Kevin Whitcher
Firstly, my apologies to Bernard Dowling for nicking my title from his piece in the new issue of The Gooner that will be released next weekend. It was too good a summary of where Arsenal are now to resist borrowing. As for the game last night…
Mikel Arteta took a bad knock early in the first half of the match against Wigan, and within minutes, Arsenal were two goals down. He has become an important player for the team, and without him, an element of defensive discipline goes out of the window. As the Gunners took an early two goal lead last week at Wolves, so Wigan inflicted similar ignominy in north London. The away support was so insubstantial that when the goals went in, it felt like a minute’s silence ensued, perhaps in mourning for Arsenal’s chances of third place? Certainly a defeat to Chelsea this weekend might prove too much to bounce back from for a team that has shown confidence is lost too easily.
What was most worrying about Wigan’s strikes was the nature of the goals. The defending of Wenger’s team left a lot to be desired, and indeed, the visitors gave them a lesson in how to defend yesterday evening. Arsenal spent the remainder of the game trying to make good the deficit and their performance until the interval was encouraging in this light. At half time, you felt that they could go on to win the game.
Sadly, the second half performance saw Al Habsi in the Wigan goal rarely tested. Arsenal seemed to have little answer to being constantly blocked off. It didn’t help that Theo Walcott, last week’s matchwinner, had a stinker, and how he survived 60 minutes, never mind 90, is a mystery to me. Aside from being defensively cute, at times, the visitors beat Arsenal at their own game, with tidy on the floor possession football. And in fairness, they could have scored more goals after the interval, but for Szczesny belatedly finding his form.
Arsenal have suffered some poor and unexpected results this season, but as a rule, they tend to win the home matches you would expect them to, or at the very least, not lose them. But they played poorly last night, lacking determination and organization in defence, whilst up front, for the most part, lacking the wit to break through Wigan’s stubborn rearguard. However, we tend to see this kind of display more often on the road rather than at home, and it leaves you headscratching. Can the team not function without Arteta? Is it not obvious to the manager when a player is not on his game and changes need to be made?
The club have some breathing space. But defeat at the weekend would leave them in danger of being squeezed out of the top four if they then fail to win their subsequent two matches. Given Chelsea’s European commitments and Arsenal’s ability to play well at home to big teams, I would like to think we will see a happier outcome on Saturday lunchtime, and that Wigan was another blip as QPR was, rather than the start of another poor sequence.
However, looking ahead, Arsene Wenger has to try and fathom out how his team can drop so many points to teams in the bottom half of the table. Because until this problem is addressed, the Gunners will fall short in their quest for a first league title since 2004.
The current issue of the Gooner can be bought online here. There is also an e-version of the issue available to read on your ipad/tablet/iphone/android. The app is free and you can download the first few pages of each issue as a taster before deciding whether or not to purchase the whole thing
