What has this season come to? It’s a rhetoric question and I don’t know the answer to it myself. Every devoted supporter feels an immense pain when their club gets knocked about and bullied on the pitch. Watching the team you love get physically and tactically outclassed is a hefty burden football fans have to bear with every once in a while, but with Arsenal it has become commonplace, which is the most frustrating fact of the past few seasons and this football season in particular. Every heavy defeat this season has felt like a red-hot poker going through the chest. The fear settles in that it may be another season of the same old Arsenal we have come to expect since the move to the Emirates stadium. The embarrassment of the Everton defeat was the last straw for me. The previous defeats have been like losing a limb and searing off the nerves to reduce the pain. But the realization of how terrible this away loss really is had been felt before the teams took a break for half time and still lives on much after the final whistle brought the game to a close.
Taking the game into perspective with the league table, it virtually eliminates Arsenal from a top 4 finish. As of the night of 6th April, Everton are perched at 5th position, one point short of Arsenal at 4th but with a game in hand and a superior goal difference. In the post match conference, Arsene Wenger acknowledged that the ball is in Everton’s court but woefully added “…the advantage we have is we have been confronted with that before…” This was in relation to Everton’s run of fixtures since they are yet to play their return legs against Manchester United and Manchester City in their final run of 6 games before the end of the premier league. For me, this was the stupidest statement he could’ve made in the post match interview. Wenger implied that Arsenal had faced all the big teams and could effectively win their remaining 5 games. Did he choose to ignore that Arsenal failed to turn up for most of those big matches? Had we collected some positive results from the hellish fixture list we were handed, we wouldn’t have been facing the wrong end of a top 4 finish instead of being contenders for the title-race.
Arsenal have managed a woeful 22 points out of a possible 42 in the league in 2014. Coming into the game against Everton, they had just recovered from what Wenger had termed a nightmare of a week following a weekend 6-0 demolition by Chelsea and an injury time own goal resulting in the honours being shared against Swansea. Overall, the Arsenal camp seemed to have a brighter atmosphere with a resilient performance to gain a draw against Manchester City and the impending return of long term absentee Aaron Ramsey.
Unfortunately, the Arsenal performance against Everton was abysmal. The team was not set up well enough tactically to cope with Everton’s quick and fluid attack. Kevin Mirallas caused all kinds of problems for Arsenal’s defensive right wing while Romelu Lukaku ran rampant on the other flank. The attacking minded players did not track back in time to help out the defensive unit on the wing and Arsenal’s defensive midfielders failed to provide the back four with enough cover as Steven Naismith caused a nuisance with late runs into the box. It was a poor performance overall. There were no positives to take away from the attacking play either. Olivier Giroud met his physical match in Sylvain Distin and the holdup play he has come to be known for was absent. Everton’s well positioned defensive and midfield lines cut out Arsenal’s attack before it could begin on many occasions.
Arguments would be made that Everton started off to soak Arsenal’s attacking pressure but the Arsenal players should be accustomed to this strategy by now. They have had to face many teams who set up defensively and hit Arsenal on the break. And this team is capable of overcoming those tactics anyway. The goal scored by Jack Wilshere in the start of the season against Norwich City and Tomas Rosicky’s chip over the keeper against Sunderland proves that this team can play between the defensive lines in quick one-touch passes to finish off beautiful team goals. In fact, Arsenal managed a splendid victory against Everton in the FA Cup a month ago. Why then did we face problems overcoming the same team?
It has been the inexplicable story of Arsenal’s season; they face the same opposition at different times in the season but come up with entirely different performances and results. When the performances are good, Arsenal manage a victory or a draw with the other team usually putting up a good fight. Most disappointingly, when Arsenal put in bad performances, it has turned out to be terrible displays with extremely embarrassing losses. Arsenal managed a 2-0 victory against Liverpool in a Premier League game at the Emirates stadium in November but then got thrashed 5-1 at Anfield in February and followed it up with a 2-1 victory in the FA Cup against the same team. They fought out a goalless draw against Chelsea in December, but they were run over by the same side 6-0 at Stamford Bridge in March. A humiliating 6-3 defeat against Manchester City at Etihad Stadium in December was followed up with a hard fought 1-1 draw in March. And finally, Arsenal won 4-1 in an FA Cup game against Everton in March but lost 3-0 against the Toffees exactly a month later in April.
If there is one word to define Arsenal’s 2013-14 Barclays Premier League season, it is ‘inconsistent’. The season started off incredibly, though. Mesut Ozil had just joined the team as the new record signing, the team was accumulating victory after victory and was perched at the top of the League table, the players were in excellent form, the team was gelling together very well and the footballing world was acknowledging Arsenal as a team that was back to its best. But come December and the fixture list ahead of Arsenal was looking daunting. A few star players had picked up knocks and the injury list was starting to look ominous. The team had already scrapped through the group of death in the Champions League so there were further challenges to look forward to.
But at such a crucial juncture, Arsenal suffered the first heavy defeat of the season away to Manchester City on 14th December. City were already tipped to be title contenders because of the amazing depth in their squad and their ability to pull out amazing performances while staring into the jaws of defeat. Arsenal had a tough time but there was quite a bit of fight and spirit in that match. The team stabled out and managed to win a few matches in a row but then came the loss to Liverpool. This game was easy to distinguish for Arsenal’s tactical immaturity. Liverpool capitalized on Arsenal’s defensive high-line and their lightning paced attackers got in behind Arsenal’s defence very easily. While Arsenal’s back four played high up in their own half in defence, the Liverpool players weren’t being closed down by Arsenal’s midfield which allowed them to pick their passes. Liverpool exploited Laurent Koscielny’s lack of height and Per Mertesacker’s lack of pace when sliding passes in behind them. The game against Chelsea was marked by terrible coordination in Arsenal’s defence. Arsenal tried to start the game on the front foot but kept a dangerously high line, thus ignoring Chelsea’s excellent ability on the counterattack. Arsenal players were scrambling and stumbling around to block Chelsea attempts on goals. Once the red card was shown in that match, it was done and dusted with no way back for Arsenal. The game against Everton was a tactical mismatch. Everton exploited Arsenal’s defensive instability on the flanks and utilized the space that Arsenal left open in the center of the field at times.
Arsenal played against the same opposition but had results which were poles apart. Is it the players’ fault? Yes. In some of the games, the players don’t seem to want it enough. The drive that existed at the start of the season seems to be lost. Is it the fault of the manager? Yes. Wenger is known to be one of the best tacticians in English football but he has got it wrong on more than one occasion. He is known to watch reruns of his opponent’s previous matches to make sure his players are ready for their opponent’s style of play before taking the pitch. But somehow he managed to botch it up. Is it the fault of the club’s staff? Can’t say. The huge list of injuries has been a consistent feature for a few seasons and there does not seem to be a clear logical reason on why Arsenal players pick up injuries towards the business end of the season. The training modules have been criticized and various suspicions have been aired but there isn’t enough publicly available information to be able to understand it. Besides, the work put in on the training ground has also let the team down on match day so maybe there is work to do in that department.
Something worth noticing is that many players have been offered contract extensions since December and few other players have had negotiations with the club over the same. The manager has also been questioned repeatedly about his own contract talks with the club. Certain players have also been in the newspapers for the wrong reasons pertaining to their personal life. Few other managers have attempted to play mind games by labeling Arsenal over their losses. Has it all been psychological? Have the performances on the pitch been a direct result of the pressures on the players? Maybe it isn’t a lack of desire from the team but just too much happening too soon.
The people who cannot be faulted this season have been the fans. The Emirates stadium has been at full capacity for nearly all the games in spite of it holding the highest ticket prices in the league. The fans have been singing in full voice in victory and in defeat, at home and away. The merchandise has been purchased time and again to contribute to Wenger’s transfer kitty. Are we at fault, Arsene? Is it the fans who are to blame and who are letting the team down? If not, as I suspect is the case, why is the team letting the fans down?
But certainly there are some positives to gain from this season, albeit few. The silver lining on the list of inconsistent performances is that Arsenal have pulled through in the FA Cup. The stable defensive side that Arsenal were hailed for being at the start of the season have shown their mettle in the cup games with strong performances against big teams like Tottenham Hotspurs, Liverpool and Everton. Although our Premier League hopes were destroyed by terrible performances, the Arsenal players managed to pick themselves up when facing big opposition in the cup ties which has brought us to the semi final and given Arsenal the opportunity to play at Wembley once again. We will be facing the title holders Wigan Athletic on 12th April 2014 in a competition that Arsenal has the pride of having enjoyed considerable success. Wigan are not a team to be taken lightly since they beat Manchester City to claim the title last season and repeated the feat in their run-in to the semi final this season. But I trust Wenger will learn from past mistakes this season and will do his homework well. The FA Cup is the last trophy Arsenal has managed to win in 2005. Nine years on we are looking at a possibility of the same trophy ending our drought of silverware. Come on you Gunners!
