Just a few weeks ago there was unrest amongst the fans of Arsenal. For the first time in many years there were calls for Arsene Wenger to be moved on.
Players, well Eboue, were getting booed and jeered by their own fans and everything looked pretty bleak.
Season to forget
Defeat in the Carling Cup to Championship side Burnley and being replaced in the top four by Aston Villa seemed to be making this a season to forget for the Gunners.
Now, however, things are looking so good it is difficult to see what the doubters and moaners were talking about.
World class
Fabregas and Adebayor will be back in a week, Arshavin is looking like a very good purchase and Walcott is back and looking lively. Gallas and Tourre have settled their lovers tiff and look like a pretty solid partnership and Van Persie is proving to be the world class player we all thought he was.
Fourth place has been regained in the Premier League, a quarter final place has been secured in the Champions League and on Tuesday evening, an FA Cup semi-final place was won with a 2-1 victory over Hull.
Bright
The future looks bright with such a young team and if Wenger can keep the current squad fit and together, they will surely be there or thereabouts next season. They have gone fifteen unbeaten in the league and even Eboue has looked like a half decent player recently.
So, what has happened to turn things around? Has anything actually happened, or was the feeling of doom and gloom around the Emirates severely exagerrated?
Faith
Arsene Wenger has never lost his faith in the set of players he has and he has not seemed to panic like all those around him seem to have done. I suppose people should have faith in the man who has done so much good for the club, but it is difficult when he persists in playing Eboue and Bendtner!
There is no doubt that Wenger is a wonderful manager and coach and the way he has quietly gone about re-establishing Arsenal in the ‘big four’ has been an exceptional piece of football management.
Successful
The headline of the article is meant to be ironic because that was just the sort of headline we have been seeing all season. Fourth in the league, Champions League quarter-final and FA Cup semi-final seems like a pretty successful season to me.
I am a very long way from being an Arsenal fan but I do admire the way they play football. There is much about Arsene Wenger’s moaning, whinging and myopic vision that I dislike, but I do greatly admire his ability.
Trust
He has stuck by his players when they have behaved in a bizarre fashion. Many managers would have happily waved goodbye to Gallas and Adebayor by now but he has shown trust and support that the players may repay. Many managers would have ditched Eboue but he supported him and nurtured him back into the fold and is starting to reap the reward. He is even sticking by Nicklas Bendtner…no, that must be a mistake!
It could be that Arsene Wenger has enjoyed being somewhat out of the limelight. With Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafa Benitez taking it in turns to have a swipe at each other and Chelsea playing manager merry-go-round, Arsenal and their manager have almost become the forgotten team at the top. People were talking about the ‘big three’ rather than the ‘big four’.
Mistake
Make no mistake, Arsenal are still very much part of the ‘big four’, and whilst it pains me slightly to say it, that man Arsene Wenger deserves an awful lot of credit for making that happen.
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