Kicking on from this

Brilliant victory for us. Finally we got that big monkey off our backs. We made hard work of it, as is per usual with the Arsenal. But after the initial shock of going down 2-0 within the first 10 mins, I felt we were fairly comfortable at the back, so it was just a matter of having a bit of patience and getting the goals. The early reply from Santi was a massive relief. From them on, it was just a matter of when, not if. Quite fitting that it should have been Ramsey to finish it off. What a player. What a fantastic talent we have. He’s shooting was a bit off during the game, but he tried so hard. He never put his head down and always knew that he would make a massive contribution.

So at the end of it all, what do we have? Well, we finally have that much coveted trophy. There’s no one in this world that can convince me that finishing top 4 is better than winning a trophy. You never get tired of that feeling of elation by winning a title. Sure thing, looking at the bigger picture, getting in the CL places is massive for the development of the club. But I’m a fan, and as a fan I want us to win trophies. However, not only have we won the FA Cup, but we’ve also completed our initial goal of finishing in the top 4. That, for me, is job done. Yes ok, we were 129 days on top and really with the right investment and player fitness management we might have gone on to make a better challenge to the title. But even then I still felt we just weren’t prepared and ready to fight for a title. However, now we have won a trophy, and got into next years CL, our goal simply has to be the title.

I’m not saying next year we should win the title. I am saying next year we should be in a position to make a better and more credible threat of winning the title than we did this year. This means being in mix for the title when it really matters, right at the end. It’s all well and great being top of the league in February. But titles are decided May. In order to achieve our goal we need a combination or better players for our 1st team, more depth in our squad, better fitness management of our players, and a healthy chunk of luck.

We have a long summer to discuss how we should get there and what the club is actually doing to get us there. However, for now, let’s enjoy the moment of winning a trophy and congratulate the players, and manager, of getting that trophy despite all the injury troubles this year.

Nine fúcking years. Wow.