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Did Arsenal “come of age” against Hull?

By Paul Collins

Looking through the media outlets this weekend there seemed to be a common theme, that of Arsenal “maturing”, “coming of age”, or “growing up” against Hull. Is there any substance to that argument?

I personally don’t think so, and believe that those who spout such comments are either incredibly lazy (most of the mainstream journalists) or Arsenal fans who have intentionally blinded themselves to the progress our team has been making for 18 months.

The premise itself is faulty. Maturity doesn’t happen immediately, in fact most of the time it is a lagging indicator. You don’t get results and suddenly mature. Instead you mature as a team and then GRADUALLY begin to get the results. And those who suggest Arsenal grew up against Hull seem to be ignoring the first 29 games of this season or the final 23 games of last season. During that time, against teams not named Chelsea or Manchester United, our record is P 46 W 31 D 13 L 2. That hardly seems like the record of a team desperately in need of growing up. On the contrary, that is Championship form in anyone’s language.

If there is a period when Arsenal truly began to “grow up” and “mature” as a side, then I would put forth 6^th December 2008 until 28^th February 2009, the first 12 games of the 46 game stretch that I reference above. To understand my argument, the situation at the start of that sequence must be put into proper context.

On 22 November 2008 we lost 3-0 to Manchester City. It was our 5^th loss in 14 games. We were in 5^th place. We had lost Cesc and Theo Walcott to long-term injuries, joining Eduardo and Rosicky on the sidelines. We were still struggling to adapt to life without Hleb, Flamini, and Gilberto. Gallas had just been stripped of the captaincy. Adebayor seemed disinterested in playing football.

We followed that up with a 2-1 win against Chelsea, a game that only seemed to confirm our status as a team that could beat anyone on our day, but one that simply dropped too many points against lesser teams to ever be taken seriously as a potential League Champion.

Smaller, less talented teams had a blueprint how to beat us. We were frail. We were young. We were doomed. We lost 2-0 to Burnley away in the League Cup. Our season was falling apart rapidly. The “Doom and Gloom” brigade seemed euphoric, they were in their element and Arsene Wenger and the team were being showered with disdain and disgust. Our top-4 spot was about to be lost, our financial future was in jeopardy, and Arsene Wenger’s job was at risk.

Sitting here today remembering all of that seems surreal. But if anything it was worse than I have made it out to be. Things were truly bleak.

On 6^th December we played Wigan at home. We all remember that match. Eboue was booed off the pitch. But we won 1-0. It was the start of a truly ugly 12 game stretch in which we won 4 and drew 8, scoring only 11 goals. The football we played during that stretch was often horrible, staid, defensive stuff.

So how can that stretch be regarded as the period when the team “matured”, “grew up”, or “came of age”?

Well, we didn’t lose.

While many Arsenal fans were calling our players “unfit to wear the jersey” and saying how bad things were, a group of young players with everything to lose, quite simply refused to lose. A team that had been conceding goals by the sackful suddenly conceded only 6 goals in 12 games. It was painful to watch at times, but they stuck with it. The team drew against Liverpool, who were challenging for the Championship at the time. We drew at Everton (in the last minute), at Aston Villa, and at Tottenham (with 10 men).

Young men such as Abou Diaby, Alex Song, Nic Bendtner, Samir Nasri, Denilson, Aaron Ramsey, and Carlos Vela got extensive playing time during this stretch. Arshavin was introduced to the side. Those of us who actually looked closely enough could see all the seeds of our current success being planted.

I personally had huge battles with more pessimistic Arsenal fans during this period as I tried to argue how much improvement the team was showing, how far they were progressing, and how much more positive about the future I was all of a sudden. But still many chose to ignore the clear evidence.

To many Arsenal fans those players were still “unfit to wear the jersey”. Get rid of Alex Song they said, even though he was beginning to overpower opponents on a regular basis. Get rid of Bendtner, they said, even though no defender seemed able to contain him and it was only his own finishing that was standing between him and greatness. Get rid of them all, they said, even though the players were fighting for every inch of ground.

On the 28^th February 2009 we drew 0-0 with Fulham, the final game of this stretch. The following day Aston Villa played Stoke with the chance to go 8 points clear of us in 4^th place. Aston Villa jumped out to a 2-0 lead and things looked bleak. But they conceded 2 late goals to draw 2-2 and the entire complexion of our season changed.

On 3^rd March 2009 we played West Brom and won 3-1 with 2 goals from, yes that’s right, Bendtner. We won 7 out of 8 to move past Villa and reclaim 4^th. From that day we have played 34 games against teams other than Chelsea and Manchester United and have a record of W 27 D 5 L 2.

Much of our football has been mesmeric, beautiful to watch. And yet there has also been a steely determination to much of it as well. Against lesser teams we no longer are intimidated by physical approaches. We lost to Sunderland away earlier this season in our first game after Robin van Persie’s injury. We seemed disjointed without him. That was understandable. We lost 4-2 away at Manchester City to an opponent inspired by Emmanuel Adebayor. Chelsea suffered the same fate and we hope Manchester United also suffer the same fate. Apart from that we have dealt with the lesser teams in the League with ruthless consistency.

And yet some people still want to say that we “matured”, or “came of age” against Hull on Saturday? The performance against Hull was simply yet another example of how this team has progressed since the dark days in November 2009. At that time performing as well as we did without Cesc, Gallas, and van Persie would have seemed ridiculous.

But for those of us who have watched closely, the signs have been there all along. This isn’t a sudden change, as many would like to believe, but a slow and steady progression through some truly difficult times. For those who have kept their eyes open, there have been the most remarkable stories to follow, boys growing before our very eyes into men. Those of us who watched closely could have told anyone who cared to listen that Alex Song was going to be a star this year, or that Nasri was going to grow into a true creative force, or that Diaby would be a constant threat as soon as he got proper match fitness.

For those of us who kept our eyes open, this journey has been a true joy, and brings home all of the joys of being a fan, for we have seen a team grow, and now we are able to watch men challenge for the biggest trophies of all with the confidence that we saw it coming all along.

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