Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal; It’s a score-line that says it all.
In 2004 Arsenal were Premier League Champions after going the entire league season unbeaten, a feat that had only been achieved once before in English football history (And Preston’s 1889 team can’t seriously be compared to Arsenal’s class of 2004, because in 1889 the league schedule consisted of just 22 matches, compared to 36 today).
Fast-forward to 2011 and Arsenal’s new Emirates Stadium Trophy Cabinet is collecting dust. Since their penalty shoot-out victory in the 2005 FA Cup final Arsenal have failed to win a single trophy. This seems as incredible as Arsenal’s 2004 team were invincible. One must ask how a club that recently doubled their capacity by moving to a new stadium, breaks profit records year on year and has one of the best managers in the game, can suffer the slow decline that Arsenal have experienced since 2005?
The answer’s pretty simple. Since 2005 we’ve been told that Arsenal are building a squad of multi-national youngsters who will one day dominate world football with a joie de vivre and an entertaining style of football. Whenever the North Londoners lost big players like Vieira, Cole, Adebayor or even Arsenal’s greatest ever player, Thierry Henry, fans remained positive because they shared a vision of a bright future for the club. However things have changed.
It’s become apparent that most of Arsenal’s promising youngsters haven’t developed into players capable of winning titles. Strikers like Carlos Vela and Nicklas Bendtner have failed to fulfil their potentials. Midfielder s like Abou Diaby, Alex Song and Henri Landsbury are all good players however they’ll never replace a great player like Patrick Vieira. Arsenal’s young defenders have never looked up to the required standard, and the club’s perennial search for a replacement for David Seaman has only just come to an end with young Polish goal-keeper Wojciech Szczęsny impressing despite being unprotected by a lightweight defence.
The failure of many young players to make the grade isn’t a new phenomenon at Arsenal. Remember the hype behind starlets such as Francis Jeffers (now a free agent after being released by Motherwell), Jérémie Aliadière (Lorient), Phillipe Senderos (struggling for gametime at Fulham), Denílson (back in Brazil with São Paolo) and Justin Hoyte (Middlesboro) to name but a few. What’s changed this summer is that the Gunners’ best youngsters have become disenchanted, and have left.
Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas and now Samir Nasri; three of Arsenal’s best players in recent seasons have all left for the greener grass on the other side, with Clichy and Nasri moving North to Manchester City, and Fabregas returning to his spiritual home in Barcelona.
What a blow this has been for the fans, the club and the other players. However Wenger’s comments following his team’s capitulation against United suggest that he’s in more pain than anybody. For years he’s dreamed of nurturing a team from clueless teenagers to world-beaters. With the loss of Clichy, Fabregas and Nasri, all players developed by Wenger, his dream looks in tatters. It seems his best players no longer share his vision for the future.
Wenger claimed he was “embarrassed” and “humiliated” by his team’s performance against a Manchester United team that were better than Arsenal in every department.
Comments like these are seldom uttered by Wenger against his own players. The Alsatian has been regularly ridiculed since his arrival at Highbury in 1997 for his catchphrase “I didn’t see it” which he has frequently used to protect his players from criticism and blame.
It now seems for a change that Arsène Wenger sees everything. Yet the two-time double winning manager can have few complaints that his once great team has dissolved into an un-organised shambles for it is largely his fault.
Wenger got greedy. The Frenchman wanted to prove to Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs that money isn’t everything and that it’s possible to nurture a team from nothing to winners without spending ludicrous amounts of cash. Wenger’s ego trip has cost Arsenal dearly.
Wenger has obviously never admitted to the above, but everybody in football is aware of Wenger’s desire to teach the rich kids a lesson. A quick look at this summer’s events supports my belief. Wenger was promised money to spend this summer, as he has been for several summers. Lille front-man Gervinho has to date been his only big-name signing, and the inconsistent Ivorian can hardly be called a big-name compared to Manchester City and Chelsea’s signings this summer. Wenger also bought Carl Jenkinson from League 1 Charlton, where the defender hardly looked Premier League quality, and young Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from League 1 runners-up Southampton where the speedy teenager wasn’t even one of the Saints’ best players.
It’s as if Wenger has deliberately chosen to shoot himself in the foot. The thrashing at Old Trafford should act as a stern warning that if Arsenal are to continue replacing brilliance with mediocrity, they can expect to continue slipping further behind the real title-challengers in the Premier League. Maybe when the Gunners miss out on the Champions League the club will be forced to change their approach.
