After winning the Premiership in remarkable fashion last season Arsenal must surely set their sites this season on winning?the Premiership.
That’s right you heard me, the focus of the club should be on defending their spot as the best team in England. I often read stories saying how Arsenal must now set their sites on Champions League glory ? this is often sited as a way to keep players like Vieira at Arsenal. I think trying to focus on a tournament is risky at best. There are absolutely no guarantees in the Champions League, ask Real Madrid. They slipped farther away from winning it in the last couple of years despite bringing in more stars. Anybody here think that a year ago everyone at Porto said, “Ok, this year we’re going all out for the Champions League!” Of course they didn’t. It’s just the wrong way to frame your goals for the season. Yes, you can, and should, have a strategy for the competition, and yes it is a goal to strive for. But that’s a lot different than focusing all your efforts towards it. Maybe if you’re Southampton and the FA Cup is your only shot at a trophy. Then I could see “going for it.”
On the other hand, winning consecutive EPL titles is not only a smart goal, but it too works to quiet our critics. Yes, the Wenger era has been phenomenally successful, but the three titles have the feel of one-offs as the club hasn’t been able to defend their crown. To this point Man U have been able to write off Arsenal championships as just down to their own bad luck or injury. “If we’d had Rio all year it would have been different.” True or not, it can be thrown out there. But two years in a row? I don’t want to hear anybody else’s excuses then.
Yes, I’d love to see Arsenal win the Champions League, it is right now the ultimate prize in club football. But you can’t win it by saying, “We’re going to focus all our efforts on winning it.” By its very nature the tournament is too open to luck, bad breaks, injuries, suspension and fatigue. A lot of those factors are mitigated during a 38-game season, where a home draw doesn’t get you bounced from the competition.
Winning the Champions League doesn’t guarantee you much anyway. Ask some of these “great clubs:” Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, SV Hamburg or even Borussia Dortmund who won’t be playing in any European competitions this year. Would you care to trade with any of them right now?
10 Responses to “Arsenal’s First Priority Should Be?”
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July 27th, 2004 at 7:30 am
100% spot on Rick! Job number one is title defense. I think AW has hinted at this when he was quoted as saying that league form is the best barometer of a team, and not tournament play. While the CL would be nice, the EPL is a necessity.
July 27th, 2004 at 7:33 am
Rick, while I agree that winning the League again is a high priority… I believe AW and company will definitely place alot of energy, and rest key players with the goal of advancing/winning the CL.
We had a fantastic chance last year, and simply ran out of gas. (in both the FA Cup and CL)
Would you have traded a few losses in the league for a victory over Chelsea in the QF’s of the CL?
I agree, we are not going at the CL at the expense of winning the league… that would be ludicrous. But with many folks clamoring for the inclusion of all our young talent in “actual” matches… I for once AGREE with them. Let the kids play in the alot more league matches. We will drop points because of it, but so what…
The allure of the CL for us is…. its the Holy Grail of European Football and we have never won it. Now is the time to make the run!!!
July 27th, 2004 at 8:27 am
Nicely put. For me the CL is a good excuse for us, the fans, to invade Europe, again.
CL is okay, but it lost all its allure for me when they started allowing non-champions to enter and now we’re down to fourth place teams. It’s just like a glorified UEFA cup.
Give me the premier league anyday.
July 27th, 2004 at 8:36 am
I also agree with you, Rick. A legitimate, healthy shot at the CL (anything can happen) should be a reward that comes from an intelligent pursuit of the League title. Improve your depth, be consistent, and then take the trophy with a rested and confident best XI .
I’d be thrilled with a double this year. And perfectly satisfied with back to back League Championships. I just hope the team feels the same way. I don’t need another summer like this one.
Who am I kidding?
July 27th, 2004 at 10:18 am
As an Arsenal fan, Champions League is the only trophy I haven’t withnessed us lifting it loftly, and it happens it’s the prizest trophy in Europe, so my biggest dream now is to see us winning it one day. Having said that, I’m 100% with u on this one too. As Ranierl put it last season - Champions League is somewhat like playing bingo (though i wouldn’t exactly relate it to “bingo”!), there is a LUCK element there. Till today i can still hear ppl saying Man U was a bit lucky to win the CL on 99, or they were a bit unlucky to lose to Porto last season… but nobody can argue the team who won the Premiership does not deserve the trophy.
July 27th, 2004 at 3:05 pm
Looks like you’re not going to have another suffering summer, though not alas for the reasons we’d hoped. Check out the Madrid paper Marca - they’re not usually wrong. Hey ho.
July 27th, 2004 at 3:25 pm
Wenger has stated he is not going anywhere… not sure I care about “Marca” … some Spanish paper. What makes it any better than the Sun?
July 27th, 2004 at 7:51 pm
I totally agree with the sentiment here that the Premiership should be priority number one. However I do want to see some of the younger players for the Norwich fixture at Highbury. Just one or two of them, not just for Europe but for the future as well.
I really want to draw Madrid!
July 28th, 2004 at 4:12 am
While I can’t resist the temptation of proving to others that we CAN win championship twice in a row, I think we have to understand what is going through AW and other Arsenal players’ mind. CL cup is something AW, and many our almost veteran players never manage to achieve. AW may still have years to prove himself as a manager capable of winning it. But players such as Campbell, Pires or Bergkamp, they don’t have much time and they know if they were to win the Holy Grail as a player, the time is now. “So what if I can only win once? The fact is still there, I did won CL title with Arsenal”-that’s how they want to end their career you see. Two or three times Premiership champion title in a row may not even be the fair tradeoff for them. Having said that, I do believe with clever rotation, luck of course, and enough trust in our youngsters, we can pull off a Treble or Premiership CL double this time.
July 29th, 2004 at 6:05 pm
Agree, agree, agree.
Our priorities should stay the same every year, and in this order:
1. Avoid relegation.
2. Qualify for Europe.
3. Qualify for European tourney that counts (Champions League).
4. Win the Prem.
5. Win the Champs League.
6. Win the FA Cup.
7. Win any trophy.