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As the dust settles on another premiership campaign, my mind turns to wondering whether we have witnessed the end of the most successful period in AFC's history. Unrest at board level, eerie silence on the transfer front, rumored disquiet among star players; in the last 48 hours, SAF has spent more on three players than Arsene has spent throughout his entire career.
In the years 1989-2007, AFC have won (by my reckoning) twelve major honors, eleven of those domestically: more, much more, than any other club with the obvious exception of Utd. But after two trophyless seasons, is it now realistic to expect Arsenal to deliver on a regular basis? Regardless of the ethics of foreign ownership, Utd and Chelsea can now harvest the world's leagues in way Wenger can only dream. The sheer quality of Arsenal's football ensures that they will always have a fighter's chance in a one off game; but over a thirty eight game season? Hmmm? I have my doubts.
Worst of all, Spurs finally are showing signs of developing into a top four side; successive finishes in fifth and a rumored transfer kitty of £45/50mil means that it will be increasingly difficult just to maintain north London supremacy.
I don't want to come over all pessimistic, and whatever happens I'll always keep the faith, but would much appreciate reasons to be cheerful for season 2007/2008
The most important thing is to understand why the last season ended up the way it did. Statistics rarely tell the whole story and an informed analysis of what we did right and wrong is the only way to work out what will happen in the future. We played well, bottom line. In almost every aspect of the game we did ourselves proud. The number of games we dominated far outweighs the number of games we won. Our finishing was the big problem. A combination of bad luck, the loss of our best finishers for long periods and the fact that we did under perform as a team in that area led to this. But a good team learns from it's mistakes and we are a good team, with a great manager, so we will learn and apart from TH and RVP coming back the rest of the team will improve. We also have 2 months to see what new faces might also help. A key factor in premiership success is how you perform against the top teams. In this regard we excelled and won the top 4 mini-league. We do need to make changes that much is sure, and we will. If come September nothing has changed in our team I would probably be as nervous as you but I do believe we will make changes. We are also getting back Bentner, who will be like a new signing. Players like Diaby, Hleb and Rosicky will be more seasoned and I truly believe they will offer more (especially Hleb).
The Spurs factor is a mere distraction. In the grand scheme of things the success or failure of Spurs is of no relevance to the team and is purely of interest to fans with grudges. In the end IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER. There are still many player who despite the financial clout of Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool would rather come to us. Micah Richards, Eto'o (allegedly), Ribery, etc. We have something you can't buy. We are the style team in this country, and the Europeans respect us for it.
It may not seem like it right now but we could easily be challenging for the big one next season. The future is not certain but that means we are not condemned any more than we are saved.
Arsenal FC 1989-2007 
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