Jose Mourinho’s remarks of Arsene Wenger being a “specialist in failure” earlier this year was stunning if not truthful. The Chelsea manager has always had it for Arsenal’s head coach and his provocative comments started a debate within the English game if Wenger was indeed what the “Special One” claimed he was.
Wenger’s teams have been very consistent in the past decade in some regards. After all, Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League for the past 17 years. Consistency in success also came with consistency in failure. Nine years without a trophy caused unrest and concern among the team, fans and even the board.
And yet with one comeback victory over Hull City this past weekend, all was forgiven. Wenger finally ended his trophy drought and all was forgiven, bar a few murmurs from the darkest corners of the football media and fan groups. Wenger, was no more a specialist in failure, unlike his Chelsea counterpart who went empty-handed for the second successive season.
That’s it. One FA Cup is all it took to remove the negative tags associated with Wenger. If people were actually more reflective and actually looked at the season as a whole then Wenger should be called a specialist in failure.
Arsenal were top of the league for a remarkable 128 days. They finished fourth. That is an incredible capitulation, the likes which are now commonplace in North London.
But what was excruciatingly shocking about this downfall was the manner of some of their defeats to their rivals in the top seven. They lost 6-3 to Manchester City, 5-1 to Liverpool, 6-0 to Chelsea, 3-0 to Everton and 1-0 to Manchester United… yes to David Moyes’s Manchester United. They achieved 13 points out of a possible 36 and if you exclude the two Spurs victories from the tally, Arsenal have seven from 30. Dismal.
Maybe the points tally would have been better if Wenger wasn’t so rigid in his tactics and philosophy. It was remarkable to see the difference in how Arsenal played last Saturday when Wenger brought on Yaya Sanogo to be partnered alongside Olivier Giroud. Two physical frontmen in a 4-4-2 formation is unheard of from Wenger these days. But it worked. Maybe that sort of tinkering could have won them the Premier League.
One could also look at yet another botched set of transfer windows too for the club. The signing of German superstar midfielder Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid was supposed to elevate the club to a higher standard—one worthy of challenging for the title. While Arsenal were achieving those standards to a point, Ozil has largely become an underperforming flop at the club. Pretty bad considering they shattered their own transfer record fee to ascertain his services.
And then there were the many failed attempts at signing top quality strikers to accompany Giroud. The original target was Real Madrid, and now Napoli hitman, Gonzalo Higuain. He was destined to move to London before the club switched their interests to Luis Suarez for a ridiculous £40,000,001 bid. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Not that Wenger was entirely at fault for this, but he could have at least properly intervened.
And then there was the debacle of the January transfer window too. The failure to sign Julian Draxler was another player in the long list that Wenger has failed to pick up. The Times reported on Monday that Wenger is still looking to recruit Draxler along with Lars Bender and Karim Benzema, but one has to wonder if this is just another load of rubbish from Arsenal (or Arsene’s) end.
Since winning the 2005 FA Cup Final, Wenger has failed on many occasions to lift a team which had quite a few superstars in their trophy-less era, to actually having a trophy. The 2010/11 season epitomises this thought.
February and Match 2011 saw Arsenal as established favourites to win the Premier League title and the League Cup and they had reached both the Champions League last 16 and in the sixth round of the FA Cup. And yet in the space of two to three weeks everything they worked so hard for was gone. They could be forgiven for the Champions League exit—Barcelona were the best team in the world at the time.
They could be forgiven for their FA Cup exit—Manchester United eventually won the Premier League that season. But their demise in both league and in the Carling Cup was not. The latter was a 2-1 defeat to Birmingham City, a team that got relegated from the Premier League that season. A cup loss to Birmingham and finishing fourth surely should have been the beginning of the end for Wenger.
And while many fans can bemoan the lack of money or resources available during these times, people must not forget that Arsenal are the eighth richest club in the world (According to Deloitte. Click here for more info). Many teams would love to be in their position. And many managers that have the transfer kitty Wenger has would have spent it, because they all know that Arsenal has the potential to achieve wonderful things—more than the adequate fourth place finishes.
Labelling Wenger a “specialist in failure” is somewhat hypocritical of Mourinho considering his recent lack of success. But there is a certain element of truth which still rings true despite Wenger’s success last Saturday. Indeed Wenger and Arsenal should enjoy their success. Why rob them of their moment? But with all things put into perspective, what could have been a dream season has only ended with a thin slice of heaven. Until Wenger sorts out his problems, Mourinho’s sentiments will still echo throughout the North London club.
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