Let’s make no bones about it. Sunday’s 4-1 home defeat against rivals Chelsea was a humiliation. Especially off the back of the 3-1 defeat by Manchester United in the Champions League Semis – also on home soil.
Such was the manner of those maulings that many people are wondering where Arsenal turn from here. They are still a ‘top four’ side but the evidence suggests they are closer to Villa and Everton than they are to the three teams sitting above them.
What has gone wrong and what, if anything, can be done to change it?
The answer to the first question is straightforward. Arsenal lack star quality in key areas of the pitch.
Accepting that his club would be unable to go toe-to-toe in the transfer market with the likes of Chelsea, Man U and increasingly Liverpool, Arsene Wenger has sought to nurture a team of superstars by recruiting hordes of talented youngsters.
This idea is all well and good, and the manager’s commitment to it is admirable, yet it is not clear whether such an exercise is compatible with success. There are a number of precedents for this kind of approach – Ajax, to name one – but these teams never had to compete in the billionaires’ playground that is the Premier League.
If Arsenal continue to rely on organic, year-on-year improvement, they will always be playing catch-up, because their main rivals will continue to add first class professionals to their already superior squads.
Man United were crowned domestic and European champions last season, yet they did not rest on their laurels. Ferguson knew there was room for improvement and promptly recruited the services of Dimitar Berbatov for around £30m.
Arsenal cannot compete at that level, but that does not mean they should not compete at all. At the same time as Man United were making concrete improvements to their glittering array of talent, Arsenal were actually waving goodbye to two of last seasons form players: Alex Hleb and Mathieu Flamini. Players were brought in, but none of them were proven performers.
Wenger must have been hoping for some sort of eureka moment, when his talented youngsters suddenly realised all that untapped potential, but this week’s dismal dénouement will surely have robbed him of this optimism.
This is a good thing. I think Wenger is slowly but surely coming round to the idea that he must mix experience with youth. He does not have to abandon his project wholesale, but he must now realise that young players improve much more rapidly when playing alongside top pros. You can have all the talent in the world but it is worthless if it has no direction or leadership.
The good news, as I’ve said before, is that not a lot is needed. Ideally we would purchase four new players, but even two key additions would make a huge difference. A leader at the back and a ball-winning centre-midfielder would improve Arsenal’s on-field fortunes dramatically. It’s fine to have players like Song, Denilson and Djourou as cover, but I think they’re still too young to be relied upon as first team players.
They have the talent but not the mental strength and I think too much pressure is being heaped on them. If the manager were to relieve this pressure by bringing quality first-teamers, I think you would also see an improvement in the performances of those mentioned. This is the situation with players like Jonny Evans and Danny Wellbeck at Man U.
It would also take pressure off the few ‘senior’ players at the club, like RvP, Fabregas and Adebayor. We might start seeing the best of them again.
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