Credits: Sky Sports
This may be the typical example of a football opinion polarizing itself within a week, but it feels like this season is not going according to plan. Despite the signings and recent successes, the slow and inexorable petering out of our well-documented form has brought with it dread of calamity, and understandably so.
Arsenal’s 2-1 loss to Everton was not a game I had seen, but my gut told me it might have been “one of those days”. Despite their more-than questionable form this season, any team can always feasibly fall at Goodison Park. Despite the recent dips in performance, it felt more like an off-night than the tolling of alarm bells.
How wrong was I. Three days later, we traveled to Manchester and despite taking the early lead, put in what was comfortably the worst performance of our season. The first half was somewhat bearable – perhaps because the scoreline read in our favour, but the second half was torturous enough to remind us of the gutless mindset Arsenal had supposed to repress by now.
Losing to a Manchester City managed by Pep Guardiola is not shameful, but the manner of the defeat was. It was lily-livered, loserlike, that of a team who wouldn’t mind winning the Premier League but will not go out of its way to claim it. Mesut Ozil’s pointless jogging in his own half was a neat encapsulation of that.
And for the record, I really do feel Ozil was harshly done by. The man has had a wonderful season following what was the season of his life. He rescued us at Bulgaria, scored a wonderful header at Stoke, and before you say it, he has been very much the big-game player we’ve wanted him to be. As far as I can recollect, he scored/assisted against Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Leicester (the year they became champions). He was the shining light in a diabolical 3-2 loss to Old Trafford, and he practically carried us to second the entirety of that season, so let’s put things in perspective before raising our ungrateful pitchforks and calling him a fair-weathered footballer.
Gawking dispassionately at Yaya Toure (and before that, shying away from an Everton corner) are both unacceptable signs, maybe even unforgivable, but pointing to that overshadows the larger problem. It’s not just Ozil who was guilty. There were ten other men on the pitch and they all failed the club, with the obvious exception of Alexis Sanchez. Beat Ozil with a stick all you want, but don’t forget to chide the others while you’re at it.
I was more inclined to put fatigue at the root of the problems than desire. While it’s clear there’s a palpable lack of hunger to fight for first (maybe even a fear for it?), this is a team that has players who have historically proven their mettle. Laurent Koscielny has scrapped important goals for us, Granit Xhaka will start wars over loose-balls and Alexis will fight for just about anything. But play them week-in, week-out, without providing structure nor siestas, and they’re likely to fail you.
Looking ahead, the fixture list gets kinder. Arsenal will play West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day, followed by Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Preston North End, Swansea City, Burnley and Watford, with another potentially easy FA Cup game in there, assuming we beat Preston. Even the typically hectic Christmas schedule is a teeny-bit relaxed.
However, the fixtures get more difficult right after that – with trips to Chelsea and Bayern Munich clashes lurking, not to mention an important FA Cup Round of 16 clash. That will start in February, a month that has hardly been favourable to us. I find it hard to believe we’ll emerge from it with flying colours, because that will be the time when the team’s mettle will be tested, and judging from recent events, I doubt we have much of it.
Bottle, hunger, desire – these are all intangibles that directly or indirectly fall at the manager’s feet. They depend on how he transits his objectives to the players, how he preps them for daunting clashes at Allianz Arenas, how he tolerates failure – even what he tells them on the touchline or during half-time. Players are reflections of their manager, as Arsene Wenger once said himself.
Find solace in easy runs of fixtures all you want, but if we beat all the teams worse than us and lose to the ones better than us, we will belong exactly where we deserve to – as the worst of the best. Bar the demolition of Chelsea, we have looked patchy in every big game this season, including in draws to Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United. At this rate we’ll be good fodder for Bayern, a team that tops the Bundesliga by three points and are miles better than the “shadow of a team” many Arsenal fans will beg you to believe.
This season was all about being a part of the big boys again. Heck, that has been our failed objective for the past three years now, represented in our inability to sustain a challenge on the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League. It’s why we moved to a blockbuster stadium, it’s why we charge the highest prices in Europe, it’s why we signed some marquee players.
Everyone related to Arsenal Football Club wants the club to do better – whichever way that may be – and it’s about time we do. We’ve fallen far too many times to know how to stand, and remain standing. That includes winning eighteen points from the possible eighteen to follow, putting Bayern Munich to the sword, keeping our key assets fresh and motivated, and create a winning atmosphere on and off the pitch.
We’ve had a good season, but not a great one. Good is not something we should stand for, because Alexis Sanchez will not, and neither will Mesut Ozil.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
Comentarios