2014: An Arsenal Review

So 2014 for Arsenal finished with a win but what were the best and worst moments for the Gunners this year? FA Cup and Community Shield triumphs measured with losing out again in the race for the Premier League title will certainly feature, so let’s have a look at who’s shone and what to remember this year for.

Best Moment: End of Silverware Drought

At Wembley in May Arsenal showed a strong character and belief to come from 2 goals down against a resilient and competitive Hull side to win the FA Cup final 3-2 and break the 9 year drought on silverware Arsene Wenger’s side had been suffering from. It capped off a wonderful 2013-14 Aaron Ramsey who picked up the winning goal and highlighted the skills that Santi Cazorla brings to the Arsenal team when given a run in a more forward position.

Fans hoped that the win would spark the winning spirit back into Arsenal but we will have to wait until midway through 2015 before we know if it has.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 observations from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park

Poor Moment: 4th Again

For me the worst part of the year was stuttering to another 4th placed finish after sitting at the top of the table for longer than anyone else during the previous season. For me it showed that despite the silverware drought being stopped we seem to lack the mental stamina to sustain a challenge over an entire season under the management of Arsene Wenger. Will this season prove me wrong? I’m not sure. But I am more than willing to be proven wrong!

Strongest Sign of Improvement: Alexis Sanchez

Signing the Barcelona man has improved our attacking options to no end, and also showed we could steal people away from the big clubs in Europe. It showed we had the ambition to try and sign the big players and the ethos and people in place to attract them despite our traditional restrictions on wages.

He has so far proved to be our man of the season, scoring 10 Premier League goals faster than any other Arsenal player apart from Ian Wright, and looks to be someone who is not willing to accept second best, the exact type of player we need.

Live Feed

Blogging Dirty

Signs we’re not moving at all: Lack of Defensive Investment

So once again we have failed to improve our creaking and leaky defence with any experience, signing only young English defender Calum Chambers and right back Debuchy. We then let Jenkinson go out on loan and sold Vermaelen despite it being pointed out last season that we had no cover in defence at all, literally the definition of standing still.

So when Debuchy and Koscielny got injured and we were left with an ever-changing back 4 that were pretty much all playing out of position it was all ever so predictable for Arsenal fans and some were simply confused at the apparent lack of action taken to address a seemingly simple but important problem.

Best and Worst Players will appear in separate posts later! Subscribe to the Site for instant Updates!