C'est la vie

So then, that was that and what a ride it was. Last August the doom mongers circled yet again over the Emirates Stadium predicting a doomed season for Arsène Wenger and his men. Failing to make the top four was considered a formality and a potentially tricky European qualifying game against Glasgow Celtic and a Premier League season opener away to Everton were alleged to have the capacity to define our season. How wrong they were.

I think we can now all finally agree that we won't be winning the Premier League title this season. That we are still mathematically, if not realistically, in with a chance with three games remaining reflects a remarkable turn around. That two different teams could also catch us in the race for Champions League places and leave us only with a place in the Europa League signifies the crazy season we have experienced. Twice this season we lagged behind the leaders by 11 points. Twice we reeled them in to within touching distance only to fall away again.

Watching Robin van Persie's cameo role against Spurs one would have to wonder where we would be had he stayed fit for an entire campaign. One also has to wonder where would United be had they been without their talisman since last November. Unfortunately 'what ifs' have no place in sport and the fact remains that our most potent striker is for too injury prone to rely on for an entire season.

Conducting a review of our season one would have to form the opinion that while we have made significant improvements over the last few months, our undoing was a bit of some old same old. We have an uninspiring defence, our injuries mount up too high and too quick, our goalkeepers are insufficient and our manager seems too stubborn to even contemplate the smallest of compromises in out teams tactics.

A world class goalkeeper is a must in the summer if we are to have any hope of keeping pace. France, Wengers favourite hunting ground, is awash with goalkeeping talent at the moment and Hugo Lloris seems to be the most capable. However if Wenger is to keep to his track record of nurturing young talent then the most likely outcome in this department is that we will have to suffer another season with our current crop and hope that Wojciech Szczesny can deliver on his potential. At best we could pick up someone like Thomas Sorensen for a minimal fee to keep the spot warm for a season or two.

Along with that the deal for Marouane Chamakh is allegedly sealed. The issue now might not be what will happen to Bendtner when we have another striker who can win a header but more of what will happen to our team when we don't need to have any single one of our strikers and instead have more than one option even when we are carrying injuries.

I don't realistically think van Persie has the physical capacity or Arshavin the mental capacity to stay focused for an entire campaign and this in turn means that when things are down we need to be better positioned than needing a Silvestre, Almunia or Fabianski type player to drag us through.

All in all I believe the season to be a relative success although the same rate of improvement will be required from our squad as a whole if we are to justify our prudent expenditure and persistence with players such as Diaby, Denilson, Walcott, Bendtner and Song. Along with that it is getting very close to do or die time for Eduardo and Carlos Vela. Both very talented players but at some stage you have to show your stuff or move on.

Fabregas, and to a lesser extent Vermaelen, have brought some much needed world class play to the squad and are the type of player around which you can build a title winning squad. It might mean we are still a few short but it's a foundation stone that we didn't have this time last year. It's a start at least.

PS: For those of you who were wondering where my articles disappeared to over the last few weeks I was spending a few outstanding days in Lake Garda, Italy at a family wedding which was spoiled by the Messi show. I came home to an illness which has me laid low for another week. It wasn't laziness, this time.

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