Kevin Whitcher
Where to start? Well let’s get the positives out of the way first.
1. It has been ventured to me that technically, Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game is on Tuesday because the Sheffield United cup game has been included and, as the result didn't stand, the game shouldn't either.
2. Bacary Sagna at least attempted to demonstrate he is worth the wages the club are paying him, unlike the majority of his colleagues.
3. The defence prevented Fernando Torres from getting on the scoresheet
4. Arsenal’s away support, as ever, was fantastic, at least until they started drifting out at 6-0 down.
5. The sun shone.
6. Arsenal won’t have to play Chelsea again until next season.
Er… that’s it.
BT Sport’s Jake Humphries, referring to a heavy defeat in Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game in charge of the club said you couldn’t have predicted that. But the truth is that away to a title rival in 2013/14, in fact you probably could.
Arsenal – noted for their possession football – spent most of the 90 minutes giving the ball to the opposition. It was akin to watching a piece of animal welfare reportage which I can see is going to show some footage of an animal being tortured or mistreated. As I really don’t want to see what follows, I invariably cover my eyes. There were times I felt like doing exactly that during this game.
I have given the manager the benefit of the doubt this season as long as the team have remained in the mix for the title. Hoping that a belief he no longer has the managerial ability to deliver a league title will be proved wrong. It’s a belief many others share. Few will be happy to have had their judgment confirmed.
In key games of this nature, the manager’s job is to prepare his team for the challenge. Get them focused and fully aware of what lies ahead of them. As it turned out, his players were totally switched off. It was a contrast to Chelsea, who demonstrated real hunger. Few would dispute that Jose Mourinho is a classless act, the managerial equivalent of TalkSport’s Adrian Durham. A wind-up merchant, who succeeds if enough people are foolish enough to take the bait and not realize what he is doing. However, behind the scenes, what he can do is motivate and organize highly paid footballers to perform. Arsenal had some very highly paid footballers on the same pitch today, but there seemed little in the way of motivation. They played as if nothing was at stake.
Before they were down to ten men, they were losing by two goals and facing a penalty kick. The loss of a man was only mitigation for the margin of defeat, but not the performance, which smacked of an overpampered spiritless bunch that simply did not care. They should be ashamed of themselves and have a whip round to refund the price of the tickets for every away fan that was unfortunate enough to have witnessed that shocker.
I perceive Arseblog as a fairly glass half full website, very forgiving of the board and the manager. However, here are some excerpts from the site’s liveblog on the game, I assume written by Arseblogger himself, Andrew Mangan (certainly the style looks like the great man):
Giroud runs at the Chelsea defence, resembling a two legged zebra chasing after lions that have scoffed his hindquarters.
He had all the grace and poise of a retarded dolphin on land who had just been given rohypnol down his blow spout
Giroud tries to chip Cech from halfway, but unlike his late night hotel room shenanigans, his effort is limp
5-0
Giroud felled, waggles his fingers as he tumbles like a giant oak
Actually, for Tuesday's game, I'd think about playing a tree
There is literally nothing in the rules against it
Arsene could go down to the garden centre, pick out a cherry blossom or a japanese birch and stick it up front against Swansea.
Chelsea 6-0.
I don't know what else to say here
unquestionably one of the worst performances and results ever
I wish this was just over
Embarrassing, pathetic display
Giroud loses it on halfway like a f***ing pub player
I’d say that Arseblog is pretty down on Giroud, but the defensive shambles that was witnessed today can’t be blamed on him. Certainly, at 0-0, he had a great chance to put the visitors ahead. However, against big teams, especially Chelsea, he frequently fluffs his lines. A £12 million buy, he is evidence that you get what you pay for (unless you are an Arsenal fan, as one guy on ArsenalFanTV quipped after the home defeat to Villa back in August). Witness what happened at the other end when Eto’o and Schurrle had chances in the moments that followed.
Arsene Wenger has not signed a contract renewal because he is going to assess his own performance at the end of the season. He told BBC Radio 5 Live after the game, “I take full responsibility.” Time will tell if he really will by bowing out. The best case scenario now would be if he won the FA Cup and then can depart with a bit of dignity, but after today, following the concession of five at Liverpool and six at Manchester City, he knows that, in 2014, he can no longer cut it against the best teams. The record of one Champions League semi final appearance in spite of making the last 16 in the eight seasons since leaving Highbury confirms he is, tactically, out of his depth in Europe when the going gets tough.
It’s all about momentum at this time of the season, and Arsenal have taken seven points from the last 18 available in the Premier League. The last five away games have been:
Southampton 2-2
Liverpool 1-5
Stoke 0-1
Spurs 1-0
Chelsea 0-6
In honesty, Arsenal were the inferior team against Southampton, and were fortunate to win at Spurs. Last season, from a losing position, they took 26 points from the final 30 available. They could still take 27 from the last ten matches this season, but can you see them beating Manchester City on this performance? Everton away? When the title is out of reach, and the pressure is off, I suspect they will re-find winning ways against less challenging opposition, although a collapse along the lines of the 2010-11 season can’t be ruled out either.
Certainly, the squad is weakened by the injuries to Ramsey, Walcott, Wilshere and Ozil, but none of the missing men are truly defensive players. Arsene Wenger felt like he had to win this game, and was probably right, but the selection of Oxlade-Chamberlain as a holding midfielder was bold and ultimately foolish. Better surely to ensure greater solidity with Flamini and Arteta, at least for the first hour of the match, to make sure the team were still in the game by that time.
The title challenge was good while it lasted, and on paper, Arsenal can still register 86 points, which might just be enough to squeeze first place. Chelsea would have to drop five points (given the goal difference) from their last seven matches and Liverpool and Manchester City would also need to falter. But sides hammered as much as Arsenal have been so often this season do not win the title. It’s over now. It is about consolidating a top four place and maybe hope for third if one of the other three sides has a collapse of some kind.
Making the Champions League again would be an achievement, certainly. But for fans, the best football memories are those associated with glory. Meaningful matches that lead to something other than £s in the club coffers. Perhaps the FA Cup will offer us that this season, but in the league, how many of the matches in 2013/14 have been the kind of stuff that you will remember in years to come, as you do with so many games from the Highbury part of Wenger’s era?
Arsene Wenger described the events at the Bridge today as “a nightmare”. Let’s hope this nightmare doesn’t have to go on for another couple of seasons. I hope the manager can win the FA Cup and leave with his head held high. If he cannot defeat the combined might of Wigan, then Hull or Sheffield United to land some silverware, then his position will surely be untenable anyway.
Psychologically, Arsenal have never recovered from the twin blows in spring 2008 when they gave away winning positions at Birmingham in the Premier League and away at Liverpool in the Champions League quarter final second leg. Arsene Wenger has had six seasons to put right the collateral damage from those two encounters. He has never managed it. Arsenal are now associated with a failure to see the job through, which is why there are doubts even about the FA Cup. There are other concerns – the shocking injury record at the club, which statistics reveal to be more than misfortune, and the inability to conclude transfer deals that could strengthen the squad and the team’s chances. At least, in the last couple of seasons, experience has been drafted in as the naivety of project youth was abandoned, but it has not been able to turn around the culture of the club – one of complacency and ultimate failure that we witnessed at Stamford Bridge today. Jose Mourinho’s description of Wenger as “a specialist in failure” was unnecessary, but in recent years, I find it hard to argue with, looking at some of the excellent positions Arsenal have been in to win both titles and cups.
Unfortunately, the saddest thing about the collapse of Arsenal’s title challenge is that it was wholly predictable. And that is the reason why it is time for a change in the manager’s dugout.
It was a day of opportunity, a chance for Arsenal to prove the doubters wrong and seize the moment. And on the occasion of the manager’s 1000th game. Champions win games like these. They used to in the days when Arsene Wenger led his teams to titles. One thing is certain. Whatever does happen in the future, his 1000th match will be remembered for a very long time. The title challenge proved to be another Wenger illusion, until reality arrived on the scene. How many Gooners can endure more seasons of this? Where is the pride, where is the passion? Where, indeed, has our Arsenal gone?
Finally, on a totally separate note, we have been asked to give a plug to the hire of a venue next to Wembley Stadium on the day of the semi-final just for Arsenal fans. Even if you cannot get a ticket to the game, you will be able to watch the game on big screens there, and there is food and drink on sale from 11am until 11pm or possibly later in the event of an Arsenal victory. These are the same guys that arranged a similar bash last time the Gunners were at Wembley in 2011, but the less said about the game that day, the better. Tickets are £7 and only available before the day. Full details can be seen here. Plug over.
The current issue of The Gooner can be bought online here. The next edition will go on sale at the home match v Swansea.
