COMMENT: Wednesday's 3-1 defeat to Monaco has left the Frenchman on the brink of his most embarrassing European exit and the sense is of a coach who has reached his ceiling
As the dust settled on another Arsenal humiliation and criticism poured in from all sides, the most damning words of all flowed from Arsene Wenger. He spoke of “suicidal” defending, a collective loss of nerve and the heart ruling the head before touching on a favourite theme. “Mentally we were not ready or sharp enough to get into this game,” he admitted. “We paid for it.”
Mentality is something Wenger talks about a lot, in victory and defeat. Nor is it idle talk – renowned French psychologist Jacques Crevoisier has regularly been employed to work with Arsenal players in recent years, and in 2010 he subjected the entire squad to a psychometric test designed to measure all the mental qualities required of an elite athlete. Nicklas Bendtner famously scored 10 out of nine for self-confidence but, as Crevoisier concluded: “They were all outstanding psychologically.”
The youthful core of that 2010 squad is still at Arsenal, five years more mature and, thanks to last season’s FA Cup triumph, no longer burdened by a debilitating trophy drought. The rest has changed beyond recognition but the majority of arrivals have been experienced performers; on Wednesday a makeshift Monaco side faced a Gunners team with an average age of 26 years, five months and 11 days, boasting nine senior internationals, two World Cup winners and the club’s two most expensive ever signings.
So when this Arsenal compounds a catalogue of recent big-game embarrassments by allowing the most goal-shy team left in the Champions League to almost double their tournament tally in a single night, it seems obvious that the majority of the blame lies with the mind of the man in the dugout rather than the minds of those on the pitch.
Match Stats — Team Stats
Arsenalv.Monaco
Defence & Discipline
- Tackles
Arsenal Comparison Monaco 24 50%50% 24 - Tackles Won (%)
Arsenal Comparison Monaco 66.7% 53.4%46.6% 58.3% - Clearances
Arsenal Comparison Monaco 13 38.2%61.8% 21 - Fouls Conceded
Arsenal Comparison Monaco 12 54.5%45.5% 10 - Yellow Cards
Arsenal Comparison Monaco 3 60%40% 2 - Red Cards
Arsenal Comparison Monaco 0 50%50% 0
Wenger rightly asserted that his players had lacked the required intensity. That in itself is no disgrace. It occasionally happens to the best of teams – even in the Champions League – when facing opponents widely regarded as inferior. But when other top sides lose their way, their players invariably retreat into their core system until they can find it again.
A Pep Guardiola team will keep the ball. A Jose Mourinho team will drop deep and weather the storm. A Diego Simeone team will press harder. Everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. Arsenal, in contrast, resemble a collective of freestyle jazz musicians: as long as everyone is on form the show is sensational, but on nights when Mesut Ozil’s passing is off and Alexis Sanchez is stifled, a horrible spectacle prevails until the boos rain down.
It was genuinely startling to see Anthony Martial and Dimitar Berbatov bearing down on an isolated Laurent Koscielny just 53 minutes into a two-legged tie. Wenger’s response to that farce was beyond parody, opting to play the final 22 minutes of the match with a midfield consisting of two strikers and three No.10s. Defending of the kind that yielded a 2-0 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in January appears to be regarded by the Frenchman as a gameplan all of its own and reserved for special occasions, rather than a crucial component in the greater “balance” all top coaches seek.
It feels especially poignant that this latest humiliation coincided with the release of ‘Invincibles’, the documentary detailing Wenger’s greatest Arsenal side. The glory that will underpin the Frenchman’s legacy now resides exclusively in the past and, with every new setback, seems less likely to ever return. Tactics, recruitment and injury prevention are just three areas in which elite football has left him behind.
No team has progressed after losing the first leg of a European knockout tie by two goals since Ajax in 1969. Arsenal are talented enough – and Monaco vulnerable enough, despite their discipline – to buck that trend but, even if they do, who would seriously back Wenger and his men against the top manager and team that would likely await in the quarter-finals?
For the second successive season the FA Cup has opened up for Arsenal, provided they can claim a first victory at Manchester United in nine years. They are also well placed to see off a handful of equally flawed rivals and secure Champions League qualification yet again before attempting to attract more world-class talent next summer. Income from the magnificent Emirates Stadium, lucrative commercial partnerships and gargantuan TV revenue now ensure only a handful of the world’s footballers are beyond their financial reach.
The future should be brighter than ever, but sullying the landscape is the sense that Wenger long ago reached his own personal ceiling. Yet Arsenal’s board will not countenance sacking a legend and the legend is a matter of months into a new three-year contract, so together they march on.
May 17, 2014 at Wembley presented Wenger and Arsenal with the perfect opportunity for a happy ending. Having let it pass, both parties appear doomed to endure a parting that, when it comes, will be much less
joyous.
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