Because that marked the end of 2 years of decline from the brilliance of The Invincibles in 2004 to 2006 where we just barely scraped top 4.Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
THAT was the decline. Since then we've been bumbling around in the top 4 but mostly towards the bottom of the top 4.
I don't know why you think I'm focusing on points tally. I gave points tally, final league position and points off the top for each season.
All of those give some indication of how we've done and none of those metrics show a consistent decline since 2006.
Because no-one would sensibly argue that we are as good as we were at the start of Wenger's time with us. What people have argued for much of the last 10 years is that we are "in decline". That just isn't bourne out by the facts. It was you who asked me "draw a graph based on our league position and not points tally and tell me there has been no decline.". So I did. You could be simplistic about it and draw a line from 1998 when we finished 1st and last season when we finished 5th and say "See? There has been consistent decline". But that doesn't reflect the reality of what has happened. It would be equally dishonest to draw a line between 1998 and 2016 and say "See? We've only slipped from 1st to 2nd"Why not track it over the whole of Wenger's tenure?
The reality is this:
From 1998 to 2004 we finished either 1st or 2nd every year. If anything our quality improved over those years.
Then there was 2 years of serious decline.
Since then we've finished either 3rd or 4th every year. The points tally, the league position, the points off the top. There has been no consistent gradual decline in any of those things since then.
If you disagree with that then I'd be interested to hear on what basis.
The quality of football has declined certainly and we are in danger of slipping down another level but it's too early to tell whether last year's 5th place was a blip or the sign of things to come.
Reply With Quote