Match report – By the numbers – Player ratings
Once again, when the pressure was on and Arsenal were expected to perform away from home, we got beaten. And in a way it was worse than shipping five at Anfield or the six at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool have the best strike force in the league while Chelsea have all that oil money and there was a ridiculous sending off, but this was against Everton and Everton shouldn’t be able to do what they did to us.
First things first, credit to Roberto Martinez and his side for their victory. It was a game from which both teams got exactly what they deserved. The home side three points and all the plaudits for a excellent performance; Arsenal nothing. Well, nothing but huge questions about the team and the manager and the future and why this keeps happening.
Let’s put it down in black and white: every time we’ve faced a ‘big’ team away from home this season we’ve been beaten. Although there were mitigating circumstances on the day we went to Old Trafford, with certain players missing and others struck down with illness, the record books will show only that we lost to the worst United side in living memory.
Man City, beaten well. Liverpool, thrashed. Chelsea, battered. Everton, comprehensively outplayed, out-fought and out-thought by a club with a fraction of our resources. Compare now to the home games where we haven’t lost once to any of these teams and the issue is one that goes beyond the quality of the players. I don’t dispute for one second that this squad can be improved, but I believe the fundamental failing is one of mentality.
When the heat is on, not only do we get out of the kitchen, we run down the road screaming in our underwear while everyone points and laughs. Without any pressure or expectation this season, we topped the table. It was enjoyable and it raised hopes – perhaps unrealistically – but that’s all part and parcel of the great sideshow that is football. You can dream big if you want.
But as soon as that dream lurched into the corridors of reality, we found it tough going. On December 8th we faced Everton at home knowing a win would send us 7 points clear. The blues were excellent that day too but it was a game we should have won considering the time we scored. Instead, we allowed Everton to equalise and I think from then on the doubts have set in.
There are other factors, I’ll grant you. Losing Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey was a big blow, but there was time to do something about that in the January window beyond the loan signing of a Swedish veteran – and the fact that the deal itself was done with a veneer of farce to it should have been no surprise. There was time for the manager to react, and address a key issue, but he didn’t.
The losses of Ozil and Wilshere came much later, but as damaging as those absences have been, I think our collapse goes beyond that. We’ve taken just 11 points from the last 33 available to us, so it’s no wonder our title challenge has turned into a scrap for the top four. As important as Ramsey and Walcott were for us, I don’t think that fully explains the way this season has gone off the rails.
It’s a factor, but there’s more to it and I’m sure it’s psychological. Obviously we want to succeed and to win games, but it’s almost as if we’re conditioned to fail when it really counts. You look at the way the team performed yesterday. You can be sure they knew the importance of the game, they would have been drilled all week about how crucial it was, but on the day we froze, rigid, rabbit in headlights as the pressure became reality.
The timidity was evident when Ross Barkley pushed over Mikel Arteta late in the game. Leaving aside the ludicrousness of the Spaniard ending up with a yellow card for objecting to this, where were his teammates? Nowhere. Standing passively watching one of their most experienced players get shoved around by a youngster and ganged up on by other Everton players. Regardless of the fact the game was up, that no Arsenal player reacted to come to the defence of his friend summed us up perfectly. Passionless, unable to muster a bit of fight when the situation demanded it.
So it was with our performance on the pitch yesterday, and on the bench it was the same from the manager. The first half was bad, let’s face it, but with 45 minutes to go you have time to regroup and react. Arsene Wenger’s decision was to leave the same players on who had struggled so badly in that first period, and only when Everton had put the game beyond any doubt did he make changes.
That both Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain made Arsenal look instantly more effective compounds the issue for me. I know he’s not fond of the half-time subs, but I’m not fond of watching a team that clearly needs an injection of something be denied it because of a manager’s predilections. It’s not even something that was just obvious with hindsight, it was clear we had to try something to get back into a game of huge importance and what we tried was nothing. What we got was nothing.
Everton pushed us over in the first half and we just let them. I don’t think there’s any need to look at individual players this morning, the failure was collective, but some of them are under-performing, some of them are exhausted, some of them look out of their depth, but all of them are capable of better. We’ve seen it from them this season. These players did go top of the table, these players have beaten Everton recently, these players have beaten Liverpool comfortably at home, so while they have to take some of the blame the buck has to stop with the man who picks them.
I’ve seen people suggest that the players have somehow let the manager down, as if he’s blameless. I don’t disagree that some of them can do better, but these are all his players. There are no inheritance issues here. He’s brought every single one of them to the club, so their inability to perform is down to him. We need to look at Arsene as a reason why there’s this collapse. It’s not the first time it’s happened, the players are different, the common denominator is him.
It raises the big question about his future and understandably so. Indeed, as James from Gunnerblog pointed out yesterday, we’re conceivably one game away from the end of his reign. If we don’t beat Wigan on Saturday, his position becomes untenable. Failure to win the cup leaves him in the very same position.
Winning the cup, however, leaves things open. Right now I think success at Wembley, lifting that old trophy, would be a fantastic way for Arsene’s Arsenal career to come to a close. His time here has been fantastic, he’s been a great manager and I think a bit of time and distance will only make that more obvious. At the moment there’s such opprobrium and division that it clouds the perception of what he’s done for this club and the way he’s guided us through a difficult period financially and sportingly.
How many people look back and deride the teams and players of the recent past as ‘not good enough’? Yet he still never finished outside the top four. And I find myself feeling defensive of him because of the abuse that is levelled at him after every game like yesterday. Some of it is so reprehensible I don’t like to think that I have anything in common – not even Arsenal – with the people who try and post it on this website.
A final trophy, a great day out at Wembley, celebrating a success that his been so eagerly awaited, would be an ideal way for things to change. Not one single person, not even his harshest critic, could deny his impact on the club has been overwhelmingly positive and the fact is he’d be leaving it in incredible shape for the next man. Financially secure beyond most clubs in the world that aren’t propped up by sugar-daddies, a wonderful stadium, fantastic facilities and infrastructure, and a squad of players that, with the right investment and probably something fresh in terms of coaching and management, can really go places … well, what a legacy.
The issue is whether or not this board has the ability to replace him properly. I worry that they’re so invested in him, almost reliant on him, that his departure would leave them in a place they don’t have the expertise to get out of properly. I don’t say that to avoid the thought of a new manager, but it’s got to be a consideration.
I suspect Goodison Park on April 6th 2014 will go down as a kind of watershed moment in Arsenal’s history – evidence that the departure of a long-standing manager doesn’t have to go the way of things in Manchester, it can invigorate and revitalise a club and its players.
There’s still a lot for us to do this season, but it feels like we’ve been pushed over by a young buck. Do we stand and watch, or do something about it?
