Whether or not Arsenal qualify for the Champions League, they will look back on this season as hugely successful.
After consecutive 8th place finishes, Mikel Arteta has built a team capable of rising above the resignation that has defined the best part of the last decade.
As an Arsenal fan, I often think back to an Arsene Wenger quote from towards the end of his reign. Wenger obviously believed he was still good enough. Elite people always do.
However, he stopped publicly saying how good he was. Instead he started telling us how much he cared.
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‘Every defeat is like a scar on my heart’, said Wenger, and it showed. So many promising runs of form came to an end with an embarrassing defeat. In Wengers final years, the team never recovered. He was a victim of his passion in this regard.
He was the guy who was supposed to rouse the team, pick them up from disappointment. How was he supposed to do that when he was walking around with hundreds of scars on his heart?
He didn’t, and Arsenal slid and slid. Fourth, fourth, fourth, fifth, sixth … eighth.
It’s taken five years, but Mikel Arteta’s team seems to finally be recovering from the bitterness of the late Wenger era.
When they began the season with three consecutive defeats, it appeared to all over. Instead, they played themselves into pole position for fourth place by March.
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When they recently lost three in a row to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton, it appeared they would once again fade away.
Instead, they defeated Chelsea and Manchester United in the space of a week to once again seize the advantage in the race for fourth.
This isn’t a team who will spend the rest of the season getting over a heartbreak. For the first time in years, this team has an actual personality. It has the ability to bounce back.
There are no guarantees. They are just as likely to finish 6th as they are fourth. However, optimism has returned to the Emirates Stadium and for that, Arteta and his team must be applauded.
