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da premier bet： Improve at the back – Here is an excerpt of an interview Arsene Wenger gave at the end of last season in the aftermath of another failed title challenge: “If you divide the season into two – going forward we have done very well but defensively we have been average. When you concede 40 goals you don’t win the championship and I want to rectify that.” Flash forward another season and are things really any different? It’s a sad indictment of Wenger’s recent tenure at Arsenal that he has irrevocably failed to tighten up his defence despite being fully aware that it is precisely because of this factor that the quest for trophies gets longer by the year. Last season Arsenal conceded 40 goals and kept 15 clean sheets, this term they’ve conceded 43 goals and kept just 13 clean sheets. A backwards step it has to be said and both of Wenger’s summer defensive signings – Laurent Koscielny and Sebastian Squillaci – have failed to perform for large swathes of the campaign. Johan Djourou looks a decent back-up option and they’ve deeply missed the clam, steadying influence of Thomas Vermaelen at the back throughout the season, but individual errors at the back are at the root of the problem and too many of Arsenal’s backline simply aren’t up to the task.
The lack of any semblance of mental strength – Is anyone else tired of Wenger treating the post-match press conferences as some sort of psychiatrists chair in an attempt to perk up his mentally fragile troops? Only Arsenal could score the Premier League’s latest ever goal and then immediately concede an equaliser as they did against Liverpool. Only Arsenal could let a four-goal lead slip against a demoralised Newcastle. Only Arsenal could manage to lose the Carling Cup final in the fashion that they then transpired to do so? The thing that grates most is Wenger’s incessant need to harp on about his squad’s mental strength and resilience even when all the evidence points to the contrary. This Arsenal side is simply not made of stern stuff and until he realises that, Wenger will routinely be treated to the sort of slips in concentration and attitude that have hampered his side throughout the season.
Injuries – again – It seems quite fitting that Arsenal assistant manager Pat Rice was rumoured to considering retirement at the end of this season because of a long-running knee injury; at Arsenal, they don’t do things by halves, even the coaches are injury-prone. Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie have both started just 25 league games this season. The club’s only two real cast-iron world-class players have missed a third of the league season each. Man Utd have shown in their title winning tilt this season the need for squad rotation and depth, but when Arsenal have been called upon to deal with similar crises, the club’s back-up players have been found wanting. This Arsenal squad has been severely hampered by long-term muscle injuries for several seasons now, which begs the question, having presided over this period as head of the club’s medical department, how does Arsenal head physio Colin Lewin still have a job?
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The goalkeeping issue – Another long-term issue offered up as an excuse for the Gunners lack of success in recent years. The injury-prone nature of the Arsenal squad meant that they even had to re-sign Jens Lehmann on a short-term deal. Manuel Almunia seems to have finally fallen foul of Arsene’s favour, a long time after every man and his dog realised that he wasn’t quite up to the challenge. Lukas Fabianski looked to be dispelling with the error-prone ways that blighted his earlier time at the club until injury ruled him out for the rest of the season. The unpronounceable Wojciech Szczesny has proven a decent find and performed admirably in the latter half of the season, but not one goalkeeper has started more than 15 league games for the club this term. This chronic lack of stability in a position that requires it above all must have caused no end of problems. Just so you know, Mark Schwarzer managed to start 28 league games this season, despite incurring an injury right at the beginning of the campaign – £2m looks a small price to pay now eh Arsene?
Away from home is where the heart is – Last season, Arsenal were mightily impressive at home, accruing 47 points from their 19 league home fixtures. It was the club’s mixed away form that held them back from truly challenging. However, this term Arsenal have the best away record in the entire league. No team has dominated this season and even champions Man Utd won just 5 of their allotted away fixtures, but it’s at home where Arsenal have come unstuck with their failure to break down stubborn defences proving pivotal in shaping their entire campaign. Defeats at home to West Brom, Newcastle, Spurs and Aston Villa have cost them dear, not to mention draws against Blackburn and Sunderland. The side have garnered 10 fewer points at home this season than last and scored 15 fewer goals in the process – this has proven the difference between finishing fourth in a two-horse race and a strong title challenge.
The wait goes on – Arsenal end trophyless for the sixth successive season this year, which for a club of it’s size is far too long a wait. A catastrophic mix-up between messrs Koscielny and Szczesny cost the club dear in this season’s Carling Cup final against Birmingham and saw Arsenal’s best chance of silverware for six seasons vanish in an instant. Arsenal dominated possession and bossed the game for long spells and while Birmingham undoubtedly rode their luck, the side from North London only have themselves to blame for failing to put to the game to bed earlier. The hangover effect from this crushing defeat has been cited by Wenger as being responsible for their poor form towards the business end of the season. The club’s post-Wembley form leaves them 14th in the Premier League form table, a shocking statistic which only serves to highlight the lack of mental strength in a side that appears to have begun it’s holidays at the end of February.
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Same Barca, different day – Arsenal were somewhat patchy in Europe this term. They varied wildly between fantastic and terrible with all too familiar ease. Qualifying second in a reasonably straight forward group containing Europa League finalists Braga, group winners Shaktar Donestk and Serbian whipping boys Partizan Belgrade wasn’t the ideal start. Defeats away at Braga and Shaktar in successive fixtures left them needing victory over Partizan at home to guarantee progression through to the knockout phase – they duly obliged and set-up a salivating tie with Barcelona in the process. Against Barcelona, Arsenal produced their most complete performance of the season in the first leg at the Emirates. Beating the best side on the planet 2-1 at home is a memorable occasion in any season and they were just a Nicklas Bedntner shoe lace away from knocking out the pre-tournament favourites away at the Nou Camp in the second leg. Last season against Barcelona it was men against boys with Wenger’s charges being taught a footballing lesson or two, whereas this season, although the end result was ultimately the same, they could at least leave the competition with their heads held high after causing a scare or two for the much-vaunted Catalan juggernaut.
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The big ‘what if?’ – Of course this would is concerned with the fitness of star striker Robin Van Persie. If Arsenal had him fit for an entire campaign, would they emerge as champions? It’s a big ask, but the statistics don’t lie and make a compelling case. Van Persie has now rather unquestionably moved permanently into the bracket labelled ‘world class’ after another superb personal campaign from the Ducthman. Last term Van Persie scored 9 goals in 16 league games and struck the woodwork a further 12 times. This season Van Persie has delivered a simply sensational return of 18 league goals in 25 games, scoring in 9 consecutive away games to boot – a Premier League record. He has played in all but one of Arsenal’s fixtures since the end of December and while it’s early days to say that his injury-blighted past is behind him, the signs are promising. For my money he is Arsenal’s best and most important player and without him they can look impotent in front of goal. He adds a new dimension to their play and should they keep him fit for an entire campaign, Arsenal are sure to challenge for the title in the future.
The emergence of Jack the Lad – It serves one well to treat ‘the new (insert name here)’ titles with a degree of suspicion, but in Jack Wilshere, Arsenal and indeed England have unearthed a true gem of a player and quite possibly the new Paul Gascoigne. Capable of dictating the play, taking on and beating a man and putting his foot in the tackle, Wilshere has been absolutely fantastic this season and justifiably won the PFA Young Player of the Year award. His consistency in the middle of the park has meant that the absence of captain Cesc Fabregas hasn’t been as keenly felt as it may have been in previous seasons gone by. He does have shades of Gascoigne in him and he has the potential to be one of the best midfielders in the world in just a couple of years. The only way is up for little ol’ Jack.
Loosen up the purse strings – Arsene Wenger appears to have an inherent dislike for spending money. His stubbornness to the fact that significant investment is needed to transform Arsenal from end of season also-rans into end of season challengers is proving the main obstacle to progression at the club. The current squad is filled to the brim with average players – the likes of Denilson, Bendtner, Squillaci, Diaby and Rosicky simply aren’t title winning players. A toughening up of the spine of the side would do wonders for the side going into next season. A dominant centre half is still required to partner Thomas Vermaelen and an out-and-out holding midfielder wouldn’t go amiss either. It’s clear that reinforcement are needed as Arsenal’s squad simply isn’t as strong in depth as first assumed – if only someone would tell the manager. Failure to invest significantly over the summer would constitute nothing short of a dereliction of duty – to suggest otherwise is complete and utter folly of the worst kind. The experiment is over. Wenger needs to spend and spend big.
Arbitrary marks out of ten – 6/10 – A season that promised so much yet delivered so little. Not quite the unmitigated disaster that many pundits would have you believe, but a deeply disappointing campaign nontheless. Forgive the poor end of season form, Arsenal’s season finished in the 20-odd day spell prior to and after their Carling Cup horror show against Birmingham, whereby they went from challenging on four fronts to none in a matter of weeks. It’s clear that money needs to be spent on players of proven experience that are unlikely to crumble when the going gets tough. They’ve reached a pivotal fork in the proverbial road – the ball is in Wenger’s court. Should he choose to spend, Arsenal still have the raw ingredients of a club capable of pushing for top honours. Should he choose not to however, expect more of the inconceivably inconsistent performances that we’ve become accustomed to seeing from this Arsenal side again next term.
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