*2023 
1 Like
Remember that game. Really dark fucking times which lasted for a while.
I don’t count that game as dark times at all.
Those were brilliant times compared to the era after Cesc left and evertyhing up until the recent years.
I mean, playing the CL semi final and having some title hopes in those years (with a young team with high potential) was much better than getting absolutely annihilated by Bayern year after year in the first KO phase (or by Monaco lol), and eventually not even being able to reach the CL/top 4.
Now those were THE dark times.
1 Like
Me personally, lingering in EL and seeing mid table teams like Leicester, Wolves, West Ham and Spurs finish above us domestically were the true dark times.
2 Likes
I know it got worse after that but that was the start of dark times cause we were no longer able to compete with United and Chelsea in the league and until then, I had only seen us compete at the very top, at least domestically.
5 Likes
It definitely was the start of it. It wasn’t far off the Highbury days (or rather the Invincibles) where the reputation of the club built then was still intact.
This was the season we signed Arshavin when we were behind Aston Villa, we failed to build on 07/08 season, in fact we got even worse and completely stagnate and pay the price for it.
That semi final match was devastating for how uncompetitive it was and we would never reach that height again (and yet to, given that’s our last Semi-final appearance in the CL), we were clearly behind our rivals by that point and wouldn’t make any moves to improve there for a long time.
From a personal POV I started in 2006, it was a watershed moment for me. We weren’t winning anything but we were still OK in the big matches. Win some. lose some. There was bad results, but that game was massive from implications alone and most big games from then on would almost be guaranteed losses.
2 Likes
Agreed, we went into that match as equals but we weren’t that afterwards.
I watched that game in a pub with my united supporting mate. I wanted to leave after 12 minutes.
1 Like
While on this, Almunia being useless at that free kick. He would get another full season after that. Wenger was unbelievable with some of the decisions.
4 Likes
He never should have played a single minute for the club never mind hold the number 1 spot for so long.
One hundred and seventy five fucking games!!
5 Likes
Almunia is the worst first choice goalkeeper in the clubs history.
When Lehmann started to decline all Wenger needed to do was put the money down on one of the plethora of decent keepers across Europe but instead he picked an absolute dogshit lower table back up keeper.
5 Likes
I badly wanted Toldo or Coupet. Both highly experienced goalkeepers. Toldo was even the second choice at Inter by that point but still one of the very best.
3 Likes
Always drove me nuts how unambitious we were in the market at that time. If we signed Jaskelainen, Lorik Cana and Yann MVila like we were supposed to, we win 8 titles in a row.
Instead we got Hatem Trabelsi in PES4 and Amaury Bischoff on a free to fill our gap on the treatment table.
3 Likes
What was Arsene thinking, really?
Don’t forget Christoph Samba. The ultimate CB dominator.
1 Like
I was skimming through the post and read this as ‘Cena’. Thought you may have gone mad, turns out I’m blind.
With time I’ve come to accept that even if we had signed X, Y and Z we would have still failed because Wenger started to fall out of touch with the game as it was evolving.
In possession we were one of the worlds best teams but out of possession we lost so much with bad positioning, bad defensive structure, bad out of possession shape.
We used to get absolutely torn apart by quick transitions because we were always out of shape when we lost the ball.
3 Likes
Long-term sure but I do think we had opportunities over the years after moving to the Emirates where a signing or two probably pushes us to win the title once or twice.
He always loved a cheap gamble, no risk with possible upside signing. Some work out, Amaury definitely didn’t 