Enough is Enough: Arsenal Lose Again

Why bother with a match report? As expected, the Gunners were thoroughly outplayed in the first leg match of the UCL with Bayern and lost 3-1. Bad defending contributed to all three goals. Podolski put them back in it in a better second half but then Bayern added a third and it was over. Vermaelen was terrible again, implicated in all three goals. Mertesacker played below par as did Koscielny. Giroud missed another chance. The lack of a real defensive midfielder hurt us and Sczcesny had another night to forget. This is a team going in the wrong direction and another year of Wenger might just be the end of Arsenal for the forseeable future. Enough is enough!

I have been making this argument for some time but it is time to again take on the naysayers who say Wenger is still the man. Eight years now without a trophy. Sure we get to the Champions League every year, though this year is certainly in doubt, but then we lose in the first round of the knock out stage. He plays second string teams in the cups and has lowered expectations so much that we are out of the title race well before Christmas. He lets our best players go and replaces them with average, inferior alternatives. He refuses to bring in the necessary reinforcements and consistently tells us that the team is good enough. And then he is proven wrong. 

More than anything else, a coach is responsible for the team he puts on the field and for motivating that team to win. Instead we see a team that simply isn't good enough and players who are either lackadaisical or nervous in key matches. Terrible defending lets us down game after game. And beyond this, a manager needs to deploy tactics that can win games. But Wenger simply plays the same way most of the time and hopes for the best. His team has played terrible first halves far too often this year and again suffered for this in the game. And there is not really the excuse of injuries at the moment. It is that our defensive players are just not good enough. Vermaelen is having his worst season ever and Koscielny might be even worse. Mertesacker has been good at times, but has dropped in form of late and seems off the pace a little too often. Sagna seems to be reclaiming his form but wants to leave at the end of the season. And Gibbs is simply injuried far too often. In front of that back four, we have no natural defensive mid and that has hurt us consistently. Wenger knew this was a need but failed to solve it in two successive windows, after the bizarre sale of Song. 

A coach is generally measured by success. Not success in the distant past, but success today. And for eight years, Wenger has failed when it mattered. He has succeeded only in improving the bottom line and helping the team move to a stadium where we are feared by no one. The team has some young stars on the rise, but is Wenger even good at cultivating young talent anymore? He has succeeded with Wilshire and Walcott, finally, but look at the backwards turn in Ox's play. Look at Jenkinson. And what of the youngsters who are getting no playing time like Eisfeld, who I would like to see a little more of. Maybe the board has finally woken up now and realizes change is necessary. Is there better out there? I don't know, but I would take Roberto Martinez or David Moyes over the shambles the team has become. We need fresh blood to reinstill belief in a team that clearly has none before all our remaining best players depart and we become a midtable also ran, happy with the occasional victory over the new top four or a good Europa League run. 

Looking at the squad going forward, where are the biggest needs. We clearly need one or maybe two new centre-halfs, a new right back if Sagna leaves, a defensive midfielder, a striker and maybe another winger. Then we can build the team around Walcott, Wilshire, Cazorla and Podolski. Without these changes, we are bound for mediocrity from here to eternity. Wenger seems to have caught the French flu, surrendering without even fighting. 

And just to complete the critique of Wenger ... what about tonight? Was he culpable? I would say yes on a number of fronts. First, why not start Giroud, who is better defensively and makes more sense against a physical back Bayern Munich line. He had a late miss that was costly after being subbed on, but Walcott offered little throughout the match. When Arsenal got back into it, and Podolski was playing well, Wenger subbed him out -- as if he wasn't even watching the game (and this has happened far too often in recent years). He brought in Rosicky, who did perform admirably and moved Cazorla out wide, where he gave up the ball that led to the third Bayern goal. And all this comes on the back of his bizarre decision to play a second-rate team against Blackburn that piled the pressure on for the young Gunners in this one. I feel bad for Wenger, as every decision he makes seems to backfire these days, but too many are poor ones (Gervinho as central striker, anyone?) to begin with. This team has potential to improve dramatically, but only with the infusion of talent, experience and leadership (particularly defensively) and motivation.