This is the time of the year when Arsenal, and every other club, seem to be caught in the footballing equivalent of the doldrums, once the bane of every sailing ship known to man, where
a relatively calm period occurs out of nowhere, and during which time no wind has the temerity to stick its nose in, and indeed prefers to disappear like ice cream in a hot oven, trapping sailing ships for lengthy periods lasting days, weeks and sometimes months, where for what seemed an eternity to their crews — nothing happened.
It seems that the 1976 - 1985
period was
relatively calm, and the 1995 - 2005
period was
relatively active, but comparable to earlier active
periods such as 1900 - 1905 and 1926 - 1935.