Kevin Whitcher
Ed’s note – I am abroad currently with no guarantees of catching any Arsenal matches due to uncertainty of access to either a TV broadcast or internet signal. So until the League Cup game v Norwich, I’ll be covered by some Gooner contributors for the match editorials. My thanks to Charlie Ashmore for writing up yesterday’s visit to Vicarage Road. By the way, I won’t be able to fulfil any orders via the Gooner store until Wednesday 25th October – so by all means feel free to order, but please bear with me.
Well, where on earth do we start with that?
My irritation was already triggered before the game even started. Watford wear yellow shirts, black shorts and black socks. Which part of that clashes with our home kit? Answer – none. So why the hell do we wear that monstrosity of a kit that some corporate vandal decided should be our second kit this season? Clearly we are not selling enough so corporate need overcomes identity and tradition. It was an ex-Spurs manager who said as he left “There used to be a football club over there”. Am I alone in knowing how he felt?
As for the game, what a shambolic, feeble, pathetic capitulation. The first half had very little going for it and it was notable that the corner we scored from was the first corner of the match. To say we deserved to be in the lead is probably just about correct but let nobody be under the misapprehension that we played particularly well to claim it. Those who have watched our recent performances will not have been fooled by clean sheets and victories for in none of those games have we particularly impressed. We didn’t impress here. It wasn’t that long ago that trying to get the ball off an Arsenal team was like trying to get Geoff Boycott out in his prime –bloody difficult. Not now – the regularity with which our players pass the ball to the opposition is hard to believe. I could not begin to count the number of misplaced passes. Xhaka and Bellerin were particular culprits. Xhaka is frustrating as hell. He has a lot of ability but his decision making is shocking. He cannot keep going like this and expect to be of any use to us. Bellerin is half the player he was two years ago.
The remarkable thing is that poor though we were the game should have been dead and buried. A fantastic save from Gomes kept Iwobi out and then Ozil, having created the Iwobi chance and almost set Mertesacker up, found himself clean through with the whole goal to aim at and only Gomes to beat. He hit it pretty much straight at Gomes. And down to the other end went Watford and won a penalty. My instinct from the other end was that Bellerin got the ball. Having seen it again, he didn’t, but I am pretty sure he didn’t get the man either.
After the penalty there was only one team in it and it wasn’t us - the goal when it came was not a surprise. There was however time for some comedy touchline capers when Wilshere came on for Iwobi and then he didn’t as somebody suddenly remembered that Koscielny had an injury and was still on his feet by memory only and therefore brought Holding on instead. Why we didn’t go to a back four, I have no idea. In any event the fiasco which came with the scores tied fired up the anger of the travelling support who had been singing Wilshere’s name all game. Perhaps it tells you more about both Arsenal and England currently that Wilshere’s stock has risen in both arenas despite having barely kicked a ball.
The capitulation completed all that was left was for a vocal majority of the away support to call volubly for Wenger’s head and then to give the players a chorus of boos at the end of the game.
And so the Arsenal soap opera rolls on. Can anybody be in any doubt that we are watching a club that has lost its way and has insufficient sense of direction to find it was way back? The manager remains the easy target, and he is a fair target. That he is failing repeatedly to get the best out of what is on paper a talented set of players is surely beyond question. But there is far more wrong with Arsenal Football Club in 2017 than just Arsene Wenger. Does anyone have any faith that there is anyone amongst the so called leadership who would make a good, well-informed choice as to who would be his successor? And look, there is an argument which I perfectly well understand that we are at a point where any change would be better than no change. But the assumption those baying for Wenger’s sacking make is that a manager will be brought in who can take us back to the top table, where we last feasted in the 2000-2006 cycle of Arsenal’s recent history. I fear that those in charge will more likely take the Eddie Howe type option - a promising manager who will be grateful for a job at a big club and not rock the boat. They say history tends to repeat itself and, much as watching Arsenal in this phase is reminiscent of Arsenal in the dying days of Graham’s reign, I fear the next phase is more likely to see a Rioch-type appointment. I am afraid I wouldn’t bet my kids’ pocket money against things getting a lot worse before they get better.
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