Part of the reason Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Hull City wasn’t mentioned in this blog was because, quite frankly, I find the FA Cup irrelevant. Sure, winning it in 2014 was a ludicrously special moment because of the embarrassing trophy drought that had stretched before it. Winning it in the year to follow was also quite fun, although it seemed like a convenient way to cover a forgetful season.
But if we can’t even do that, what really is the point of it all? The FA Cup wasn’t even a priority this season as much as it was a bonus. Losing a title bid to Leicester City or (Christ) Tottenham Hotspur reaches abysmal levels of incapability, but compound that to spurning the FA Cup to Watford? It’s shameful, it’s unforgivable and it’s the final nail in the coffin of what is my respect for Arsene Wenger.
The game itself was a carbon copy of how we played against Hull, Southampton (at home) and oh-so many others. Adopting Wengerball, we idly passed the ball sideways, sideways and then backwards. Chances fell, we refused to take them, and Watford posed questions on the break. Odion Ighalo was offered too much space to counter-attack in the first half, but failed to pass it to Troy Deeney and cause us genuine problems.
As the second half approached and Ighalo’s confidence grew, our confidence plummeted. We failed to deal with an amateur throw-in and Gabriel Paulista – probably the most overrated defender in this team – simply didn’t do enough as Ighalo easily fired it past David Ospina. It was the man’s second goal in the whole of 2016, and adds to a list of mediocre footballers playing like world-beaters in front of Arsenal – a list that already contains Marcus Rashford, Joe Allen, Fraser Forster, Eldin Jakupovic and Cuco Martina this season alone.
Quite routinely, we lost all shape and composure. Per Mertesacker failed to bother with Guedioura as he rushed onto an Ighalo pass and thumped it into the top corner. Another rookie who played like David fucking Beckham against us.
Wenger made his predictable substitutions of hoofing in-form players like Joel Campbell and Mohammed Elneny simply because they were juniors, and brought on the entirely ineffective Theo Walcott and the positive Danny Welbeck. Alex Iwobi was thrown on for Olivier Giroud, but nothing really seemed to be clicking. The manager was complaining away to the fourth official, the fans had given up, and bar Ozil, Sanchez and Welbeck, the players had given up too.
It was no surprise that Ozil’s phenomenal flick and Welbeck’s sidefoot is what it took to give us hope. In the end, it had to be Ozil who had to remind everyone that we were Arsenal and they were Watford. We pushed on and, inexplicably, Welbeck missed an absolute sitter that would have leveled the scoreline.
However, I don’t think any Arsenal fan could say we deserved anything from that. Apart from a few choice players not anyone was close to the level they needed to be, to beat a relatively lowly side like Watford. It’s fairly obvious that the players have already largely given up on this season.
Do you blame the players? If this was a one-off, sure. But this loss comes on the back of sixteen games where we’ve won only five. Since beating Manchester City (a club in similar psychological straits as we are) we’ve done absolutely nothing to warrant ourselves as title contenders. Heck, replace our current form with Newcastle United’s and it would barely look a jot out of place.
If an orchestra is going awry, you blame the conductor. It’s the same with football. Sure, if some of the players aren’t performing up to the standard (like Theo Walcott), you can always fire them and get better ones. However, if an entire team – that too, of professional and talented individuals – cannot show up week in, week out, that blame rests entirely on the manager.
Ultimately, these are Wenger’s men. He’s had ten years (or twenty transfer windows) to assemble a team that will believe in him and play the way he likes. He failed. What has happened this season is a sackable offense, particularly because no one has any discernible faith that he will turn it around.
How can he? We can’t blame misfortune. Gods have conspired to give Arsenal the biggest slice of luck in the Premier League and the FA Cup. Arsene could have accomplished the incredulously simple task of winning the double, retired a messiah and fooled the world of his incompetence. He couldn’t even do that. And rather than admitting how hard he’s fallen on his own sword of hubris, he proceeded to give away some of the most astonishingly daft quotes I’ve ever heard:
“Our long, long run has come to an end in a very sad way because I don’t think that we deserved to lose.” – If we didn’t deserve to lose that, how bad do we have to be to deserve one?
“Of course there is confidence in the team.” – If so, why can’t we beat a team that were in the Championship last season?
“This team has a great spirit and a very strong attitude. They play at the moment with the idea that you cannot afford any negative results.” – Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t we dumped ourselves out of all three competitions by now?
“I don’t think we suffered a lot defensively.” – I don’t know what to even say to this.
Look, I get that because he’s facing the media, Wenger has to sugarcoat the truth to sound positive to the masses. But what the masses really need – more than hollow, nonexistent adjectives – is an apology. An apology, for ruining the easiest chance Arsenal have had to win the double. An apology, for making Mesut Ozil have second thoughts on where he wants to be. An apology for a baffling transfer policy, a never-ending injury crisis and a destruction of the legacy his ego has caused. An apology for being a proper conman over the past five years and not accepting his comeuppance.
Wenger doesn’t deserve to be an Arsenal legend. Sure, you could say that his work in his first decade was nothing sort of magnificent, and I’d entirely agree. But what he has done after that has been criminal. By exaggerating the dearth of monetary resources, pampering average players, criticizing everyone but himself and eating £74.5m salary along the way, he manipulated half the fanbase into thinking he’s some God and selfishly used them to stay longer in the job.
Not anymore. The tide isn’t turning, it has already turned. Bar a few stubborn Arsenal fans who (understandably) do not want to believe their idol isn’t what they thought he was, everyone now knows how incompetent Wenger is now. Truth be told, as glad as I am to be supporting Arsenal, part of me liked that we lost yesterday. It is only embarrassments like these that educate more Gooners to the fraud that is Arsene Wenger.
I’ve wanted Wenger to leave for a while. Heck, I’ve wanted him to leave the day I started this blog. However, I also had a great deal of respect for what he had offered to Arsenal Football Club. I used to think of it a shame that a man as visionary and brilliant as him had fallen to such levels of incompetence, and I couldn’t stand the vile means in which fellow Gooners insulted him. He may be not good enough, but I didn’t think he deserves that.
Not anymore. Pity’s turned to anger for me because it’s clear the man has taken Arsenal for a ride. He’s more interested in satisfying his own hubris, than he is in doing what’s necessary for Arsenal’s success. He’s not man enough to admit he’s not good enough for the club, like Jurgen Klopp was.
And look, you may think that having such extreme views toward Wenger is unjustified, which is a valid enough concern. But ask yourselves this – if Wenger was at the club until 2019 and things were still the same, would you still respect him? Would you still show him the exit door with a sad smile?
If Wenger had left back in 2014, he certainly would have had more respect from me than if he leaves tomorrow. But the truth is, Wenger has known he is incompetent for quite a while. He stretched out his exit and drained every sap of respect from me as he possibly could, and shamelessly continues to do so. A repulsive power-hungry stubborn character like him does not deserve to be given the dignity whilst resigning. He must be sacked and tossed out of the back door for leading the club further and further down an abyss, to which we see no end.
As soon as that is done, the club needs an immediate restructuring on board level. Regardless of the additions and exits we see there, we must make certain the next manager does not have the same autonomy Wenger had. It was absolute power that corrupted him and if we’re not careful, it will be absolute power that corrupts whoever we appoint next.
And finally, we owe a massive apology to the people who saw this coming years ago. I know a friend who has wanted Wenger out since 2009. As a person who’s had first-hand experience in being ridiculed from all sides for wanting a managerial change since 2013, I can tell you it takes balls to stand against the tide. It takes balls to be labeled as a WOB and it takes balls to stand up for your principles when the entire footballing world deserts you.
Let’s stand with them and strip apart the legacy of the man who thinks he’s above our club, Arsene Wenger.
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P.S. Remember I had predicted this one and a half years ago? Eerily accurate, almost to the point : http://localhost/arsenalblogz/2014/10/20/justice-to-arsene-wenger-is-inevitable/
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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