goal and gave 7 assists last season. Our combined LB brigade contributed 2 goals and 9 assists for the season. Nothing in it really.

And Ed can you tell PK the £80m I mentioned for Cesc included wages and can you also tell him I wish Cesc was coming home.

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