Arsenal's Draw: What We Learned

Many positives came out of the 3-3 draw with Fulham, but the result continued the recent fall in form for the Gunners and one has to admit that this could be the season when the team falls out of the Champions League. For the second time in a week, Arsenal took a 2-0 lead in the first half merely to give it away. At Schalke, we held from there for the draw. Here we ceded three straight goals before leveling and almost going on to win. But "almost" is becoming the leitmotif of the season so far. Arteta was the main culprit in this collapse but had a chance to pull out the last second victory. Unfortunately he telegraphed the penalty and another poor result at home followed. What did we learn from the latest setback?

1. Giroud: First for a positive. Giroud is starting to come good for Arsenal, playing well from beginning to end and only held from a hat trick by a nice save on a powerful shot from just outside the box (and maybe taking the penalty). He looks much more lively and it is clear that whenever a good cross comes in, he has a chance of scoring. This has been one of the problems this season -- lack of good crosses.

2. Defensive midfielder: early in the season, Diaby and Arteta controlled the midfield and made the loss of Song a lot easier. More recently, the calls for buying a new defensive mid in the absence of Song seemed like sound advice. Diaby is simply too injury prone and cannot be counted on. In his absence, I believe Arteta has had to go back and play box to box too much and has started to tire. Sure this was his first bad game in a while, but there has certainly been a slow and steady drop in form in recent weeks. We need a defensive midfielder at least for some games (like against a team like Fulham that just keep on scoring). The additional defensive duties put on Podolski have also appeared to affect his performance on the other half of the pitch and a defensive mid and better left back could see him improve in form.

3. Left back: going into the season, we knew that Gibbs was injury prone and that Santos just wasn't a reasonable back up. It's important to remember that the drop in form for Arsenal has emerged as Santos has had to shoulder the left back duties. After a couple of terrible performances (and the RVP shirt debacle), Wenger decided to start Vermaelen as full back. I believe the plan backfired and that, as I among many argued before the window closed, we needed a decent backup there. Vermaelen doesn't play terribly well on the left and had a very average game. One wonders if Arsene considered moving Sagna across the pitch and letting Jenkinson start. I think it would have been a better plan and might have made this an easy win. It is too bad the youngster is now consigned to the bench after a very bright start to the season. We have two good right backs and as long as Sagna doesn't depart, left back is a spot we need quality backup.

4. The defense is in trouble: Per Mertesacker has been great this season, making up for his lack of pace with his seasoned ability to be in the right place at the right time. Vermaelen and Kos, on the other hand, have been incredibly inconsistent. This is why a strong defensive mid is imperative if we are to stop leaking so many goals. It is also true that Mannone has been inconsistent and may well have been partially to blame for two goals (and sat frozen in the middle on the cool penalty by Berbi). We either need to bring in some fresh blood or do something to get Vermaelen and Kos back on track. But the real problem is that too many players are giving the ball up in dangerous positions the past few games -- including Arteta Saturday. The team needs to bear down and play quality football for an entire game. Too often the Gunners go missing when they can simply slow a game down and hold onto a lead. Instead they let Fulham back in by ceding possession and hoping nothing bad happened. 

5. Wenger: could this be the beginning of the end for the professor? If Arsenal doesn't move up to the top four and/or win some silverware this year, I think it might be time for a change. Wenger is a great coach who revolutionized the game, led us to the best season in the history of the EPL and won numerous trophies. He also got us into the Champions League every year he has been in charge and finished in the top two for several years running. And he cultivated some of the best young talent in football -- though now they seem apt to leave for silverer pastures upon reaching their full potential. But the last three have seen a steady decline in quality and form. To start the increasingly tired narrative we have lost our best players over the past several seasons from RvP to Nasri to Fabergas and Song (not to mention Cole, Adebayor, Clichy, etc.). We have refused to fully invest this money and have steadily declined in quality at almost every position. Sure Arteta, Cazorla and Giroud are playing quality football most of the time and Sagna, Gibbs and Mertesacker are top class defenders. But from top to bottom, the team just isn't as good. 

A coach should ultimately be measured by performance and the soft underbelly of this squad over the past several years is certainly something to cause concern. I have been a New York Jets fan my whole life and being an Arsenal fan is starting to feel like that -- false hope followed by heartbreak. The reality is that a team with the history and pedigree of Arsenal needs to win silverware and to compete for titles. Instead Arsenal has been blowing winnable games and have gotten worse each season. Going back a year and a half, we beat Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League and were competing for the title. A year and a half later, we have our worst start to a campaign since 1982-83. The players are revolting against Wenger, showing him a lack of respect and not playing to their ability. They are blowing games, giving up soft goals and losing or drawing winnable games. One hopes they spend some money this winter and get back to their winning ways, but this could very well become the end of an era. The game against Tottenham Saturday seems to be make or break for the season. Let's hope the potential of the squad shown earlier in the season comes to fruition then.