Kevin Whitcher
It may have only been a point, and Arsenal remain in the bottom half of the table, but psychologically, the point gained at Chelsea has provided relief all round for the manager, players and supporters, after two very shaky away performances so far this season.
Mesut Ozil was supposedly injured for this one. Scrub that, he was dropped, but the manager rarely does ignominy for his underperforming players. The German is a liability in big Premier League away games, a luxury the team cannot afford. Now in his final year at the club, perhaps the indulgence is over. Perhaps Arsene Wenger is flexing the muscles of his puny frame the way he has done with the CEO. It will be interesting to see how often Ozil is utilized, and if he starts in the League Cup against Doncaster, his fall from grace will be pretty much confirmed.
Alexis Sanchez is in a similar situation. Although he can offer a lot more than Ozil when the going gets tough, Wenger is thinking more about the team now. And in reality, the Chilean is almost certainly not going to perform at his best if fielded twice in four days. So his selection for last Thursday and the fact he remained on the pitch for the entire 90 minutes against Cologne indicated he was never going to start at the Bridge.
Someone had printed up some £50 notes with the manager’s head on them, with the words ‘Bank of Bullsh*t’, wads of which were periodically thrown into the air in the away section. A point at Chelsea is not going to heal a very deep divide, a disconnection and distrust of Wenger by a significant portion of the fanbase.
And the reason is that we are still, after several seasons of the same, witnessing a Jekyll and Hyde football team. Contrast the application against Chelsea with the game against Liverpool. Of course, Sanchez, Ozil and the Ox all started at Anfield, to say nothing of fielding players out of position. It was one of several ignominious nadirs in recent campaigns.
Wenger retained his three at the back formation yesterday, and there were fears that Xhaka and Ramsey might expose the men behind them with their indiscipline, but for the most part, Arsenal were solid. The contribution made by Iwobi and Welbeck - being willing to work harder than Ozil and Sanchez did against Liverpool - cut down the amount of time Chelsea had to create. The shape of the team was far less ragged than it has been and it helped Arsenal that Eden Hazard did not start the game.
The best chances fell to Pedro at one end (who should have beaten Cech) and Ramsey at the other (who was unfortunate to hit the post). In the second half, with the introduction of Hazard, the home team had far more attempts on target, but Petr Cech dealt with them satisfactorily. The ball wasn’t given away cheaply as we have seen too often in previous matches.
So, something to build upon, although of course, we have been down this road before and it hasn’t ended well. The nature of the latter day Arsenal is that consistency of performance is something that cannot be relied upon. So while this is encouraging, people are not going to look at Arsenal as credible contenders until Easter has come and gone and they are still in the mix (which currently they are not, but only five games so far and all that). And of course, as night follows day, just as he is establishing himself in the first team, Danny Welbeck gets an injury that threatens to keep him out of action for half the season. Twas ever thus. At least Sead Kolasinac’s leg wasn’t broken by David Luiz’s x-rated over the ball lunge, a worrying moment that fully deserved the straight red that will see Luiz banned for three matches. It was too late in the game yesterday to benefit the Gunners.
With Welbeck’s injury, the manager is unlikely to have the option of continuing to not start his wantaway stars. Certainly, it would be madness to put Walcott in ahead of Sanchez, although there is a school of thought that Reiss Nelson may be worth a try. Whatever the decision, it has to be about the team now. Sanchez knows he is at a club that is not serious about competing for the title when it comes to actions rather than words, hence the near £30 million profit in the summer transfer window. So he amuses himself on the bench. It doesn’t look good. But his whole situation has not been handled well. He is a winner in a team of players that is not set up to primarily win, but to express themselves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It falls apart often enough to ensure there is never a sniff of a league title these days.
Arsenal face West Brom, Brighton, Watford, Everton and Swansea before the double header of Manchester City and Spurs. They surprised us with their performance at Chelsea. When good results are not a surprise, and banker three point games are invariably won, we can start to believe again. On a positive note, the team did demonstrate that they can get a result against the odds without Sanchez starting, something we will have to get used to in a year’s time, so best get used to it now.
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