Kevin Whitcher
Having won the league, on paper, Leicester away should be difficult fixture this season. Arsenal though, beat them twice last season, and the defending champions construed to lose to Hull last weekend. So there was hope that the Gunners could get their season on track with an away win, especially with Koscielny, Ozil and Giroud available for selection.
As it was, only Koscielny started, taking the captain’s armband. Other changes from last week’s starting eleven were Xhaka for Elneny, Cazorla for Ramsey and the Ox for Iwobi. Koscielny replaced Chambers, with Rob Holding keeping his place. A big call from the manager, but the defence played better than it did against Liverpool last weekend. Koscielny was probably Arsenal’s standout player and Holding’s performance justified his selection. What Calum Chambers must think is another question.
Leicester were at full strength with the only change from the team that won the title being Mendy in the position of the now Chelsea midfielder Kante.
It was a largely nothingy kind of game, as the scoreline suggests, interspersed with the odd moment of drama. However, the conclusion is that Leicester are unlikely to have anywhere near as much success as last season and Arsenal will need to improve significantly going forward if they are to enjoy much success in the months ahead.
Ultimately, as the game neared its end, Leicester should have been awarded a penalty, but Mark Clattenburg didn’t give it. Perhaps the home side’s reputation for winning penalties with some questionable hitting the deck (principally Jamie Vardy) last season has caught up with them. In the cold light of day though, it was the key moment and Arsenal got lucky. The ball went down the other end of the field and Theo Walcott had a glorious chance to chip the keeper and give his team the win, but fluffed his lines. Despite scoring some fine goals in his decade plus at the club, he has always had a tendency to do that. I wonder if Arsene Wenger is still waiting for him to come good. He has never reached the level the club need to win titles. He’s no Robert Pires. And the reality is we’re stuck with him at least for the duration of his current deal with no-one else being willing to match the wages he is on at the club.
Theo had ambitions to play at centre forward, a role given to Alexis Sanchez while we wait for Giroud’s return to match fitness and / or the purchase of an upgrade in the position. Alexis tried manfully but had a generally quiet afternoon, a couple of strange Hollywood balls he attempted across the pitch that went wrong the principle memory of his performance. Whether he regains the spark we know he has when he moves back into his normal position waits to be seen, but we may need to prepare for a below-par season. The player has not had a summer off since 2013 and Chile will be in next summer’s Confederations Cup. I wonder if the guy is just a bit all played out these days.
With the help of his colleagues, they tried to work a route through the thicket of Leicester defenders. They forged a handful of promising situations, but the final ball didn't work out and frankly, the Gunners looked blunt. The game was far less open than the match against Liverpool and the visitors didn’t have the ability to really change things. Matters improved a little with the introduction of Mesut Ozil, but the Leicester box always looked too packed for the threading of the needle required. It all felt a bit familiar.
Jack Wilshere came on for Granit Xhaka with less than 20 minutes. Francis Coquelin was fortunate still to be on the pitch after escaping a second yellow card, so it was a gamble to leave the Frenchman on, but it was one that Arsene Wenger won as he stayed out of trouble for the remainder of the game.
Early days in the season yet, and the team seems far from settled. However, with the injuries in central defence, that looks to be the way it will remain unless someone like Mustafi is brought, starts immediately and retains his place. Even though only two matches have been played, looking at the table, one has a suspicion that the big clubs that changed manager during the summer might establish too much of a head start for Arsenal to join them in the title race this season.
There were questions about whether Pep Guardiola would adapt to the Premier League at Manchester City. A thumping victory at Stoke suggests he could have a few tips for Arsene Wenger about getting results at the Britannia. Manchester United have bought big and bought well from the looks of things, able to leave Mhykatarian on the bench such is the depth of their options. Antonio Conte has relied on late winners to give Chelsea maximum points, but it’s not the worst habit to have. Stressful maybe, but he won’t have to worry about losing any hair these days. Liverpool’s defeat at Burnley makes last weekend’s Arsenal performance look even worse, but hey, it is early days.
In truth, I don’t expect much from the Gunners this season. If they really meant business they would have done their transfer business early and been ready for the start of the season, as other clubs seem to have managed. It was interesting to hear a significant number of the travelling faithful chant “We want Wenger out” at the end of the match yesterday. People are fed up with seeing an Arsenal team trying to unpick knots against organized defences, as well as the annual balls up of the summer transfer market. At least they are only paying £26 a ticket to suffer this when it happens away from home now.
What are Arsene’s solutions? One imagines there will be signings by deadline day with Arsenal will be reactive rather than proactive in the transfer market, unlike others, and may pay the price as they did in 2011-12, as new arrivals take time to do the settling in they could have been doing in pre-season. This of course assumes they do strengthen, although it would beggar belief if the pile of cash the club have remains untouched in the bank. The pressure is simply too intense, the need to address key positions too great. Arsenal will pay at least what they were unwilling to six weeks ago and probably more. Still, six weeks wages saved, eh? And Arsene’s obviously very concerned about the wages issue at the club going by his post match interview. He should let the HR department worry about that.
Ozil and Giroud will start next weekend, and points will start to be picked up. Certainly, anything but a win at Watford will see things get very ugly, but historically, Wenger’s teams have always plucked out a result when he has really needed them to (in terms of him saving face rather than winning titles in recent seasons of course).
However, the discontent isn’t going away. It can go quiet, only to resurface when the inevitable off day comes along. And it is growing, with more and more fans unhappy seeing the same old same old from the team, and blaming the manager. I am convinced that means that the board have already decided that there won’t be a new contract offer. And the scenes at the conclusion of the match at the King Power won’t have done anything to persuade them otherwise.
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