Good morning all. Or depending on your mood, maybe it’s just a morning.
From a footballing sense, the past weekend was no cause for great joy. Leicester managed to grab a point, Tottenham destroyed the Stokies, and Arsenal managed to cede needless points yet again. Despair is rampant through the fan base. Worse even, apathy.
Yes, malaise, apathy, and a sense we have seen this all before. The problem is, we haven’t seen this before. Not from Arsenal under Arsene’ Wenger.
Arseblog writes today that this this the worst it has been under Wenger. It is a team that seemingly does not not know what it is, or what it is supposed to be doing. A team going through the motions, yet the motions are not even remotely familiar to the Arsenal of the recent past.
This is a team of players that is quite capable of winning the Crystal Palace game at home 1-0 if required. Palace was going to sit back deep and let Arsenal have possession. Arsenal was supposed to use the possession to slowly, and cautiously, unlock the defense and grab a goal or two. All went according to plan in the first half, and it all went to shit with 10 minutes left. Palace had no business getting a point from that game. The real kicker is that it’s just another, in a long line of frustrating results.
But yet, if you are still reading, you must care enough to ask why? The apathy may have not yet gotten to you, or maybe you are just a glutton for punishment. The question is why?
Why is this group of players, this team, incapable of doing what it routinely has done in the past (often with less talent)? It’s easy to blame the players. It’s easy to blame the manager. It’s easy to say the atmosphere at the Emirates has become dangerously toxic. The truth is much more complicated.
Breaking it down bit by bit, let’s start with the players. Are these players just not good enough?
As pointed out by Arseblog, Arsene Wenger spent money in 2013 and 2014. He has brought new players in, let some players go, and in general had built a team he thought was ready to challenge for the title. If you look at calendar year 2015 (January – December), you can see why he would think this way. In 2015 Arsenal played a total of 53 matches of competitive football across 4 competitions. They had the best Premier League form of any team in 2015, and in total, fashioned a record of 35 wins, 6 draws, 12 losses. Arsenal won 66 % of their matches in 2015, and took points from 77%. This team of players is more than capable of winning matches. The players are good. Some are great.
Well then, maybe it is down to injuries. Injuries to key players have led to lineup shuffles, and no sense of rhythm. But other teams have injuries and cope. Losing Santi Carzola and Francis Coquelin and Alexis Sanchez is bound to have an effect, but Wenger likely thought he could play Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, and Alex Oxlaide Chamberlin in their stead and survive. Little could he imagine all six being injured, and Mathieu Flamini being counted on week in and week out December through February.
So, clearly I must be blaming the manager. If Wenger has simply bought reinforcements in the summer, none of this would have come to pass. But look at it from Wenger’s point of view in June 2015.
Arsenal had just won another FA Cup, and had finished the second half of the Premier League campaign strongly. He analyzed every position and thought he saw depth and quality.
First team strikers: Giroud, Walcott*, Welbeck
First team attacking midfield: Ozil, Sanchez, Ramsey*, Rosicky, Chamberlin, Campbell, Iwobi, Walcott*
First team deep midfield: Carzola, Coquelin, Wilshere. Ramsey*, Arteta, Flamini
First team defenders: Monreal, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Gabriele, Koscieleny, Chambers, Bellerin, Debuchy
First team goal: Cech, Ospina
* – player has more than one role
Arsene Wenger looked at this team and likely thought he was stocked in the midfield, had a good mix of experience and youth in the back four, and probably needed a clinical finisher to complete the team. If transfer noise can be believed, he tried to get Karim Benzema from Real Madrid. It did not work out.
So Arsenal went into 2015 – 16 with only one major signing. And boom – injuries. Long term injuries to Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere at the onset of the season. Mid season injuries to Aaron Ramsey, Santi Carzola, Alex Oxlade Chamberlin, Francis Coquelin, and Alexis Sanchez. Even with all of that – the team was on top of the table Christmas Day. Wenger was trying combination of players after combination of players, trying to coax the team into form. In the Man United game (at the Emirates) he attacked with restless abandon. In the Man City game (also at the Emirates) he sat back and counter attacked. The manager has changed his team and his tactics all season long to now avail. It is simply not all down to the manager.
So what then? What is the reason that this team looks nothing like it has in the recent past? Why is this the worst it has ever been under Wenger?
The non trivial, non simple answer is a combination of inactivity in the summer transfer market, bad luck on the injury front to the most critical of players (Santi Carzola), lack of self confidence from a team on a run of indifferent to bad form, and special circumstances.
YES – lastly, there are special circumstances this season that have simply not existed in Arsene’ Wenger’s twenty years at Arsenal. The Premier League order has been utterly disrupted. Leicester City has had the audacity to go toe to toe with the big boys, and has led the league for the majority of 2016. Chelsea, who just last May hoisted the trophy, completely fell apart and fired their manager. Man City have been terribly inconsistent, and Man United are in the middle of a youth movement.
The small clubs simply do not fear the big clubs. They do not come into a place like the Emirates and expect to lose. The expect to play well, and quite possibly win. This is the ultimate Leicester effect. I imagine every manager of every “small” club pointing to Leicester and Claudio Ranieri, and saying “If they can do it, so can we”.
And they have.
Up next, West Brom. Another team that will set up deep and hope they can be within touching distance in the last 20 minutes. And who knows….it just might work.
But never give up hope Gooners. If Arsenal win the next two, and Tottenham lose this weekend, guess who’s only two points from Sp*rs?
The Loony Gooner 