We won the league at….. or did we lose it there « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Walter Broeckx
We all love to sing the popular Arsenal song: We won the league at White Hart Lane…. I bet you are all signing it right now. So am I.
But when looking back at the season I wonder if this season we should sing: We lost the league at White Hart Lane. No need to sing it along.
And no I don’t mean in fact when we played there a few weeks ago. No in fact I refer to a great victory at White Hart Lane we had this season. I am talking about the 1-4 victory in the Carling Cup. Now it might be a long look back I am doing, but I really wonder how things would have developed if not for that then glorious but now after all the dust is starting to settle beginning of the end. Let me explain.
We all know that Wenger for years has only played Arsenal light teams in the Carling Cup. We can remember the days a few seasons ago when a then hardly 16 year old and a 17 year old played some tremendous football at the Emirates demolishing teams like Sheffield United 6-0 and beating Wigan 3-0. Other players like Vela, Bendtner and other young players shined in those games. And even when we had to go to Manchester City last season the manager kept the same attitude and played a very young side which lost to the billionaires at their home ground.
We all know how the media got onto Wenger’s back. They said he disrespected the Carling cup. A part of the fans got angry at Wenger because he didn’t want us to win things and they wanted to win anything. But Wenger stayed faithful to what he had said before the competition started in those years and played the youth team and some old legs who otherwise didn’t get much games.
But this year was different. In the first round we had to play away from home and we had to go to Tottenham of all places. When we played them in the semi final in the Carling cup a few years earlier Wenger played a youthful team that got beaten, and I still remember thinking how it was possible that every shot they took just went in our goal. But we lost and it was a big defeat. A defeat no Gooner wants to suffer. So at the time the fan base wasn’t happy with the outcome of that game.
Was it the fact that a big part of the fan base was desperate for success, any success? Or was it the fact that Wenger realised that losing to Tottenham was no option? So the manager decided this season to change what he had been doing all those years. He chose to field a stronger side against Tottenham. The defeat of a few years earlier had to be put right. And so we won and beat them 1-4 at their home. We all clapped in our hands, we celebrated, some of us might have been dancing in the streets. Anyway it was fun.
And as everyone was happy the manager continued his policy in the following rounds. He didn’t play the best team but always a team that had a lot of first team players in the starting line up. And the further we went the more pressure was on to continue doing this. Until we reached the final and suddenly in one split second of madness we lost it. That is a bit of a résumé of the Carling Cup run this season of course, but it is just about right. Almost successful but we stumbled on the last hurdle.
But when you look back at it now one might think it might have been better that we had put our usual youth team out that night at Tottenham. Okay we would have lost that game, well maybe we would. If we had lost it, we would have felt down at the moment. Some fans would have called for Wenger to be fired because he did what he did, just as Tottenham fans are now calling for Redknapp to be kicked out because he failed to get them back into the Champions league. Our pride would have been hurt at the time as theirs is hurt now.
But going out in the first round or whenever the youth team were beaten would have meant that we would have had 5 games less to play between October and February. And as we all know we had a very busy schedule in those months with us playing each weekend and midweek for months. It could have meant that Cesc Fabregas played less games and would have saved his hamstring more?
And maybe most of all it would have saved us from the February 27th hangover. More and more players are admitting that that terrible final minute against Birmingham was the moment the season started collapsing. Some didn’t recover from the uppercut we got that day. And in a way it took away so much confidence from a lot of players that the fall out is still visible.
So we not only had to deal with the physical consequences of playing our almost strongest team all those weeks but also the mental scar was something we had to deal with.
What would have happened if Wenger would have played a youth team against Tottenham? What could have happened?
We won: great and let the youngster continue the job. But if they could not finish it the fans would have been unhappy because we were not playing our strongest squad and taking the Carling Cup serious.
We lost: terrible for the youngster but even more maybe for the impatient fans who wanted us to win.
But what would have happened was that our first team would have had to play 5 games less. They would have had more rest in the winter period. And maybe they would have not suffered the big blow they now had to suffer. And this could have resulted in fresher legs and a stronger mental state from the players. We could have focussed more on the other trophies like the league and the FA cup. We wouldn’t have to shuffle in the last games of the CL and play a weaker team in some of those games. Maybe it would be a wise thing to just aim at 3 prizes at the most with this team while we left the Carling cup for the young ones. Let the young guns have a go no matter who we play. But as a supporter we have to accept defeat then when it comes and not blame the players or the manager.
After all what could have been if we hadn’t played those extra games and suffered the extra pressure after the lost final? So maybe we lost the league while winning a game. Maybe we lost the league at September 21 while beating Tottenham 1-4….