Ian Henry
After the Tottenham game, various Gooner friends, more optimistic than me, were besides themselves with excited belief that a corner had been turned. Then the last-minute win against Burnley was accompanied by comments that we had learned to win ugly, and then the 5-0 hammering of Huddersfield was enough to convince some that we were once again challengers for the top prize. Hold your excitement until we play ManU, I cautioned.
I should have placed a bet on the 13th successive home win not coming to pass. The ManU game was pretty much typical latter-day Arsenal, exemplified by suicidal, naïve defending gifting superior opposition a two-goal lead inside 15 minutes and an opposition keeper in sublime form. When was the last time you saw City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea or even Spurs do that against one of their bigger rivals? I haven’t analysed every result between the top 6, but I challenge someone to prove my hunch wrong.
Yes, Arsenal created 15 or so chances, and yes, de Gea played a blinder; yes, we should have had a penalty, but remember Koscielny could have had a red, and we were a lick of paint away from another United goal. In the end, however, the rights and wrongs of penalties not given, red cards given or not given, and whether or not this was the game of the season, Arsenal lost again to a top 6 rival.
Actually, let me rephrase that; Arsenal lost to one of the only two teams capable of winning the league this season. The two Manchester clubs will battle for the title, while Chelsea will, I suspect, secure third place. Arsenal are fighting, as usual, for fourth, with third a distant dream. With a bit of luck (we will need it because it won’t be defensive discipline which will do it for the team), Arsenal might beat off Tottenham and Liverpool for fourth, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Certainly, a win against Liverpool before Xmas is essential. Although for the long-term future of the club maybe it isn’t.
If the team defends like it did against United when Liverpool come to town, then the pantomime season will have arrived. Expect plenty of “he’s behind you” comments directed at Koscielny and co when Salah, Coutinho, Firmino and co weave their patterns. Then at the start of New Year, the Chavs come visiting; what would the AKBs say if we lose both of those, with 7 defeats at the turn of the year? That is of course assuming we avoid defeat at West Brom and Palace; remember what happened last season? At least Pulis and Allardyce have left those two clubs so we have a chance.
We are not even halfway through the season and it is clear that, yet again, the structural faults in the Arsenal team have not been addressed by the manager. And it is not just central defensive indiscipline. Persisting with Xhaka as the defensive midfielder, one who is almost guaranteed to be booked, to misplace half a dozen or more key passes a game, and crucially regularly fail to track opposition runners, is a madness. And as the January transfer window approaches, the likelihood of Ozil and Sanchez – and Wilshere (one of the few great talents, albeit unfulfilled, to emerge under latter day Wenger management) – all leaving in a fire sale or for free in the summer increases by the day. How on earth has the club allowed “assets” worth close to £100m or more in the insane world of football transfers to run their contracts down is beyond belief. It is gross mismanagement and incompetence, pure and simple, nothing more, nothing less. Inexcusable, but entirely explicable given the dysfunctional way in which the club has been allowed be run in recent years.
I long ago concluded that Arsenal would never win the league under Wenger (that moment was, incidentally, the evening some years back when, leading 4-2 against Spurs going into injury time, we managed to draw 4-4); yes, the occasional FA Cup run and win is very nice and welcome but it is not what we were sold when the stadium move was mooted. But like many big sells (Brexit anyone?), the cold reality is that the visionary “salesmen” regularly fail to deliver. They fail to deliver because they don’t understand how the world works and in the case of football, how competitors might act and change.
For a few years of early Wenger it was all about Arsenal and United; yes, United came out on top more often than not, but we still had 3 league titles in 8 years. Not a bad performance I grant you. The move to the new stadium was intended to propel us into the big league; Gazidis said we would compete against Bayern Munich. Well, we know how that prediction has worked out. While we continue with the self-sustaining model, others have benefited from owners willing to invest billions, or employed younger, more tactically innovative coaches. Some have done both. Arsenal meanwhile have an owner who won’t put a penny into the club, a manager with antediluvian ideas and a squad which is also certain to lose its best players in the next few months for nothing, or in the unlikely event that they are sold, it will be for sums far below their true worth.
So what can solve the problem that is Arsenal? What is the catalyst for change so beloved of Ivan Gazidis? Will it be the triumvirate of Huss Fahmy, Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi? Certainly we have three of the most exotically named executives in charge of contracts, recruitment and football relations or something like that. Will they be the catalyst for change? I don’t believe so.
No, there is only one thing that will result in change at Arsenal: the resignation or sacking of Arsene Wenger is the catalyst for change which the club needs and has needed for years. Will it happen? I suspect it will do one day, but it would not surprise me to see the old fraud in the coat with the dodgy zip in the dugout next season.
