(Ed’s note – The survey results are also available in the current edition of The Gooner, which can be bought online here)

I remember the days when we were pleased to get a hundred or so responses to the survey and even then I’d spend all summer moaning about how long it took me to collate the results. So you can imagine the scene at Gooner HQ recently as we’ve worked day and night to pull together the thoughts of a record 2500 loyal readers in time for this first issue of the season. Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the survey, whether online or by post. What we’re about to reveal is the most comprehensive set of independent results about Arsenal’s season that you’re likely to find anywhere on the planet!

Player of the Season
1st Fabregas
2nd Vermaelen
3rd Song
In our eyes, The Gooner Player of the Season award is a very valuable crown, so Cesc’s victory for the third time in four years adds at least £5m to his transfer fee. This, on top of the £5m we’ve added every time anyone from Barcelona has opened their trap about him, means that we are now asking for £376m which still sounds cheap to me.
Our captain led by example last season, top scoring with 19 goals and assisting on countless others. His overwhelming desire for Arsenal success was summed up when he scored the penalty against Barcelona with a broken leg. It’s disappointing that he wants to leave, but there must be few Arsenal fans who blame him for wanting to play in a better side than the one we’ve had for the last few seasons. Over 85% of fans placed Cesc in their top two, ahead of Thomas Vermaelen (76%), who in turn was light years ahead of Alex Song (34%) and frankly that was it. No-one else really registered which, sad to say, says a lot about our season and takes us nicely on to...

Most Disappointing Player
1st Manuel Almunia
2nd Andrey Arshavin
3rd Lukasz Fabianski
This was the opposite of the previous category, with hardly anyone escaping the fans’ wrath. Even Cesc got a handful of votes, which seems unbelievably harsh. There were also replies which just said “all of them”! Personally I think this category is all about expectations, so Arshavin got my vote because I had high hopes that we’d see something special from the little Russian, yet he didn’t even flatter to deceive for much of the time.
Almunia came out on top (or bottom) but only just over 40% of voters placed him in their top two, 7% more than Arshavin and 11% more than his goalkeeping partner in crime, Fabianski.

Most Improved Player
1st Song 66.9%
2nd Eboue 16.5%
3rd Bendtner 9.3%
4th Ramsey 6.6%
The key with this question was that it asked who had improved most “in the last 12 months”. Song won this category by a significant margin last time. Has he really improved that much again or were there just very few eligible candidates? Eboue continues to infuriate supporters with his tendency to go to ground, but he did succeed in winning over many of those who booed him 18 months ago with a series of performances which, while far from brilliant, were a significant improvement.

Best Team Performance
1st Everton (A) 33.1%
2nd Porto (H) 22.5%
3rd Stoke (A) 19.1%
While there were plenty of memorable games during the season, most were memorable for the wrong reasons. That said, the 6-1 demolition of Everton on the opening day would deserve to win this category in most seasons. A display which gave cause for optimism for the nine months ahead, but sadly, it was downhill from there.
Interestingly the Stoke game pipped our 3-0 home win against Spurs to third spot, which I imagine is because of the way the team pulled together after the horrific injury to Ramsey to secure victory in the dying minutes. The spirit of this group has been questioned when the going gets tough, but on this occasion they delivered. More of the same is required if we’re to mount a serious challenge for honours.

Worst Team Performance
1st Wigan (A) 47.8%
2nd Chelsea (H) 22.1%
3rd Man United (H) 12.2%
Despite being out-battled, out-thought and outclassed in four matches against our nearest title rivals, the April’s horrific defeat at Wigan topped this category easily. It was the complete opposite to the Stoke game, as the players put in a display so bad that they should have been too embarrassed to collect their wages. Ha! As if! The only positive that can possibly come of it is if it opened Wenger’s eyes to weaknesses in the squad, and he does something about them.

Best Goal
1st Nasri v Porto (H) 9/3/10
2nd Fabregas v Tottenham (H) 31/10/09
3rd Arshavin v Man United (A) 29/8/09
4th Arshavin v Liverpool (A) 13/12/09
5th Vermaelen v Blackburn (H) 4/10/09
This category was effectively a two horse race with Nasri’s solo goal against Porto (chosen by 70% of fans in their top three) pipping Cesc’s waltz through the Spurs defence (65%). My personal preference was Cesc’s goal, because of the hilarious way in which it was handed to him on a plate by the inept Spurs defence straight after Robin’s opener. I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated two goals so close together. I’m so unfit these days, I was grateful that half-time followed shortly afterwards to allow me to sit down and recover!

Best Goal Against Arsenal
1st Messi’s 1st, Barcelona (A) 42.4%
2nd Rose, Tottenham (A) 26.8%
3rd Rooney, Man United (H) 12.5%
This result doesn’t tell the whole story as all Messi’s goals received votes, including his fifth which I have to say I don’t remember! Possibly the best summary of the season though was from Ben Sebastian who commented: “Every single goal was the result of bad defending by us!” It’s difficult to argue with that.

Silverware
The manager’s refusal to field his strongest squad in the FA Cup is becoming an increasing frustration. Just over 90% of replies said we should have done so last season, so can the club continue to ignore the wishes of this overwhelming majority? I’d like to think they can’t, but Wenger may see it differently.
The rationale often put forward is that our chances in the Premier and Champions Leagues are increased by sacrificing the cups. Have you noticed any appreciable benefit in those competitions? Did Chelsea suffer on their way to the Double?
Arsène’s Carling Cup youth policy is still backed by a slim majority (57%), although several commented that they’d like to see more experienced players introduced as the competition progresses.

The Squad
It won’t come as a shock that an overwhelming 83% of fans feel goalkeeper is the area of the team which needs to be addressed most urgently. Pretty much everyone else said defence, so Koscielny’s arrival helps in that regard. So far there’s no sign of a new keeper and three first team central defenders have left, so I’d say the situation is more desperate now than it was in May!
We have also yet to sign any £10m players – assuming Koscielny was less – so unless that changes, 99.2% of fans will be unhappy, because that’s how many wanted at least one £10m plus signing. In fact, seven in every ten fans thought we needed at least three, with almost 5% wanting us to splash at least £50m on five new big signings.

Who should we buy?
1. Joe Hart
2. Gianluigi Buffon
3. Hugo Lloris
4. Brede Hangeland
Hardly surprisingly the top three places were occupied by goalkeepers. Joe Hart impressed on loan at Birmingham last season. Should he or Shay Given become available, I’d like to think we’d be first in the queue. As well as Buffon, there were at least a dozen other keepers mentioned: Lloris, Given, Akinfeev, Neuer, and Green (aaaggghhhh!) to name a few, plus the one more likely to be between the posts when we kick-off against Liverpool, Mark Schwarzer. Elsewhere, one Lionel Messi also attracted some attention, though according to these results at least, Bolton’s Gary Cahill would be a more popular signing!

Least Like to Be Sold
1. Fabregas 81.9%
2. Van Persie 11.7%
3. Wilshere 2.4%
A fairly predictable answer and one which the club, at least for now, seem to be in agreement with. It’s interesting to see Jack Wilshere’s name appearing in the top three for the first time. Let’s hope he can fulfil the high hopes we have for him and he tops this section in years to come.

Most Like to Be Sold
1. Almunia 31.5%
2. Silvestre 24.8%
3. Fabianski 21.3%
4. Denilson 10.8%
Yet more evidence of where we think the problem is. But who on earth would take Almunia or Fabianski off our hands, especially as they are on decent wages and long term contracts? I can’t imagine their displays last season will have attracted too many offers.

Over 30s
It’s widely accepted that Wenger is a stubborn old goat and occasionally that can be a good thing – sticking with Alex Song for example, when the rest of the planet thought he was mad. However, he surely needs to be challenged more strongly on his strategy of only offering one year contracts to players as soon as they reach the ripe old age of 30 – only 18.5% were in agreement with the policy.

More Experience
We asked whether you thought the policy on player purchasing would change this summer to buy older and more experienced players than before. I’ve been thinking it would change for the last couple of years to no avail, so I couldn’t see why this summer would be different, but 59% believe that last season’s performances will have been the straw which broke the camel’s back and Wenger will now recognise that he needs to change his approach. I won’t be holding my breath!

Loans
I think I’m right in saying that we had more players out on loan last season than any other club in the world. The experience they gain at other clubs should be to our longer term benefit either by ensuring they are ready for the first team when they return or by enabling us to get a larger fee should they not be considered good enough for Arsenal. Presumably this is why 69% of fans did not believe we let too many players go out on loan last season and also why over 60% of fans felt that Jack Wilshere will have benefitted sufficiently from his loan at Bolton to make at least five Premier League appearances for Arsenal this season. There are high hopes for the other loanees we mentioned as well (Emmanuel-Thomas, Lansbury and Szczesny) with a further 31% expecting one or more to also break into the first team picture.

Arsène Wenger
The Gooner always tries to reflect the overall mood of the fans, but over the last couple of seasons this has become increasingly difficult when talking about the manager. There are some very different views about his ability to produce a team that can compete at the top of the English and European game.
According to the survey, the “Arsène knows best” brigade (as they are often referred to) is still just under a third of the fan base. However, there are some (15%) who believe Wenger is now holding the club back, which leaves a small majority (52%) sitting on the fence and who presumably could be swayed by events between now and May.
Over half of fans believe we will win at least one trophy this season, with 25% thinking we can land the Premier League crown and 7% believing we can double it up with a first Champions League triumph. There’s nothing like optimism! At the opposite end of the spectrum are the 15% of fans (probably the same ones who believe Wenger is holding the club back) who don’t think we’ll be adding anything to our list of honours in the next five years if Arsène remains in charge.

Next Manager
With less than a year remaining on Arsène’s contract, this could appear on the agenda in the not too distant future. Inter Milan’s triumph in the Champions League last season ensured there was significant support for Jose Mourinho to be the next incumbent and it’s hard to argue with his level of success. However, there were also a number of “anyone but Mourinho” votes from fans who clearly don’t like the way he achieves results.
Just behind Jose in the poll was Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, which may seem a rather fanciful suggestion. However, Guardiola understands the pressures of managing a club that demands trophies every season. He has just agreed a new one year contract and may decide that after three years in charge, he is ready for a new challenge.
The most popular names put forward after these two were (in order) Hiddink, Hodgson, Capello, Moyes, Bergkamp and Steve Bould. I suspect Fabio’s popularity may have taken a bit of a dip recently!

Top of the Chants
1. He’s Five Foot Four...
2. Only Come to See Eboue
3. He’s Got a Twitch
4. I like Eboue-boue
5. Emmanuel Eboue (Seven Nation Army)
There were so many different chants put forward that this was probably the most difficult category to collate, but despite our Russian having a mediocre season, the song which boasts “We’ve got Arshavin, f**k Adebayor” was a clear winner. My favourite response was from a fan who clearly has trouble picking out the words to the chant at number three, as they suggested “Is he a witch, Harry Redknapp, Is he a witch?” Unless of course they know something we don’t!