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Wenger Under Pressure
The Sickness at the Heart of Arsene Wenger's Arsenal
James Goyder
Once again Arsenal demonstrated an incredible collective capacity for self destruction by conceding an unprecedented 101st minute equalizer at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
Ultimately Arsenal's propensity for dropping points will probably render this result irrelevant. Even if Van Persie's late penalty had secured an unlikely win there are few in football, with the possible exception of the increasingly deluded Arsene Wenger, who believe that Arsenal have what it takes to go on the type of winning run which would be required to overtake Manchester United.
A season which promised so much threatens to deliver nothing, save for the Champions League place which supporters have long since started to take for granted. While it is unlikely that the two points dropped will be all that stands between Arsenal and winning the Premier League in May the needless concession of yet another victory should be serious cause for concern.
Wenger berated the referee but there was only one man culpable for the incident which saw Arsenal throw away a lead they had held for barely five minutes and that was Emmanuel Eboue. When Luis Suarez's free kick was hit tamely into the wall and Lucas collected the loose ball there can have been no more than a few seconds on the clock and the Brazilian midfielder was heading away from goal with no obvious outlet available.
The only way that Liverpool could possibly have scored from that position was for Eboue to make a rash and unnecessary challenge. If he had just shepherded Lucas towards the touchline Arsenal would have won the game but instead he obliged his opponent by running clumsily into the back of him leaving the referee no option but to point to the spot.
It was a moment of quite staggering ineptitude and naivety from an experienced international player which clearly cost his side the game but for Arsenal it was also indicative of a malaise which has slowly been eating away at the squad.
A new Arsenal flaw is exposed almost every week and just as it appears to be fixed a different team dynamic will malfunction. The propensity for panic and inability to protect a lead had already been showcased at home to Tottenham and away to Newcastle United. The capacity to concede idiotic goals was a feature of the Carling Cup final loss and the disappointing 2-2 draw away to West Brom.
However just when light starts to emerge at the end of the tunnel, with Arsenal's defence starting to look solid and regularly keeping clean sheets, the much vaunted attackers start to misfire. Arsenal have now not conceded a goal from open play in their last three home games, a statistic which would be much more encouraging were it not or the fact that they only have just one penalty goal to show from these fixtures.
Arsenal have only one win from their last seven fixtures, a run of form which would worry relegation candidates. The implosion is all the more incredible because it has effectively put an end to a season which, less than a month ago, offered the promise of up to four pieces of silverware.
Arsenal fans will be asking themselves 'where did it all go wrong?' It would be easy to point to the breakdown in communication between Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczęsny which gifted the Carling Cup to Birmingham City, the injury time equalizers conceded against Sunderland and Liverpool or the devastating home defeats to Tottenham, West Brom and Newcastle.
Wenger might also like to draw attention to debatable red cards for Abou Diaby at St James's park and Van Persie at the Nou Camp which potentially denied his side the required result in both these games. This accumulation of incidents though suggests much more than mere misfortune or even individual incompetence.
Arsenal have some of the finest players in the footballing world but collectively they are weak. The mental strength which allowed a previous generation of players to go an entire league season unbeaten has been replaced by corrosive uncertainty. This is the issue which Wenger will be forced to address as he mulls over a desperately disappointing season this summer.
There can be no quick fix solutions. Fans might call out for more experienced signings but there is very little space in the squad for new players. With Thomas Vermaelen's long awaited return from fitness supposedly imminent and Koscielny improving where would a world class centre half fit in? Giving a young player a run in the first team only to replace him after a relatively successful first season is not something which you can imagine Wenger contemplating, it would fly in the face of everything he stands for.
Alex Song has been something of a revelation in the last couple of seasons and is unlikely to be displaced while his midfield partner Jack Wilshere will only improve. When Van Persie is fit he is prolific while Samir Nasri has established himself as one of the most exciting midfielders in Europe and Cesc Fabregas's reputation as one of the finest players in the Premier League remains intact.
Theo Walcott started the season in scintillating form but has been unlucky with injuries while Andrei Arshavin has been frustratingly inconsistent but it is almost inconceivable that either player will be shown the door. Arsenal started the season without a single well regarded goalkeeper but have ended it with two in surprise packages Łukasz Fabiański and Szczęsny.
Bacary Sagna seldom has a bad game at right back and although Gael Clichy might not always convince defensively there is a paucity of realistic replacement left backs who would genuinely enhance the side. Arsenal have quality in every single position and, unlike previous campaigns, genuine strength in depth with established internationals such as Johan Djorou, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky, Marouane Chamakh and Nicklas Bendtner as well as Eboue and Diaby waiting in the wings.
Manuel Almunia, Denilson and Sébastien Squillaci could be culled from the squad but that leaves very limited room for reinforcements particularly with players like Carlos Vela, Emmanuel Frimpong and Kieran Gibbs looking for further first team opportunities. In previous years Wenger must have been quietly confident that the maturation process alone would be sufficient to see his side progress from season to season but he there is no longer room for such complacency at The Emirates.
Could the time have come to accept big money bids for blue chip players such as Nasri, Fabregas and Van Persie in order to replenish and revitalize the squad? Has Wenger taken Arsenal as far as he can and would a change at the top provide the necessary impetus? Or can the longest serving manager in the club's history somehow find a way for his team to rediscover their resilience?
With a new American owner at Arsenal the old guard is on its way out and questions such as these are much more likely to be asked out loud than they would have been this time last year. The club is approaching a crossroads and is faced with an epic dilemma. Do they stick to the setup which has guaranteed Champion's League football and financial prosperity or go back to the drawing board in a desperate attempt to end the long wait for silverware? This decision could define the future of Arsenal FC.
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© James Goyder & Soccerphile.com
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