(Ed’s note – This is the final part of a season review, the first two can be found here and here)

The Ryan Shawcross

And now for the truly ugly moments of the season. Keepers. We haven't got one. An Arsenal Goalkeeper should be one of stature, presence. He should be relied when called upon to save our team points. He shouldn't cost them. Almunia. Bought as a No2, promoted to No1 on the basis of very little. As No2 he conceded two soft goals in the Champions League Final in Paris. As No1 this season he has cost us; Man Utd (A), Man City (A), Man Utd (H), Barcelona (H), Tottenahm (A) and I'll come to the worst of the Spaniard’s errors in a moment. Fabianski has cost us: Stoke (A, FA Cup), FC Porto (A), Wigan (A) and Blackburn (A). The one outstanding, error free, match winning goalkeeping display of our season was made by our third choice. Vito Manonone at Fulham. Our keepers have the ninth best save to shot ratio in the league. Not good enough. You don't win leagues without a keeper.

This was proven away to Birmingham in the game where our title hopes began to fade. We didn't play well. Nerves? But we went one nil up late on through a great Nasri strike. The Frenchman might have made it two and killed the game too, but his late indecisiveness wouldn't have been so costly had Almunia not flapped a slight ricochet off the face of Kevin Phillips up high and down into our net. Two title challenging points dropped. Crucial. You only have to look at the defenders’ reactions to the goal to know that their confidence in their keeper is as low as ours.

Wigan away was Ryan Shawcross on a particularly bad yellow headed spotty face day. We were presented with a glimmer of title hope following Spurs’ result against Chelsea, yet we played like the season was already over. Coasting into a two goal lead before nodding off and waking up to find Fabianski had launched us towards the most anger inducing result I can remember for some time. Sometimes when you lose, if The Arsenal have at least invested effort, you find yourself disappointed or angry with the result, the referee, the opponent, etc. The anger here was aimed at the team and an ambling lazy carefree performance that saw us throw away a two goal lead to a side beaten by Spurs 9-1 and Chelsea 8-0. It was f**king embarrassing.

As was the Blackburn away result for virtually the same reason. Attitude. Application. The team played as if they would rather have been anywhere else, and they probably would have been. Blackburn isn't the nicest of places, especially when you've a summer in the Bahamas or the World Cup to plan for. They completely switched off with nothing to play for, only there was. The travelling fans, the shirt, and the gathering momentum of Spurs trying to catch up with us. We were let down.

As was Aaron Ramsey. Firstly by a thick English centre half who wanted to make his mark on the game and was reckless about how he would do so. Snapping the young Welshman's leg in two like a twig. That takes some force. Far more than the force required to win a ball in a tackle, should that be your aim. Of course it wasn't, and Aaron's recovery is ongoing. As is the hope he returns unaffected, unlike Eduardo. Ramsey was also let down by the ugliness of some of the English Press, ex British, dogging, players and British based Managers who immediately jumped on board the "he's not one of those players" or "Arsenal don't like it up them" bandwagon. The majority of them ignorantly neglected to notice that Shawcross’ past inflicted injuries suggest he is exactly that type of player. They also failed to realise that nobody likes it up them if it means your f***ing leg is snapped in two and you get to see your own bone poking through your sock.

Summary. There have been some good, bad and Ryan Shawcross moments to our season. We have again maintained our Champions League status, something which has become the norm. This, despite spending less over the last three years than six other clubs, to the extent of almost £100m when compared with Spurs.

We also managed to stay in the title race until April, though that has a lot to do with Utd and Chelsea losing more games than the top two usually would. The season tailed off with some bad character traits that must not immerge again. There needs to be pride and effort in every performance. There also needs to be a better defensive unit, starting with the man who wears gloves.

Room for improvement.

***For more of my Arsenal based ramblings, follow me on Twitter @TheArsenal_