Pain in the Arsenal end of season survey – Results

Hello everyone,

A few weeks ago I posted a link to an end of season survey and I got a decent response after posting on social media and other things like that. So below are the results:

Player of the Season: Santi Cazorla – Cazorla was the clear winner in this category after an extremely impressive debut season in England after joining from Malaga last summer. The Spaniard netted 12 times overall and provided 14 assists and that was enough to win the award here as well as on Arsenal’s official website too.

Player of the Season: Cazorla won the award for Arsenal’s player of the season as voted for by you. Pic: Sky Sports.

Most Improved Player: Per Mertesacker – Arsenal’s German giant Per Mertesacker takes this award after a much improved second season in the Premier League. Once Arsene Wenger decided to go with the defensive pairing of Mertesacker and Koscielny, dropping Vermaelen in the process, the team performed a lot better as they knew they were there to stay, no rotating around, Vermaelen only got in when Mertesacker was suspended. The ‘BFG’ is now a popular figure amongst Arsenal fans, not only for his lovable appearance, but because he played a big part in the team’s Champions League qualification. Scoring your first two goals for the club against Tottenham also helped, but his winner away to Fulham towards the end of the season proved just as crucial.

Most Disappointing Player: Gervinho – Arsenal’s Ivorian international had another disappointing campaign. It started well enough for him with a brace at home to Southampton, followed up with goals against Montpellier and Olympiakos in the Champions League, as well as Arsenal’s goal in the 2-1 defeat at home to Chelsea at the end of September. Before heading away to Africa for the Africa Cup of Nations, Gervinho missed an open goal in the League Cup defeat at Bradford. Following his return he found form with goals in March against both Swansea and Reading. Personally he is very frustrating to watch – extremely frustrating. He gets the ball and he just looks as if he doesn’t have a clue what to do with it. When he’s through on goal, you’re never 100% sure he’s going to score, even that open goal against Bradford I wasn’t sure of – rightly so too!. It should be noted that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave Gervinho a close run for his money in this category.

Gervinho – Arsenal’s most disappointing player. Pic: Daily Mail.

Best Game in 2012/13: Reading 5-7 Arsenal (League Cup) – It can come as no real surprise that this game was voted game of the season. Goals galore at the Madejski Stadium and a whole range of emotions going through your mind. From 4-0 down, Arsenal managed to salvage a little pride by scoring 2 goals, one just before the break, the other not too long afterwards. It remained 4-2 until the 89th minute when Laurent Koscielny gave the Gunners hope. I couldn’t believe my eyes when in borrowed time of added time, Arsenal levelled things up to force extra-time. When it went to extra-time, I had no doubts that we would win. Reading were in as much disbelief as I was, all the way over in the States at the time. When Marouane Chamakh put us ahead, I still wasn’t sure if we could hang on. I was right, as Reading inevitably equalised. But Walcott scored in the dying minutes of extra-time, just like he had in normal time. Chamakh put the icing on the cake with a 7th goal of the night. If you needed proof that this game was crazy, Chamakh scoring twice was making me think I was having a very odd, but somewhat pleasant dream.

Worst Game in 2012/13: Bradford 1-1 Arsenal (League Cup – AET – Bradford win 3-2 on penalties) – Who said the League Cup wasn’t important to Arsenal and their fans?. Reading was voted game of the season by the fans in this poll and Bradford was voted the worst game. This was a nightmare. Arsenal played a strong team full of many internationals. They faced a team from League Two that had knocked out Premier League opposition already in the competition. Arsenal fell behind with just over 15 minutes played and it stayed that way until 2 minutes from time when Thomas Vermaelen spared Arsenal’s blushes for half an hour or so. I thought when it went to extra-time, tiredness would kick in for Bradford and the Gunners would just about see them off. Cazorla smashed the crossbar in extra-time and Gervinho missed a sitter in normal time. Once penalties came up, I felt it was destined to be Bradford’s night. I was right. Cazorla and Chamakh missed from the spot and ironically the man who forced extra-time, Thomas Vermaelen missed the all important spot kick that sent  Bradford through. It was definitely my worst game of the season and it appears as though others agree. I felt awful after the Spurs defeat at White Hart Lane, but Bradford was the most humiliating one. Blackburn in the FA Cup was runner-up in this category, another equally humiliating defeat.

Goal of the season: Lukas Podolski vs Montpellier (h) – Podolski had this competition all to himself virtually. His fantastic strike against Montpellier in the Champions League group stages won it by a country mile, with his goal against West Ham in the Premier League coming second in the vote.

Who would you most like Arsenal to sign this summer?: Cesc Fabregas – Cesc Fabregas has remained popular with the majority of Arsenal fans, despite the fact he went on strike in order to leave the club in 2011. Evidence of this would be the fact one voter left two hearts either side of his name to show there is still love for him in London. Since his return to Barcelona in 2011, he has been in and out of the first-team over there. It is rumoured that Arsenal have a buy back clause as part of the deal that took him back to Barcelona two years ago and it is certainly possible that he could return. I believe that if he was to return to the Premier League, it would only be Arsenal that he’d join. There are rumours in the media about a move to Manchester United, Chelsea or Manchester City, but I would be surprised if he joined another team in England. Stevan Jovetic of Fiorentina came in second place and Wayne Rooney came third in this vote.

Cesc Fabregas is wanted back at Arsenal by the fans.

Player you’d least like to see leave this summer: Jack Wilshere – Wilshere has had many injuries in the last couple of years that have halted his progression at the club a little. When he is injured, we miss the energy that he brings to the team. He is a fantastic player and if Arsenal were to lose him, they would lose the biggest talent produced at the club since Ashley Cole. Santi Cazorla was obviously another name high in the voting, but Wilshere won this category and I’d have to say I agree with it.

Best signing of 2012/13: Santi Cazorla – Cazorla wins the award for the best signing as well. It was sort of inevitable that he would, given that he won the Player of the Season award on this website too. I believe he was the most consistent player of the 4 signed this season. Podolski and Giroud had very good debut seasons for the club, but Cazorla was on the pitch more often and I think it is fair to say he was more consistent too. I felt a bit bad putting Nacho Monreal into this vote, given that he only joined at the end of the January transfer window, but it would have been unfair not too as well I guess.

Would you rather Arsenal finished below 4th and won a trophy or 4th and trophyless?: Now this was an interesting question I thought I would throw in to end the survey. The television companies and newspapers mention that Arsenal have gone 8 years now without winning silverware pretty well every time the team plays a game. The question divided opinion. The actual winner wasn’t in the question. It had one little bit added to it. The winner was finishing BELOW 4th, therefore not qualifying for the Champions League (unless they win the Champions League) and winning a trophy. But the thing added to it was – must finish above Spurs. It goes to show that a lot of fans would prefer to win trophies than settling for merely qualifying for the Champions League, but finishing above Tottenham is a must. Whilst there is no rule in football saying you cannot do both, it does appear as though this Arsenal side are struggling to cope with the task of lifting silverware as well as qualifying for the Champions League.

I think back to 2011 when we lost the League Cup Final to Birmingham. Not winning that ruined everything that year. It would only have benefited the club to have won that game. We can’t have finished that season any worse after that defeat. We went out of every other competition in the space of a fortnight and fell out of the title race too. Nobody can say that a win at Wembley that day would have made things worse. That’s why I am always for Wenger taking the domestic cups seriously as well as trying to compete in the Premier League and Champions League. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t win something and at least qualify for the Champions League, but Wenger seems to think so nowadays.

That wraps it up. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and I want to thank all of you who took the time to vote! 🙂