A year of inconsistency

The year 2008 has been characterised by inconsistency for Arsenal. The hope must now be surely that 2009 is different, perhaps by an assured level of consistency.

From when the 2007-2008 season started right until February 2008, Arsenal were hugely consistent, well on course to win the league title again, but then came the game against Birmingham City, the game in which Arsenal were dominating, very much in control, then lost Eduardo to a serious injury, and then Gallas lost his composure, Arsenal ended the game by losing two points and with that the momentum in the title race.

In the summer, Flamini and Hleb left, and apart from some promising youngsters and Mikael Silvester, no one else joined the club, so Arsenal started the season a bit short in numbers.

The season itself has so far been a bit hot and cold, with Arsenal doing well against the "big" teams, but losing valuable ground against the "lesser" sides.

Then Gallas lost the captain's armband and Fabregas got the captaincy, and since then it's been quite consistent. Then Fabregas suffers a serious injury. This adds to the injuries to Walcott and Rosicky, that's 3 first team midfielders, arguably 3 of the club's best players missing until the last month of the season according to current estimates. One could argue that the team is surely very talented to have the capacity to be still in touch even though they have been playing while missing many big players, for significant periods.

So with 2009 about to start, and with that the second half of the season, Arsenal start 10 points adrift of top spot. Then have won the league before by recovering from a bigger margin, so it's not inconceivable, and with all those problems faced, Arsenal are still only 10 points behind, and realistically are still in the challenge for the title, that is a credit to the team.