Last year, I did a series of five articles, over five days, each dedicated to who I thought the top five Arsenal players were. It was fun but I thought I’d change it up a bit this year.
This year, you all will decide who you think the top five Gooners were, using the poll in this article, and I will write an article for each player, detailing why their season was so outstanding.
Voting will last until Sunday at midnight, then I will take down the poll and assemble the results and present them with the first article on Monday detailing the number 5 Gooner.
Also, comments in the thread below will be used in my analysis, so please justify your choices.
Finally, please note, the WordPress polling system sucks ass AND all the other polls I found suck ass so I had to use an external polling system, which I’m unable to embed in this page because WordPress doesn’t like competition.
So, if you want to vote, click on this link.
If you just want to make loud noises, feel free to do so below!
I voted for Sagna, Arshavin, Song, Gibbs and Djourou.
Nothing need be said for the shaven arse.
Sagna. The unsung hero who just went about his task in a professional manner and was our most consistent player throughout.
Song. Filled in admirably at CB in the early part of the season and in the last game. Had to learn a new position, DM, during the season, and without the benefit of pre-season practice. Mastered the DM position after the break and outside of Arshavin was consistently our best player when on the pitch. His move to DM coincided with us stop leaking golas in the early part of the season.
Djourou. When given the chance he performed consistently well and showed vast improvement over last season. When combined with Gallas, after Toure’s illnesses, formed a formidable partnership which coincided with us stemming the leakage of goals. Unfortunately, he was taken out of the equation by Toure’s return to form, no fault of his own. I know this will be an unpopular choice.
Gibbs. At 19, and with very little experience, performed well when called upon and showed poise and intelligence. Tremendous upside and is better than Clichy is right now offensively. Although making a slip which caused a goal in the CL return leg, he basically shut down Ronaldo at Manu.Love the kid and he may yet become a future DM as that’s the position he plays for England and sometimes in the Reserves.
Thought about RVP but could not include him as he started the season like shit and finished it in the same manner. Outside of a 3 week spell where he played extremely well, he has once again being injury prone, clearly not clinical with his finishing, slows down the attack in the final third and can’t play the point.
Clichy never regained his form of last year and looked jaded before his injury.Gallas performed brilliantly after his removal as Captain, but again, was inconsistent before when partnered with Toure. Fab looked very ordinary from day 1 and never regained form even after his injury. Nasri played well, but was inconsistent, not withstanding that he was deployed in various positions, did not play in his natural role in CM and was new to the EPL. Think he will be a big player for us next season.
BTW Tim,
It’s about time this post went up.
I wanted to vote for Ballack… but he wasnt there. Neither was Lampard, Terry, Boss, Essien… oh shit wrong site. Sorry Tim!!!! LOLOLOL
You can always write in Ballsack.. Tommy.
My top 5 in no particular order:
Sagna: Goes about his business and gets the job done. Played in 47 matches, two shy of Denilson for tops on the team. Can’t think of one instance this year where I was disappointed in his play.
Song: Took over the midfield in the second half of the season. Love his versatility and ability to play CB when needed. While he will probably never be a star, every club needs someone who is flexible and can put in solid performances. He is the type of player that needs to be used in specific match ups. Looking forward to next season and his role. If we are facing a strong midfield, Song needs to be in to give cover and toughness. In more open matches, he can be a late sub.
RVP: Easily the best player over the first half of the season before wearing down once again. He was a consistent threat to score goals early on and kept us in the running for the champions league spot. One thing I would like to see him improve on is his attitude. Too often I see him yelling at teammates and blaming others.
Arshavin: Six goals in 14 matches to close the year is nice. The 4 at Anfield will always be a great memory. To me, the most important part is that he already has the learning curve out of the way in the Premier league. He will be fully ready to start next year and won’t need that adjustment period that many face.
Wenger: For all the flack that Wenger has taken this year, he has also put this team in a great place going forward. He has integrated youth, curbed spending and continued to build a trophy contender. Two moves jump out to me this year and is why Wenger is in my top 5:
1) Getting Arshavin in January. This move showed that Wenger is flexible enough to know when change needs to be made and also smart enough to see outstanding talent. I would have been thoroughly disappointed if we missed out on AA and saw him play so well with another EPL team. While Wenger has had his fair share of misses, his success at finding the right talent far outweighs that.
2) Sticking up for Gibbs and Fabianski after their “blunders”. A lot of managers would have thrown two young players under the bus for lackluster performances, but not Wenger. Wenger is able to get the young kids to play so well because he instills confidence in them. Gibbs and Fabianski will both be important parts of the Arsenal team going forward and much of that credit must go to Arsene for believing in them and sticking with them.
I am very excited for the future of Arsenal.
Bollocks, lampost, titty and drugdive are all decent pla…assholes…
I voted for song, sagna, Gibbs, nasri and vela.
Song for his improvement. Vela for showing his talent… Bright future ahead of that kid.
Mine…. Wenger, Denilson, RVP, Song, and Almunia.
I picked Denilson and Song both because while neither of them are really player of the year they both had to step up and be our midfield for a large portion of our year. While Song was improved drastically, Denilson has been consistently there for us, he isn’t always noticed but that’s when he is doing his job the best. RVP had a great season for us, basically carrying us or a few dreary months, and the future England #1 Almunia has been rock solid for us this season, and has silenced most of the fans who at the beginning of the season were screaming for a new keeper. As for Wenger, well he is Wenger… one of the few people who kept faith in the “boys” even when the fans turned against them.
You wankers.
Wenger got lucky to finish forth because Villa collapsed. He was senile this year. Look objectively at some of the in-game substitutions. And enough dicking around with the rotation which ends up playing players out of position all the time. And no it was not because of injuries. He was doing it from the start of the season.
My vote:
-Arshavine
-Gibbs: Saved the bacon when he was pushed into center stage.
-Nasri: The only player who had a better 1st season is Arshavine.
-Eduardo: Miraculous comeback that nobody expected. His emotional two-goal comeback coincides with our new found momentum and unbeaten streak… which secured 4th.
-Sagna: Solid EVERY game.
Honorable mentions: Song (showed he ‘can’ be world-class), Denilson (Quiet, efficient, important player), Almunia (His best goalkeeping year)
Balls of steel awards: Eboue (for having a great 2nd half of the season after being ridiculed by fans and bloggers), Gallas (became solid after stripped of captaincy. Showed up to play hard every game after that episode)
Cocksandwich of the year: Tie between Bendtner (He sucks) & Adebayor (Wasted season)
On RVP: Sorry but this is season poll, not a half-season poll. He does not qualify. Please.
Arshavin – obviously
Gibbs – to come in and perform like that is immense
Song – most improved
Wilshere – the future
Wenger – because some of us still have faith