The Arsenal End Of Season Prayer 2011/2012

As we look back over the season of 2011/12, the Gooner family has had many highs and lows, but there are several things that we need to be thankful for. Therefore, with an ode to the footballing gods, we Arsenal fans give thanks for the following:

Robin Van Persie. The goals, the assists, and the man himself. Best Arsenal captain since a certain Manchester City development executive (come home Paddy!). Everyone needs to pray he decides to stick around and become one of the all time Arsenal greats.
Bacary Sagna, for being the best RB in the league and for starting THAT comeback against the spuds. We all wish you a very speedy recovery from your second broken leg.
Laurent Koscielny, for being the most improved defender in the Premier League.
Tomas Rosicky, aka The Little Mozart, for rediscovering himself and at times single handedly driving the team in the second half of the season.
Yossi Benayoun, for being a true Gunner despite being only on loan, for giving 110% in every game he played in and for scoring some important goals. Sign him up Arsene!
Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlaine, for being another masterstroke signing by Wenger and will clearly be the best English player in the league in two or three years time. It's frightening how good he is already!
Mikel Arteta, for quietly holding things together in his very efficient manner, and for that screamer against Man City.
Thomas Vermaelen for the goals against Everton and Newcastle and for being TV5, even if he wasn't quite up to usual standards this season.
Andre Santos, for putting a smile on the face of online Gooners every day with his daily greeting of "Good Morning friends" as well as the odd memorable online freudian slip (commonly known as a typo) and his goals against Chelsea and WBA.
Francis Coquelin, for playing anywhere asked of him and generally doing a very good job wherever he played.
Theo Walcott, for giving RVP many assists despite frustrating the bejesus out of all of us.
Alex Song, for also giving RVP many assists, though he really needs to choose his Songinho moments more carefully.
Woijiech Sczcesny, for playing the last five weeks of the season with painkilling injections and no training. I think we can forgive the odd slip (e.g. Norwich) after finding out about that.
The King, Thierry Henry for his triumphant return, the 3 points against Sunderland and arguably the most emotional moment of the season against Leeds in the FA Cup.

We give also give thanks to the whole team at certain moments, or to certain events that have happened during the course of the season:

Arsenal 5 Tottenham 2. Enough said.
Chelsea 3 Arsenal 5 and John Terry's slip.
Robin Van Persie's wonder goal against Everton. What a fitting way to celebrate 125 years of our great club.
Man Utd 8 Arsenal 2 (seriously). Prompted the trolley dash of signings who all turned out to be better than expected, with the exception of Park.
Sczcesny's penalty save in the Champions League playoff against Udinese.
Sczcesny's penalty save / double save against Liverpool at Anfield.
Jack Wilshere betting Jermaine Defoe for charity that Arsenal would finish above Spurs when we were ten points behind the rabble from White Hart Lane in November. Jack knows.

And a couple of special mentions for the final day of the season:

Martin Fulop, for having eaten some special Arsenal branded lasagne before the game.
Kieran Gibbs, for THAT saving tackle in injury time.
Arsene Wenger hugging Pat Rice in injury time in an "I Can't Look" classic moment that no one will forget in a hurry.

And one last thing (well two):

We Arsenal fans give thanks for Pat Rice, who has given the majority of his life to Arsenal Football Club with service not likely to be seen again. The sendoff given to Pat by the players after the West Brom game was fully fitting. Pat will very much be missed by all of us.

We also give thanks for Arsene Wenger, who, after losing our two star players plus our most creative remaining midfielder for the entire season, and having what was viewed as the worst Arsenal squad since the end of the George Graham days, managed to not only finish above the supposed "best ever" Tottenham squad, but actually finish one place higher in the year than last year when we had Nasri, Fabregas, Wilshere and fullbacks who weren't injured every 2 seconds. Finishing third after the start we had is arguably Wenger's greatest achievement after the invincibles so anyone who wants rid of him needs their head examined!

Happy St Totteringham's Day and Mind The Gap!

Amen.

Tags: Arsenal, End Of Season, 2011/2012, Robin Van Persie, Arsene Wenger, Pat Rice

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