ALRIGHT so I’ve mentioned this at least a couple of times before, but I really do see it as one of the major reasons that we failed to challenge for silverware this season.

The most notable long term absentees this year have been Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie, William Gallas and Abou Diaby, but we’ve also lost Tomas Rosicky for fairly long spells at times. Freddie Ljungberg was also missing for a length of time towards the end of the season and Theo Walcott had the operation which ruled him out of the last part of the year.

That’s 8 regular first team players out for substantial lengths of time. An injury list like that is clearly going to have a major impact on any team.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not whining and moaning about how unlucky we’ve been and how the injuries have cost us our season, but I feel you really can’t ignore something like this because in my opinion, had we have had a full strength squad for most of the season, things could have been very different.

A lot of fans out there are crying for Arsene to make bring in some experience over the summer, William Gallas included. I agree that we need more experience, there’s little doubt about that. But the question is whether Arsene believes that his young team can grow and gain experience themselves and in my opinion, he does; and for this reason I think we’re unlikely to make any big signings this summer.

Arsene Wenger has full faith in his youngsters. That’s clear. He’s always built teams from the bottom up, developing young talent into world class footballers along the way.

Either way, I really think that next season is make or break for this Arsenal side.

THERE we have it. Another season over, and what a perfect match to sum it all up. A 0-0 draw with Portsmouth. A match we dominated and should have won. It was typical of our season, really. I didn’t get to see any of it, but from what I’ve heard, we dominated, created chance after chance, but couldn’t find the net. We simply must be more clinical next season. Baptista’s penalty miss in the first half didn’t help things really. His third penalty miss of the season.

Arsene said he was happy with the performance but disappointed we didn’t win the game. How many times have we been left feeling like that this campaign!

“We did well against a side who fought very hard for a place in Europe. Overall I am pleased at the way things went with so many young players playing. We should have won the game, that was the only frustrating thing.”

He also spoke about where we must improve next season.

“Of course, we aim to come back and fight much higher up the Premiership table next season. What areas need improving next season? Well, we have done well against the top 10 teams but away from home against the lower half of the Premiership we did not get enough points. Also our conversion rate can be better and you could see that once again at Fratton Park.”

The New Away Kit 

It looks as if the pictured (click for a larger image) is going to be our new away kit for next season, like it or not. Personally I quite like it, but I can see where the other fans are coming from with the white being the colour of our rivals thing [especially as I think Sp*rs have switched to an all-white strip for next season]. Either way, it looks like that’s that now.

Now we can all sit back and relax for 3 months of speculation-filled, football-less days. Our next game is against Paris Saint Germain on July 28th. 

I say bring on the Emirates Cup.

SO the last game of the season is upon us, a trip to Portsmouth with the possibility of finishing 3rd above Liverpool who no doubt will be more focused on a certain final in just under two weeks.

We’ve made our widely-publicised first signing, Lukasz Fabianski, a 22 year-old Polish ‘keeper from Legia Warsaw. Arsene said he will go straight into the squad, and will make his decisions on team selection based purely on performances.

I’ve got to say that over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself longing for next season and I’m not exactly looking forward to the endless weeks of transfer speculation that is the summer break. And it looks increasingly likely that Arsene doesn’t believe we need to add much to the side.

Arsene Wenger gave an interesting interview to Arsenal TV Online where he talked about Fabianski, the likelihood of further signings and the whole Baptista and Reyes issue. He admitted that we’ve lacked a natural winger at times this season, and therefore we’ve missed Reyes, but I personally can’t see him back in London after the things he’s said over the past year or so about never really being happy at Arsenal. Julio Baptista, on the other hand could be on his way back to Madrid which leaves Arsene wondering what to do with Jose Antonio Reyes. Will he be tempted to do everything he can to get him back to Arsenal because of the lack of natural wingers in our squad? Will he be able to convince him to come back to Arsenal? Somehow I don’t think so, but you never know.

Arsene also reiterated his belief in our young side. He believes that these boys have got something special, and that our lack of results this season has not been because of a lack of motivation, but a lack of maturity and experience. I know a lot of the fans out there believe that in order to be able to properly compete next season, we need to add something to the squad this summer. To an extent, I agree — we need to find that mixture of youth and experience which we haven’t quite done yet. But at the same time, I trust Arsene Wenger. He knows what this side has. He knows what it’s lacking. He knows that this season we’ve been plagued by injuries to key players at key moments and with a bit more luck next season, we could have a very rewarding campaign.

All this is not to say that this season hasn’t been incredibly frustrating. Arsene himself admits that this one has been his most frustrating so far and a failure on many levels.

At the end of the day, at a club like Arsenal, trophies are the main priority. We have to respect the fact that Arsene has never really been the type of manager to splash cash around buying established world-class players. He does things his way. He builds teams through young talent and as we’ve seen during his decade at the club, he’s not that bad at it.

What I’m trying to say is that sometimes we have to put all of our football knowledge and analysis to one side and think: It’s Arsene Wenger’s job to create a winning team. He’s paid to bring success to the club, and the fact that he does things his way should be respected. Arsene Wenger is a professional football manager and he knows what he’s doing. While we would all love to sign this player or that player, we’ve got to remember that he’s has always been a manager who develops players. He turns young promise into world-class talent.

And that’s the way he’s always done it.