The Boss, Arsène Wenger’s accomplishments at Arsenal are vast. No other man can lay claim to keeping a team in the Champions League for 18 years, winning 49 league games in a row, or doing it all on a budget in the midst of financial crisis brought on by the move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006.
Year after year, the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Gaël Clichy, Cesc Fàbregas, Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri, and Alex Song departed Arsenal because of a lack of trophies, but Wenger kept his squad competitive in England and Europe.
So after the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, what is next for Arsène Wenger and Arsenal? The optimists will point to the fact that Chelsea are top of the league, and arguably favourites to win the Champions League as of now. José Mourinho’s return has sparked an influx of world-class talent set on replacing the likes of Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, and eventually John Terry.
On the other hand, when will Arsenal beat a team that’s better than them? Arsène Wenger has now failed to beat Chelsea in 14 straight contests, and has never beaten a Mourinho-coached side.
One of the biggest talking points when I played college golf here in the States was the notion of stepping up and doing things people didn’t expect you to. Sure, we could go to a tournament in the middle of nowhere in Ohio and beat a dozen teams who we were supposed to, but we were never a top team until we showed we could hang with the conference-winning sides that had All-Americans and future touring pros among them.
In turn, certain individuals responded to our coach’s challenges to us, and as a result the program is now stronger than ever moving forward. Once you show the desire to be a top team without the best talent in the world, there’s no reason why you can’t trade jabs with the best of your trade. After a while, people notice when you exceed expectations, but couldn’t care less when you fall short.
The problem wasn’t that we weren’t talented enough, it was taking a step back from the annals of competition and looking at the bigger picture; desire is what gets you to the top, and right now there doesn’t seem to be enough of it at Arsenal.
That being said, it’s truly remarkable how talented the players at Arsenal are given their lack of success in the last decade; Wenger has that niche tendency to attract talent and maintain a quiet yet assured confidence in them. More worryingly though, is how often they fall short of achieving something truly above their depth.
Collectively, there is a lack of belief at the club. Celebrating finishing fourth is getting old from a supporter’s standpoint, and given the fact that worldly talents like Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez, and Aaron Ramsey grace the Emirates, the club should be doing better.
Tactically, Arsène Wenger is more predictable than a Hollywood romantic comedy. In big games, his lack of innovation and inventiveness see his teams struggle in the face of top competition.
There is almost no need to try and predict how Arsenal are going to play, because they only know how to play one way. This is where Arsène Wenger is conflicted, since he is so loyal to the principles on which he built Arsenal and thus finds it hard to play any way other than the attractive way.
Fullbacks tucking in, long clearances, and having attacking players defend is not Arsène Wenger’s forte, but that’s what it will take to beat a top team. In 1996 when Wenger inherited ‘boring, boring Arsenal’, they were winning trophies because they could defend better than anyone.
The famous back four of Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon, and Steve Bould was a historic group, but there was always depth at the back, a philosophy started by George Graham, who in the words of Adams, “collected centre backs”.
There are the rare instances where Arsenal avoid the odd error and get breathtaking results against world-class teams; the win in Munich in 2013 being the perfect example. However on a consistent basis, the way Arsenal play in big games is not sustainable. When the result comes off, it’s a sight to bear, but that’s not often enough.
George Graham, Arsenal’s forgotten genius who left the club amidst an agent scandal in the 1980s, had the mentality that no matter what, Arsenal were going to punch you in the mouth and make it as hard as possible for you when you played them. Arsène Wenger needs to channel this mentality among other things in big games, or face a growing belief that he is not fit to lead Arsenal anymore.
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