It’s that time of the year again. Arsenal are in crisis, as a series of poor results sees them way off the pace in the Premier League title race, and they have just been knocked out of the Champions League. Nothing new here, it would seem.
But things are different this year. With the 3-1 loss to West Bromwich Albion last Saturday, the Gunners have now lost four of their last five Premier League games, their worst sequence of results in manager Arsene Wenger’s two-decade plus tenure at the club. They have dropped to sixth place, behind bitter rivals Manchester United.
They faced a humiliating loss – 10-2 on aggregate to Bayern Munich to exit the Champions League earlier this month. And Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, the club’s star players, have both failed to sign new contracts.
And the fans are not happy, to put it mildly.
#WengerOut
Protest marches are being held regularly outside the Emirates Stadium to demand that Arsene Wenger should not be offered a new contract when his current one expires at the end of the season. Arsenal Fan TV is a riot of apoplectic fans after every new defeat. #WengerOut groups abound on social media, banners and posters calling for the once-venerated manager to leave the club, dominate the stands at home and away games.
During the game against West Brom, a group of disgruntled fans even hired a plane to display a banner expressing their views (though admittedly another plane was also hired by those who thought Wenger should stay).
Will He, Won’t He?
Wenger has remained coy over signing a new contract, but after the unexpected defeat at West Brom, stated that he had decided on his future, and would announce it very soon. It looked like it was over, especially with reports from Germany that the club had made a formal approach for Borussia Dortmund’s Thomas Tuchel to join in the summer.
However, the English media are reporting now that Wenger is determined to stay on at the club he has moulded since 1996. The Guardian claims that Arsenal and Wenger are in agreement over him continuing, waiting for a better time to announce the decision. It would seem, therefore, that Wenger is here to stay.
Has Wenger Lost the Dressing Room?
The team’s form has dipped alarmingly since the beginning of February 2017, with the poor results a combination of poor tactics and failure to follow Wenger’s instructions.
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Against West Brom, known for set-piece prowess, Arsenal failed to offer any resistance when defending the two corners, through which Dawson scored. Against Liverpool, they failed to follow Wenger’s gameplan of quick direct football to bypass the Liverpool gegenpress (counter press). Against Bayern in the first leg they failed to maintain any defensive shape or mark Robert Lewandowski, allowing easy goals through the centre.
Mesut Ozil continues to be absent through mysterious illnesses and injuries, yet is fit to play for Germany. Alexis Sanchez is dropped for the crucial game at Anfield, and laughs as the team get hammered by Bayern. Aaron Ramsey looks like a shadow of the player who looked like he was taking Arsenal to the title in 2013-14. Even Laurent Koscielny, their best defender, was woeful against Liverpool and West Brom.
It looks like Wenger has lost the ability to motivate or control his players. And if he has, is there any chance of them finishing in the top-four?
Tactical Failures
The current difficulties with players could be solved with a tactical rejig. Chelsea did this marvellously after being hammered by Arsenal early in the season, Antonio Conte switching to a novel 3-4-3 formation that gets the best out of their players. But while Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool are all constantly tactically innovating, Arsenal have stood still, thanks to Wenger.
His default formation is a 4-2-3-1, reliant on Santi Cazorla as a ball-playing central midfielder with good passing range and the ability to dribble out of tight spots – which worked brilliantly early on this season. Yet despite losing Cazorla to injury since October, Wenger refused to change things. With none of the other midfielders at the club able to play the system well, the team’s performances have been well off the pace since then, even when winning games.
Worst of all, Wenger has no backup plan. His belated switch to a 4-3-3 has failed because of a lack of midfield dynamism. And the one player on Arsenal’s books with a similar style of play to Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, was loaned to Bournemouth, without the option of a recall.
Cazorla is not going to return this season. In his absence, it is difficult to see Arsenal finding a way to turn around their form and get to top-four safety, with crucial matches against City, United and Spurs to come.
If that is the case, there should be no place for Wenger at the Emirates. He will have failed at his one expectation. And then, sad though it will be, he must realise that he will need to say goodbye, for the sake of the club he loves.
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