Archive or Neuralize

What. A. Season.

It's one we'll not forget in a hurry, and even if we wanted to, I guess it would be similar to what Jim Carrey went through when he wanted to erase the memory of Kate Winslet from his life in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (now the title makes sense) There's a lot of pain and suffering, but there are also good moments we don't want to lose.

I guess all things happen for a reason. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is " ...a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,...a time to keep and a time to throw away,..."

We were in a time to weep and mourn earlier in the season, and at the end, we could laugh and dance for a while.  There at the end, it was definitely a time to keep.

We started the season with a record signing (Pepe), and ended it by cutting 55 jobs whose annual wages in total was less than two months pay for our highest-paid player Ozil.  We started the season sympathising with him after he was attacked by robbers in broad daylight, and ended it trying to get rid of him.  He is not interested of course in giving up his nice paycheck while not playing at all.  The top players really do live in an alternate universe where normal economic rules don't apply.

We started the season with a young tempestuous player (Guendouzi) who many liked because he had a bit of an attitude, and ended with him being frozen out of the team for the same reason.  On the other hand, we started the season with a reserve goalie (Martinez) who had waited patiently for his chance for 10 years, and ended it with him being arguably better than the number 1 (Leno) and giving the manager a real selection headache in the coming season.

We started the season with a captain (Xhaka) that got booed off the field in a game, and ended it with him becoming almost indispensable.  There were similar redemption arcs in the stories of Mustafi and, to a lesser extent, Ceballos. And an honorable mention for Maitland Niles in this same category.

We started the season with a coach (Emery) who had a good winning record in the Europa League but had failed miserably with his first (and only) opportunity in the same competition, and ended the season without him.  Even if there was a ludicrous suggestion just before he was sacked that he might be given a contract extension when it was clear to everyone that he was out of his depth.

We started the second half of the season with a manager (Arteta) who had never managed a team before, and ended it by winning a trophy - and by beating the 2nd and 4th placed teams in the League along the way.  Oh and beating the champions too though it was probably Arsenal that received a beating.

I'd probably choose to erase everything about the match against Liverpool except for the score and our chance conversion stats. 3 shots, 2 on target, 2 goals.  If you had to pick one match to encapsulate the season it would probably be this.  Play terribly for the most part, and yet somehow we manage to win in the end.

Many of us invest too much in the game, and moods ebb and flow according to the weekend's result.  But seasons come to an end, hope is renewed and we go again.