It has been all too easy to poke fun at Arsenal in recent seasons.
This is a side which has been nudged in the ribs and asked when was the last time they had actually won a major trophy, to which rival they plan to sell their best player to and just what the deal is with Arsene Wenger's preposterously long jacket. Yesterday, the only question left to pose was who they fancy in the Champions League next season.
The London side have earned their reprieve. A full seven points behind Tottenham Hotspur following a derby defeat back in March, Arsenal have since dropped just four points in the league and have claimed fourth place in the Barclays Premier League ahead of their city rivals. They started yesterday's match with Newcastle United still vulnerable since Spurs were just a point behind, but Laurent Koscielny scored after 52 minutes to consolidate their place in Europe's premier competition.
They have still to come through a qualifying round next term, but Arsenal can spend the summer toying with the idea of rubbing shoulders with Real Madrid, Barcelona, heck, even Celtic et al. They will know too that Spurs have been left to the less salubrious arena of the Europa League.
It was hard to knock Wenger's side, then. Even if you were to try, the Arsenal manager was not having any of it. He has been given a few bruises along the way since famously assembling 'The Invincibles' and while his latest squad to not enjoy such prestige, he was still moved to lavish them with praise. Given their defiant form since that derby defeat, perhaps one might dub them 'The Irrepressibles'.
"They are special. I've told them many times but they've shown it in the last two months. They've been absolutely exceptional," Wenger said. "We have shown character and attitude. We make 73 points [in the league table], that's three points better than last season.
"I've had many groups in my life and the focus, the desire to do well, was exceptional. It's one of the best groups I've had in my life on that front."
One of the factors that has been blamed for a lack of silverware since a solitary FA Cup in 2005 is Wenger's reluctance to spend money. Reaching the Champions League has loosened the purse strings again, though, and already the Frenchman is considering splashing out.
"We want to have additions to the squad but keep the structure, spirit and quality of the squad we have now. We will be out there in a very pro-active way," he said.
Their efforts on Tyneside had been monitored closely as White Hart Lane yesterday, where Spurs overcame Sunderland late on. That would not be enough thanks to Koscielny, though, and Theo Walcott later claimed he had been unaware of their rivals' result. "It was in our hands and we did the job," said the Arsenal forward. "A lot of people thought we wouldn't do it so it's nice to show them that we could."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article