Tiki-Taka
Football, the beautiful game was earlier considered by many only as a physical game then welcomed a new style of play in 1988. Johan Cruyff, during his tenure as FC Barcelona manager propagated and implemented tiki-taka style of football to keep possession of the ball. The tiki-taka style of football requires more of a technical skill, movement on and off the ball, vision, passing skills and excellent touch.
Barcelona stuck to that style of football and enjoyed huge success under managers who came after Cruyff like Rijkaard, Guardiola etc.
Tiki-Taka Tackled Hard
Even though it took some time for the top teams in Europe to tackle this style of Football by Barcelona and Spain, eventually they found few methods to counter it.
Chelsea during 2009 champions league semi-finals followed a solid and compact defensive which is called by few as "parking a bus in front of the goal". Luckily Barcelona entered the finals that year with the help of the referee.In 2010 semi-finals of the champions league, Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan team double-marked Messi and Xavi from achieving a passing rhythm.Inter went on to win the trophy that year.
With their style of play,Barcelona were able to beat the teams in their league convincingly until Jose Mourinho became Real Madrid's Manager. Barcelona were not able to taste 100% success against Mourinho's men and also lost the league title to Real Madrid in 2011/2012 season. After Celtic FC 's 2-1 defeat of Barcelona in 2012-13 champions league group stage,the fear that the opponents once had to play Barcelona has gone.
Change of the Guard???
Tiki-taka style of football faced criticism for the fact that sometimes it is boring to watch that style when they are not able to find attacking alternative against the teams with strong defense.
Tiki-taka 's weekness were exposed fully by Bayern Munich in last year's champions league semifinal. Bayern completely outplayed Barcelona in both the legs and they with their physical advantage they didn't allow Barcelona to play their style.
The Guardian proclaimed that "some suggested Bayern would attempt to outplay Barcelona at short passing football, but ultimately it was a perfect recipe of Barcelona's traditional problems: physicality, counterattacks, ability to defend against a balanced play and as well and ability to create chances against communicating defenses". Bayern's elimination of Barça had Sports Illustrated suggested that "the changing of the guard has begun".
Spain's 3-0 defeat to Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Cup final once again proved that it is time for Barcelona and Spain to start looking for attacking alternatives.
It is good to see Brazil back to their best with their Samba Style of Football and now Brazil is certainly the favorites to lift the Trophy next year.
"Forget tiki-taka, It's time for Samba".
2013 - A year which gave Gunners all over the world a happy
ending. 
For how long we have to wait till the final day of the season to find out our fate for the next season?
After our loss to Aston Villa and the fact that we haven't qualified for champions league at that point of time and also other top teams are spending to strengthen their squad, questions were raised regarding the quality of our players in the squad and the transfer policy of the club."Spend Spend Spend" is the chant after the Aston Villa game.In every press conference, One standard question to wenger is about the potential signings and the standard reply from Wenger is "We are working on that 24x7".
With so much pressure after the loss in the premier league, Arsenal convincingly beat Fenebarche in the UEFA CL qualifiers, also regeitered their first win in premier league @ Fulham.We were then drafted in Group F alongside Napoli,Borussia Dortmund and Marsellie.
Now the pressure was more on Wenger to strengthen the squad.He signed Flamini without spending a penny.But Wenger needed a star signing to answer the critics.Then came the North London Derby. $0m vs $100m. Arsenal had a point to prove. Flamini came in for Wilshere and proved that he can be the DM that Arsenal needs.After 90 minutes of intense derby match,North London was painted in Red again. Giroud's goal in the first half is enough to keep Spurs in our shadow. 
During the Press conference after the derby, Wenger said that 'one or two special players' may join us.The rumours were that after Bale's move to Real Madrid Ozil,Di maria and Benzema will be sold and Arsenal had placed a bids for them.I expected Di Maria to join them as he could be cheaper for Wenger than Ozil and Benzema.
"Ozil signing will be confirmed @ 430pm BST" and then after 430pm BST it was updated by Skysports that "...signing will be confirmed @ 6pm BST".No official confirmation and only one hour till the window closes. Felt Nervous.Then came the updates which i was waiting for the past 3 months - "German international Ozil joins Arsenal". When Real Madrid signed him after 2010 world cup, I felt that Arsenal should also sign quality players like him.After 3 years it finally happened. Thanks to Real Madrid,Bale,Perez,Levy and Wenger.
Whenever Sachin enters to bat,people expects him to score at-least a century and whenever Messi gets the ball in his feet, he is expected to do magic and score a goal. When Murray made his Wimbledon debut in 2005,people in Britain expected a lot from him. They believed that he is gonna be the next Wimbledon champion but some of them didn't realize that Federer and Nadal were ahead of him. Expectations can help in getting motivated and it can also lead to disappointment. Murray was not able to reach the final stages of the Wimbledon in the first few years. Players like Federer,Nadal and Djokovic have also acknowledged the pressure Murray has in his shoulders whenever he plays in Wimbledon.
