Kevin Whitcher
Please, calm down everyone. There is no crisis. The club are about to announce massive profits for their financial year ending in May 2014. There is something like £200 million in the bank, an amount that will be added to by participation in the Champions League group stage. What do you think this is, a football club or something?
If sporting, as opposed to financial ambition was the plan, there would be a genuine attempt to win trophies rather than do just enough to ensure the Champions League gravy train keeps rolling. And the board, long ago, would have replaced the current incumbent with a manager who could do tactics, organize his players, win games, the sort of things you need to do if you are to credibly compete for trophies. Arsene Wenger hasn’t really done anything of this nature since the club left Highbury.
It was not the defeat in Dortmund that should ring alarm bells, but its nature. Arsenal were comprehensively outplayed and offered no real resistance. Put this group of players under a different manager and you would at least see more in terms of commitment and organization. I have just read that Dortmund’s players ran a combined 11km more than Arsenal’s over the course of the game. The visitors appeared to have no answer to the pressing game of Jurgen Klopp’s side, as if it were some kind of a surprise. The German team have been playing this way for a while now, and it has taken them to the last eight in the Champions League for the past two seasons., including the final in 2013. I don’t need to remind you how far the Gunners have progressed in that time.
Unfortunately, the game provided confirmation of the template of how to deal with Arsenal away from home. Get in their faces, do not allow them time on the ball, dispossess them and break. The full backs will often be stranded too far up the field, and two pacey players breaking is often enough take care of any resistance provided by Messrs Arteta, Mertesacker and Koscielny. Lack of numbers in the defensive positions for the squad is one thing, but it also has the consequence that neither of the centre backs are under any pressure regards keeping their place. It isn’t a healthy situation.
It was not as if Dortmund were even at full strength, with several first choice picks, not least Hummels and Reus, absent, and with Lewandowski gone to pastures new they should, in theory have been a weaker outfit than last season when they shaded Arsenal’s group. It is testament to the qualities of Klopp that they look even better. Surely Arsenal haven’t declined? At least in terms of personnel.
It would not be a huge surprise if Dortmund won in the return game in north London, so on that level, Arsenal are reliant on the matches against the other two sides in the group to qualify. In this respect, the draw in Istanbul was a good result. But if they do get through to the knockout rounds, based on this display, we can all see how that is going to turn out.
Given the home side’s profligacy, it could have been one of those strange matches where the points were shared due to the simple matter of putting the ball in the net when opportunity arose. Danny Welbeck had at least two excellent chances, but did nothing to quell his doubters. It is too early to say he is going to live up to his reputation as a man who cannot finish enough chances. Hopefully, he will score soon and go on some kind of a run. He certainly got into the positions to find the net.
Hector Bellerin was thrown in the deep end, but there were far more naïve performances by certain of his colleagues. If Debuchy played, one doubts the outcome would have been very different, such was the lack of nous in the overall display by Arsenal.
Dortmund away is the most difficult fixture in the group, and there is time to recover. Sure, it is only one game. The worry though, is that the performance indicates that the problems that led to heavy defeats on the road to the top teams last season have not been rectified. They certainly haven’t been addressed in the transfer market and there is little sign of them having been done so on the training pitch. A date for your diary – Sunday 5th October. Chelsea away. Be afraid, be very afraid…
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
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Further Reading
A sequel to Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub and entitled Arsène and Arsenal The Quest to Rediscover Past Glories has been written by myself and co-author Alex Fynn. It takes up the story of the club from the last update of the previous book, and can be bought online here. Use the promo code ‘Gooner’ to get 10% off the publisher’s price of £8.99.
