Blogs

In Need of A Good Season: Arsene Wenger & Andre Villas-Boas

|
Image for In Need of A Good Season: Arsene Wenger & Andre Villas-Boas

Following on from the “In Need of a Good season” from last week looking at Alan Pardew at Newcastle and Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool (find it here) we turn our attentions southwards to two managers who need good seasons to prove a point in their own individual way.

Firstly, the silver haired Frenchman who has masterminded two double winning seasons and built the famous “Invincible” side from the 2003/04 season. Its been a pretty bleak time for Arsene Wenger since then. Since that famous 49 game unbeaten run by his Arsenal side they have only added an FA Cup in the 04/05 season to their trophy cabinet. If Arsenal were to have another trophy-less season it would make it 8 seasons without a trophy, something quite unprecedented for a team supposedly considered to be one of the “Big 4.”

Over the past few years Arsenal have been the ‘nearly men’. Losing 2-1 to Barcelona in May 2006 in their first and only Champions League Final appearance. In the 07/08 season they led the way in the Premier League until February, when they faced Birmingham. Striker Eduardo suffered a broken leg after a challenge by Martin Taylor of the Blues and subsequently went on to throw away a 2-1 lead in the dying minutes by gifting Birmingham a penalty, much to William Gallas’ dismay. It was then Birmingham again 2 years later who proved to be a crack in the glass of the empty Arsenal trophy cabinet and the crack got bigger after Obafemi Martins’ winner in the 2011 League Cup final to take the number of years since Arsenal won a trophy to 7.

Last season the Dutchman Robin Van Persie finally came good for Arsenal. Whilst Thierry Henry and then Emmanuel Adebayor were at Arsenal it was they who were considered the main striker for the Gunners and Van Persie was the second striker. After Adebayor left for Manchester City it was left for Van Persie to pick up the pieces and boy did he deliver. He went on to single handedly drag a quite ordinary Arsenal up to 3rd place, a position where if you are being harsh flatters this Arsenal team.

Apart from Van Persie, the only real match-winners going forward for Arsenal were Alex Song and on an inconsistent basis, Theo Walcott. However with Van Persie reportedly going to leave for Juventus or one of the Manchester clubs it will be left for new signings Podolski & Giroud to take the ball and run with it like Van Persie and Fabregas before him. It will be a big season at Arsenal, but whether Wenger can finally back up what he claims is a different question altogether.

Just down the road from Arsenal, their bitter North London rivals have been changing over the summer. With the departure of Harry Redknapp, Tottenham have been trying to rebuild after falling away towards the end of last season. Just after Christmas a lot of people believed Tottenham would be challenging for the title in May. I was not one of those people. And as it was a collapse which saw Tottenham end up 4th place, finishing a massive twenty points behind the top 2 and due to Chelsea’s penalties win in Munich. they will also miss out on playing with the European Elite in the Champions League, they have to settle for an Europa League spot when for so long it looked like it could be more.

Tottenham are a club who have a point to prove and now have a manager who has a lot of pressure placed on him to succeed this year. Probably more so than any other manager in the League. He is, of course, Andre Villas-Boas. The man, who after winning the Europa League with Porto was installed as Chelsea manager nearly 12 months ago. Following 9 months of pressure, disappointment and dressing room splits he and Chelsea parted ways but you always knew this wouldn’t be the last you had heard of Andre Villas-Boas.

However when Redknapp left Tottenham, AVB was never singled out as a favourite with the players or fans, with support and reports leaning towards Laurent Blanc and most notably former White Hart Lane hero Jurgen Klinsmann. However the board went for Villas-Boas, and only time will tell whether or not this is was a good appointment. But all we do know is that Andre Villas-Boas has something to prove and will looking ahead to the 10th October when his side hosts Chelsea and, if he is still around by then, the 13th April where we could potentially see if Villas-Boas can justify his appointment.

Introducing the neat little app that’ll pay you to view content tailored to your interests:

ThisisFutbol.com are seeking new writers to join the team! If you’re passionate about football, drop us a line at “thisisfutbol.com@snack-media.com” to learn more.

Share this article

0 comments

  • John says:

    More than Wenger and AVB needing a good season, this site needs some bloggers who can write knowledgeable about football instead of the keyboard monkeys who spurn out cliche after cliche.

Comments are closed.