Arsenal: Why 2011-12 Was An Against Odds Success Story

Terrible Start

There's no other way of looking at it: Arsenal had a dire start to the 2011-12 season. The team had no confidence whatsoever and it showed for the first two months of the season. What began with an ill-tempered draw against Newcastle and an unlucky home loss against Liverpool, truly took on the air of "crisis" when Manchester United thrashed Wenger's side 8-2 at Old Trafford. There were injuries and suspensions, as well as the recent loss of key players, but you wouldn't have expected a League One side to lose by that margin, much less an Arsenal first XI. The disaster was only mitigated (and very slightly) by the league debut of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who quickly established himself as the one bright spot in what looked like a very troubling campaign. Things picked up with a narrow win over newly-promoted Swansea, but then the squad suffered the ignominy of losing to losing to Steve Kean's Blackburn Rovers - a team that spent every minute of the season (and most of that 4-3 win) being booed by its own fans. Then confidence seemed to return with a few low-key wins against relatively weak opposition (Shrewsbury, Bolton, Olympiacos) only for the side to suffer a loss at the hands of bitter rivals Spurs. It wasn't until the 5-3 win at Chelsea at the tail-end of October that Arsenal seemed to get out of first gear. Until that point the team seemed destined to hover mid-table, and even then closer to the relegation battle than the Champions League places. Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool also started slow, but media attention seemed fixed on Arsenal as long-time critics of the team's swaggering passing game relished a degree of schadenfreude. But the team did recover and, mid-season blip accepted, put two pretty decent runs together against all odds.