Arsenal's stumble against Chelsea has, as has become the norm provided rich fodder for the army of pundits in the media who are only too happy to regale us with their treatises about what they perceive to be responsible for the gunners' failings and why Arsenal will never get it right until Wenger departs the scene.
For the umpteenth time, however, their premature predictions of Arsenal’s decline and Wenger’s departure are likely to remain just those, premature, ill-conceived and riddled with contradictions.
It’s become quite the diverting annual ritual. The season starts with the pundits’ assertions that the existing Arsenal will fail to leave a mark and may even fall short of meeting their usual minimum standard, qualification for the Champions league. A variety of reasons is proffered as to why this is the case ranging from a flawed transfer policy, a misguided reliance on trying to replicate tiki-taka in the premier league, the “soft” nature of the Arsenal players, the inability of the team to grind out results, etc, etc.
The season proceeds with the pundits celebrating any slips along the way as further evidence that this time, Arsenal will meet their nadir. Even when, like last season, they eventually secured a title to rid themselves of their unwanted “x years without a trophy” tag, the achievement was dismissed in some quarters as representing little, if anything. They’re not a “top four operation”, we’re informed, and they will surely be usurped this time by Liverpool, Tottenham or whoever seems to be flavour of the month at the time of asking. At the end of the season, however the pundits are usually left bewildered by Arsenal’s ability to once more, at the barest minimum secure top four billing and make subtle progress from the season before.
This time around the major stick being used to beat the gunners is their inability to beat the top teams. Whilst the statistics will bear out the gunners’ failings in this regard, it’s just another red herring that Wenger’s detractors are utilising to their advantage. Time was, not so long ago that the perceived Arsenal failing was a failure to see off the weaker teams even after achieving credible results against the stronger sides. It is surely simply a matter of time before this team will claim another big scalp and considering that the current set-up has achieved victories against the likes of that all conquering Bayern side of 2012-2013 season and Dortmund last season, surely there is an element of hyperbole in all the furore. This term, the gunners have already played against Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Everton, and in none of those games were they comprehensively played off the park. Even without playing at their free-flowing best, they were able to more or less hold their own in these games and came out of the encounters with some credit for their graft, if for nothing else.
This is not to say that there have not been problems. The staggered return of players from the world cup coupled with the necessity of having to integrate several new players into the squad undoubtedly had some impact on the way the team was playing until very recently. When you add this to the spate of injuries the team has suffered then it’s easy to see why things may not have been completely smooth sailing early on. That notwithstanding, the team has still had a solid, if unspectacular start to the season. Despite a tough run of fixtures and all the injury troubles, the new signings have all more or less bedded in nicely and the recent signs in the last 2 or 3 games are that the gunners are gradually beginning to find their old fluency and rhythm. Even during the course of the loss to Chelsea, there were signs of greater cohesion in midfield and glimpses that the likes of Wilshere, Cazorla and Flamini are belatedly beginning to find a semblance of form. More importantly, they are beginning to play as a unit and the odd turnover from Sanchez aside(which should gradually disappear from his game as he becomes better acquainted with his teammates), rediscovering the old habit of keeping and dominating possession.
With Arsenal’s fixture list until the end of the year featuring games against Hull(h), Sunderland(a),Burnley(h), Swansea(a), Man Utd(h), Westbrom(a), Southampton(h), Stoke(a), Newcastle(h), Liverpool(a), Qpr(h), and West Ham(a), the gunners have an excellent chance of putting together a run that will place the team right back amongst the title chasing pack.
The return to action from the international break should also see Theo Walcott make his long expected return from injury. It should be interesting to see exactly how Wenger intends to fit him back into a side that already boasts the attacking talents of Welbeck, Sanchez and the recently vastly improved Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. However, his return can only be a good thing for the manager as the increased competition should only have positive knock on effects for the team as a whole.
Overall, the current Arsenal squad remains the strongest in terms of depth and potential that we have seen in recent years. Yes, some issues still need to be addressed, particularly as regards the lack of defensive cover and having a stronger mentality against the big sides. Even with regards to the latter however, Arsenal’s games against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton this term have hinted that some thought is going into redressing some of the shortcomings of last season. More still needs to be done, but the early signs remain promising.
Source: DSG
