Kevin Whitcher
It shouldn’t have surprised anyone really. Arsenal have been at home in their first fixture for the last four seasons and lost three of them. In between defeats to Villa in 2013 and West Ham in 2015, they managed to beat Crystal Palace 2-1, but the trend leans towards the suggestion that the squad are habitually not as prepared as others for the start of the season.
The three points dropped yesterday won’t be hugely significant in terms of any title challenge. With the changes at the top clubs and the new players they are strengthening with, Arsenal are not going to play any part in the title race this season. It could prove significant in whether or not, in what many hope will be Arsene Wenger’s final season, he ends on a low point by failing to get the club into the Champions League for the first time since the end of the 1996-97 season. It would be in no way comparable with Forest getting relegated in Brian Clough’s retirement campaign, although there will be a good number of Gooners that choose alcohol to numb the pain of another wasted year. The club will laud the manager (as they hopefully bid him farewell) for the achievement of qualifying for 19 consecutive years quietly forgetting that he failed to win the damn thing once and only made the last four on two occasions. A shocking record in the competition itself.
When Per Mertesacker was injured in pre-season there was plenty of time to buy cover. Even without Gabriel’s injury, a more savvy manager would have thought, ‘I can’t risk getting through half the season with only two established centre backs, I need a third.’ As it is, after yesterday, Wenger will end up paying the price for Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi that he could have got him for long before the weekend. Another valid question is why other players who turned out for France in the European Championship final were on active duty over the weekend (Bacary Sagna specifically) whereas Laurent Koscielny could not have been match ready – once again, especially after the injury to Mertesacker.
Wenger gambled yesterday by playing Chambers and Holding. More of a mystery is why he left Granit Xhaka – who has played a significant enough part in pre-season training – on the bench when surely he is a better defensive midfielder than either Coquelin and Elneny. These issues were compounded by Iwobi and Walcott not being up to the job of protecting their full backs. Loathe as I am to promote the idea of Aaron Ramsey being used as a wide attacker, for this game only, the manager might have considered playing him and Joel Campbell wide – players who will at least try a bit harder in the defensive element of the game – and start Cazorla in the Ozil position.
Defensively, the team did okay in the first half, and got away with a couple of moments (and the free kick that led to Liverpool’s equalizer was harsh), but after the interval they were a shambles at the back.
In attack, it is difficult to argue with three goals, all very different. However, at times there seemed a tendency to look for Alexis with high balls from deep which seemed a rather daft tactic, given the two much taller centre backs that were marking him. Alexis had a quiet game overall, but at least his colleagues compensated when it came to putting the ball in the net. And three goals should be enough to win any game.
Conceding four though, is worrying. The fact that the selection of two fairly raw defenders in the centre was not the sole cause of the problems flags up the reality that, even when Koscielny and Mustafi line up at the back, the opposition will create numerous chances. Arsenal do not prevent crosses or players attacking from wide because their attacking wide players switch off, leaving full backs exposed and centre backs dragged out of position.
Liverpool took the three points but the signs are that Jurgen Klopp still has work to do to make them the kind of team who can challenge for the Premier League. However, this season, with no European distractions, he will have the time to do that and his side might begin to resemble the real deal a bit more than they did yesterday. Having said that, they still had enough to beat Arsenal.
I must confess I was unperturbed by the defeat. It’s not as if there is anything really at stake this season. I wrote a few months ago that I have stopped caring deeply about the team’s results, and that I am simply marking time until something at the club changes. 2017-18 could be an exciting season for Arsenal if only because it will be unpredictable. The only unpredictable thing about the club these days is which Arsenal will turn up on any given day, but the overall inconsistency is entirely predictable. Wenger’s players are good enough to win enough matches to keep hopes of a top four place alive and if they fail, it will be by a small margin. Whether that floats your boat or not is a matter of personal preference, and it must be acknowledged that there are a large number of Arsenal fans who are perfectly happy with the lack of ambition at the club. I don’t understand that, but there you go.
The best thing to do now, with two more weeks to go until the close of the transfer window, would be to say to the manager – you haven’t prepared properly for the start of the season, we can see how this is going to go, now on your bike. Then get someone like a Pellegrini in to steady the ship for the immediate campaign. The man at least knows how to lead a team to a title, of how to get the best out of a group of players. The simple fact of change and a freshening up of activity at the training ground would get a response from players who are evidently unmotivated by the same old same old they are operating under now. Of course that isn’t going to happen.
Wenger has served the club well, but history has shown us that his time was actually up after the 2007-08 season, or a year later if you are being generous. His teams since the stadium move have lacked ‘the right stuff’ and it’s an ingredient he has been unwilling to add via the transfer market or a shake-up in his coaching staff. Anyway, nine more months of this with the hope that next summer, we can all, finally, move on.
I am on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
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