There is a moment in every season which sticks out the greatest for whatever reason, usually positive and almost certainly definitive. However, I can't help but be drawn to a negative experience in the season - one that is almost entirely uneventful and instantly forgetful. This, conversely, is why it sticks out so prominently in my mind.
The match is Arsenal vs Stoke City, a narrow 1-0 win for The Gunners but despite the slender margin, the game was anything but. Stoke were unadventurous, sluggish and the contest was over by the time Sebastian Squillaci opened and closed the scoring on eight minutes. What got me was the lack of ambition by Stoke. Perhaps the gulf in quality was so large that they were unable to exert their efforts onto the score line but they played with such distrust in technique, that a chance was always unlikely in its outcome. As it was, they had a really good headed chance that was put over by Ryan Shawcross but in 82 minutes of play, that was about it. Fans who had attended the Emirates hoping for an exhibition may have bemoaned in the end, Arsenal's lack of penetration without Cesc Fábregas but Stoke's spoiling tactics effectively "killed" the contest. They defended deep even with ten minutes to go and attacked with a lone striker throughout. The tactics were the equivalent of an episode of "Deal or No Deal" put balls forward in the general direction of the box and see if they can influence luck. At the end of the match, I was left cursing the waste of two hours in my life.
Now, I'm not using this moment to attack Stoke's style but rather what is the overall objective of modern football clubs. Is it to win at all costs, to provide entertainment or survive? The latter is an absurd argument on paper; owners are often quick to disassociated clubs as businesses but if they are not making a profit and most often a loss, what is the reason for the existence? In logical terms, never mind in business sense, surviving for the sake existing makes no sense.
Football then, is about glory; the one-upmanship over rivals confirms tribal superiority to the various stakeholders and sport allows, better than other mediums, an outlet for our "primitive emotions" (Ian Buruma, Guardian Comment is free, June 2010). How you choose to achieve that glory is then up to you or rather, the coach, who is essentially the face of the club.
In that sense, it is hard to begrudge Stoke City because all they are doing is playing to their strengths and by doing so, have confirmed their presence as a Premiership team. And this season, their style has enabled them to reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup, which remains their best chance of achieving glory. Nevertheless, competing and remaining in the top league still confirms some sort of tribal superiority.
I would argue, however, that being competitive is what top level sport is about. Perhaps, smaller clubs will accept one piece of silverware over a prolonged period of abjection. Certainly, it helps explain why Birmingham City fans, upon their return to the Premier League in 2007, admitted to Kevin Day for Match of the Day 2, that they would rather five seasons trading in mediocrity in the Championship for a cup final because they are used to expecting less. However, one would wonder if they still feel that way after their recent League Cup win against Arsenal.
Indeed, moving on to Arsenal and that is what Arséne Wenger has given his team the most over the barren run of six years without a trophy. His comments that fourth place is bigger than a domestic cup win may have alienated some fans starved of glory, but every season, the team still competes at the top. They may fall short but they have given hope and one can't possibly argue that there isn't a realistic chance the team can win a trophy very soon. The youth development project isn't the manager's fetish but rather a strategy and it has allowed The Gunners to mount a stable challenge following the move to the Emirates.
But perhaps, Wenger can be a victim of his own high expectations and belief and also guilty of hyping up his team's ability that it invariably leaves his fans disappointed. This season, he made the somewhat daunting statement that his team could win all four trophies that they were involved in. As it was, it was too unrealistic to expect his young side to meet those ambitions although; Wenger did so as a way of keeping his players focused. However, it is perhaps the timing of his requests which bears the most significance.
In 2002, Wenger claimed his side could go the whole season unbeaten but as it turned out, the predication a year premature. He challenged his team again the following season and the confidence they acquired allowed "The Invincibles" to go a whole campaign without losing. This season, winning four trophies too remains the case you can't say a trophy is still not beyond them. Perhaps though, next season can be the season where they can really push on.
The team is at the fabled age of 23-24 where there is a right blend of explosiveness and hunger and contrary to reports, the team has great character. Wenger has confidence in the team, perhaps, more than any other to bounce back from such setbacks as the three cup defeats. The motto amongst the team-mates is "if we go down, we go down together" and judging by the calm, no-blame culture, especially after the freak error in the League Cup final, that's been exactly the case. "For me there are two characteristics of this team - the great bond and the great determination, great focus," says the manager. "They have all been educated together and they have the advantage of a team that has grown together. I feel it is a team that is very young but very hungry, very focused, very respectful. I wouldn't say there are any individuals shouting more than others but there is a common understanding, a common bond that comes out."
Wenger's last potential great team, the class of 2007/08 were too clique-ridden and fragile to bestow upon any notable targets and with a captain as volatile as William Gallas, were too fractured to pick themselves up after key defeats. The "Invincibles" team possessed massive belief and efficiency, but how much of that was down to the quality of football it played rather than character? Certainly, when they first surrendered their unbeaten run to Everton in 2002, the players took a while to find their bearing and looked to Wenger for guidance. They initially blamed the Frenchman for putting too much pressure on them but soon started to believe following the nature of their wins. As Patrick Vieira said, during that season, their confidence of their won ability was so high that they felt they could win any match, whether 1-0 or 2-0 down.
The nature of the target may have also had some bearing in the time it took them to react because it placed so much emphasis on the one result. Winning took so much out of them lot of them that when the sequence was finally broken, a period of impotence naturally followed. The present target set by Wenger is that it allows for a couple of defeats so the players can naturally relax and play with more freedom although because the bulk of the players are yet to win, winning one trophy would count as a success.
One must consider the enormity of the task set by Wenger for his side to go unbeaten in the season of 2003/04 but looking back at it on second-thoughts, it doesn't sound so unreasonable. There was no great challenge to Arsenal and Manchester United's duopoly and as it turned out, it was the last year of the Premier League's innocence after the buyout of Chelsea by Roman Abramovich. There was also no great demand on clubs to stay up for financial reasons so they could afford to play against Arsenal with more ambition. And that remains the massive difference between the tactics of the current Arsenal side and "The Invincibles" and why fans can't demand Arsenal play the same ways as they did then.
In the past, teams would try and take the game to Arsenal which allowed The Gunners to retreat to the edge of their box as much as they played their intricate brand of football and spring its ever-so dangerous counter-attacks. Nowadays, it's much the other way round as opponents are all too willing to camp in front of their box and Arsenal are forced to try and find a way through a barrier of players. A 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United in 2007 confirmed the new way of playing. "After that game we realised that if we didn't change our mentality we would always struggle in those kinds of games," said Cesc Fábregas.
Arsene Wenger has always offered attractive football but what was once seen as innovative is now seen as intransigence due to the failure to land a trophy in six years. It's true, some qualities have had to be exaggerated and that stands to serve as one of Wenger's main criticisms; that the youth, fluidity, intelligence, pace and swagger in possession – have effectively taken over the team. And the other qualities that made them great – ruthlessness, power, organisation and experience – have been seen as an after-thought. But that also displays the delicacy of the project the team has embarked upon since moving to the Emirates and this season, we are finally starting to see it bear fruit. It's just it may not be until next season until it's fully realised with a piece of silverware.
Modern football, though, is not all about trophies, which whether you like it or not, rests or a number of factors. Money is now king but what Arsenal now offers is more than your typical club. In an age of debt and losses, the club is making a profit. The relationship it has with fans and the community is something it has invested massively in although that is not to say, at least in terms of prices, that not all perks are beneficial too all parties.
But perhaps, that's what is wrong about modern football; it is unnecessarily complicated. As Scott Murray writes for The Guardian, nowadays, "football fans are put-upon individuals" and are "expected to view proceedings with the cold detachment of the chartered accountant, meekly accepting that considerations of divisional status override their hopes and dreams, because the bottom line is all that counts."
What about the glory? Can Arsenal's unique brand of football satisfy punters and compensate for the lack of trophies? Of course, Arsenal remain competitive and that means they still have a great chance of winning something – and they are in a position to think about continued success rather than just the short-termism that plagues modern football.
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