Quote Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory View Post
Would you say we regressed last season if you compare it to the season before? Besides the hammerings we took to our main rivals, we looked defensively organised and had a CB pairing that worked together and were dependable. We haven't had that since the Campbell and Toure combination. The football wasn't pretty but we grinded out results and it looked as if we had a solid defence. I'm not discounting the hammerings we took, I think that was more of mental issue, but regardless, I'd hope the experience would have had us prepared this season. But that's been taken out of our hands with poor planning and not buying defensive cover where needed.

It doesn't matter about other teams winning the FA Cup. The fact is we won it. We're a team that bottled a League Cup Final against a relegated team. The fact that we turned around a 2 goal deficit to win in extra time without the need for penalties is a sign of progress regardless of opposition. You have to give some credit where it's due.

I didn't say we've made progress THIS season. In fact, it looks like we could have gone backwards in some weird way. As said, I thought we made progress last season but it looks like it could have already been undone. I thought it was going to be hard enough to challenge for the title this year. Top 4 may even be a struggle if Liverpool and Utd get their act together. The last thing we need is to be having this internal battle with our fitness and Wenger is the worst for managing this sort of thing. He'll overplay players, won't make subs, bad team selection and destroy the confidence of a young player....we've seen it all before and I think we could be heading for that sort of season. We're on a uphill battle already and the season hasn't really even kicked off.
I dont think we have regressed. I think we are/have been at the same level since 08. We have shown improvement in grinding out wins but along with that progress, our football keeps regressing to eye gorging standards. So, we have a + and then with that comes a -. And thats why I say, we are the same level.

If you take the FA Cup final out of the way, we didnt show any real progress in my opinion. I do however think we had a tremendous amount of goodwill around the club.. something that had been missing around our club forever! We signed players early and looked set to challenge.. and then things just stopped! We didnt sign the players required and have again gone gambling on crocks (Diaby, Gibbs, Walcott).