Porto 2 Arsenal 1
Poor. Very, very poor.
Porto are a bit like Aston Villa: nothing special but a solid side who will always do reasonably well in the Champions League without winning it (unless they have an inspirational manager and help from the referees). They've got a big man and a little man up front and two reasonably talented wingers.

Wigan 3 Arsenal 2
1) It was, for all we can get angry about the defeat, a freak result. The last time Arsenal led 2-0 in the Premiership and lost was November 1998, against Aston Villa. I remember that day: it put me in a foul mood for my seventh birthday party. These things happen: the reality is, its better it happened today than a few weeks ago.

Blackburn 2 Arsenal 1
1) Going out to play with nothing to play for is difficult. If Arsenal had won, say, 2-0 it would have been remarked it was a dead game. It's interesting to note that both in the newspapers and the blogs, a post-mortem is taking place in spite of this. Short of winning 6-0, Arsenal were always going to be criticised for at best, the fact yesterday's game meant nothing, and at worst, for failing to get a positive result.

Today this blog has a proverbial cherry popped: although it was started back in April 2008, I had never posted in July. Until today.
But I felt I owed it to myself, more than to my loyal readership (of one) that I should finish the player ratings which I started over four weeks ago.
So, in the hope that somebody is still interested with the World Cup ongoing, here are my player ratings for the strikers.

It's the small things that count. Five years down the line, Arsenal fans may well still be celebrating the time Fergie said he was too busy and let Gary Neville show Aaron Ramsey around the training ground. Or, perhaps more importantly, how Arsene Wenger flew Ramsey and his parents out to Euro 2008 and explained the benefits of little Aaron signing for Arsenal.

Arsenal 2 Sunderland 0
It is probably worth remarking now that whilst the three points dropped at the Stadium of Light did not seem that bad at the time - Sunderland were in a great run of form - it now appears to be a very costly result.
Having beaten Liverpool and Sunderland, Chelsea's lead has been cut to six points.

With the news that Fabregas is out for the season (bar a potential Champions League final) and Arshavin is also out for three weeks, comes the realisation that currently this team lacks goal big-time. As the man from East Lower notes, half the goals Arsenal have scored this season have come from players who are now injured.

And so, this is it. I am writing this after midnight so I guess it truly is the final day of the season.
It seems like a long time ago that I blogged from Israel on the eve of our match at Goodison Park. A really long time. A lot more than nine months. And that is in no small part to it having been an emotionally draining season.

SO, there it is. The Scottish Cup final notwithstanding, the curtain comes down on season 2009/10, the 113th since that sunny day in August 1890, when Rangers defeated Heart of Midlothian 5-2.

Funny how history has a habit of (nearly) repeating itself. While this season Rangers kicked off against Falkirk and not Hearts, the end result was pretty much the same – Rangers champions (albeit joint champions with Dumbarton), Celtic several points behind them, St Mirren somewhere near the bottom.

Arsenal 4 Fulham 0
It's a shame I have little money at the moment. Because although I do not believe in certainties, I was certain Arsenal would beat Fulham. And a bet on Arsenal to win could have increased my net worth by up to 25%. Net worth being one of those vacuous phrases used by teenagers to hide behind the fact they're skint.

When you look back in years to come, you may well be able to point to this season as the one where it all changed. Where it all started looking a little bit brighter. Where the years of turgid mediocrity suddenly started to have a greater meaning. For too long have we looked towards the future as a source of comfort, in hope that things are surely going to improve.

It all changed when the ball came out to Rose. We'd looked hungry in attack so far but hadn't really created much. Bale's corner was punched out and Rose was on the end of it. With minds all over the stadium willing him to bring it down and send it back in for the strikers, the little left winger took matters into his own hands and connected beautifully with the ball, sending it on a swerving arc straight over the defence, straight over the keeper and straight into the back of the net.

January began with the cold hard reality that maybe we weren't as ready for a crack at the big time as we thought we were. A routine win over Peterborough began our run in the FA Cup before we were brought to our knees once again by a poor home performance against a weak opposition. We managed to at least scrape a point against Hull but our profligacy was becoming something of an embarrassment.

Arsenal have had a roller-coaster of a year this past season, and have fought back twice to put themselves in contention for the Premiership title after looking dead and buried, only to drop away tamely in the final few games. But from the start when the Young Gunners went to Goodison Park in the first [.

Despite seeing his side outclassed at Camp Nou last season, technical efficiency and movement remains Arsenal's forte.
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Theo Walcott apparently personifies that stereotypical anatomy of English football; that of "kick and rush.

I know the season has gone. I know the focus is now all on the World Cup. But I felt, like a marriage counsellor, that I needed to provide some closure on the season just gone so I wrote an extra-long blog post rating all the midfield...
Tomas Rosicky 6.5 (N/A)
It's probably fair to say that Rosicky is given more leeway then several others by most fans.

This is the third and last winner of the Arsenal Season Review DVD Competition. by Edward Sai Kuen Sikorski Joy, pain, relief, sorrow and excitement. These are the words that describe this season. The joy when it started off so good. When we beat Everton and Fabregas showed Jarque's Arsenal shirt. When Vermaelen was powering in [.