Kevin Whitcher
“If the manager does not have a plan, we keep quiet” – Sir Chips Keswick, Arsenal Chairman, 16th October 2014
"I know that there are players that Steve Bould has recommended to Arsenal that they have not taken" – Ian Wright, 10th November 2014
“Enough’s enough, Wenger out” – A4 flyer distributed at the E******s Stadium, 23rd November 2014
The thing is, the defeat to Manchester United yesterday did not actually bother me particularly. I gave up on Arsenal under Arsène Wenger a long time ago, in my heart of hearts. As I write for what I hope is a cross-section of Arsenal supporters, I attempt to write with reason and fairness, with an element of hope where I can find it, rather than just come out with the pessimism that has developed within me over recent seasons. So in 2013-14, I wrote positively about the team’s results and performances as they topped the table and made a genuine fist of the title challenge for the first two thirds of the season. However, inside, when the predicted collapse came due to the combination of fatigue and injuries (issues that should have been rectified in the January transfer window), I was inwardly phlegmatic. I knew Arsenal would be overhauled, they always are.
Let’s put emotion to one side and look at cold hard facts. In the first leg of a Champions League knockout match against the holders of the trophy, Arsène Wenger started the match with Yaya Sanogo. A player who had started one previous match for the club. To be in that position kind of sums things up. There is a basic lack of football strategy at the club – as indicated by Sir Chips Keswick’s words above. Where is the plan? How can a club of Arsenal’s size end the summer transfer window with six recognized defenders in the first team squad, one of them a relative rookie? And with obvious deficiencies in the centre of the park when the opposition have the ball?
The consequence is the kind of defending we have seen a little too often lately, and cost them two goals (which should have been three but for Di Maria’s late miss) against a very poor Manchester United side.
Arsenal should have undoubtedly been ahead before the visitors scored. There is absolutely no excuse for a player of Jack Wilshere’s ability to have missed his one-on-one in the first half. Danny Welbeck also had a number of chances that a better forward might have converted. Too many shots went straight at David De Gea.
United’s back line was Valencia – McNair – Blackett – Smalling – Shaw/Young. Let’s face it, they were there for the taking. They have not won an away match all season. Arsenal fathomed one gilt-edged chance for all their possession. The rest required decent finishing, which was conspicuous by its absence until Olivier Giroud’s injury time belter. Ultimately though, the Wilshere chance aside, Wenger’s team failed to outwit a very inexperienced defence. Because they played their usual possession football and were easy to defend against. There was not enough variation, in spite of the best efforts of the likes of Alexis and Oxlade-Chamberlain to make things happen.
It was pointed out to me in the build-up to the game how much more effective Arsenal’s English contingent are looking when they play under the tutelage of Roy Hodgson and get some actual coaching and tactics. Arsène Wenger just tells them to express themselves. However, football is a results game. Arsenal have beaten United once in their last 15 meetings, and won four Premier League matches this season, all against teams currently in the bottom seven. One win every calendar month.
This is a one-way street people. The FA Cup win was described to me after the game yesterday as a ‘dead cat bounce’ – a term for an illusory recovery used in the stock market. Arsène Wenger certainly seems to have a minimum of nine lives, having suffered a good number of humiliations that would have seen managers sacked at any other club. Certainly, he enjoyed incredible fortune to win his first trophy after eight barren seasons. If his intelligence outweighed his stubbornness, he should have gone out on a high last May. Instead, the old fool thinks he can prove doubters wrong, in spite of the wealth of evidence that he can no longer cut it in the game today, in terms of building a title-winning team.
My only frustration is that the club do have some very decent players, genuine winners that, harnessed by a better manager, could deliver greater success. But the longer Wenger hangs on, the less the chance they will. We have already seen enough players get fed up of waiting and move on. Will Alexis Sanchez still be at the club in August 2015 if Arsène Wenger still is? Mesut Ozil has already given up, a man that has played under coaches who have some semblance of how to deliver success. The body language of the players isn’t great these days. They know something’s missing and there is not enough experience to sort it out between themselves.
The first United goal was the consequence of a lack of basic communication between the keeper and his defender, which is the stuff of Sunday League. The second was sadly familiar, caught on the break and outnumbered as they pressed forward in gung ho Gunners style, even though there was plenty of time left due to the extended injury breaks that saw Wilshere and Szczesny removed. It was like watching a house of cards.
Giroud’s consolation goal quelled some of the resistance, but the feeling is that it is growing now. The majority of the fans – even at the stadium – want change. Witness the mass evacuation after the second United goal. People were voting with their feet rather than having any hope in a recovery for a Wenger team. Most do not want to make a negative noise inside the stadium when they want to back the team during the match. However, how many more such defeats will people take?
For me, it was over a long time ago. I am hanging on, in purgatory, until the day Wenger finally admits he is not going to prove people wrong. That a manager who can do motivation, organization and in-game tactical changes will do a better job. Until then, it’s Chinese Water Torture. In the end, you just stop feeling it. Does anyone else feel that games against Manchester United really don’t matter anymore? Because let’s face it, there’s rarely anything at stake these days, certainly for Gooners. Things sure ain’t what they used to be, which should mean it’s time to move on.
Is Arsène Wenger the man to turn this malaise around (which ultimately he has created)? Those still suffering from (as ArsenalFanTV’s wonderful Claude put it) ‘Wengeritis’, please step forward and give me some hope here.
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
The current issue of The Gooner can be bought online here. The issue will be on sale outside the stadium for the forthcoming Dortmund home game, and at West Brom away next weekend.
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