At 0-0, this was just another tedious display that has become the norm. But in many ways Swansea did us a favour, scoring two richly-deserved goals that could leave even the most bleary-eyed optimist in no doubt. Arsenal’s 2012/13 vintage is corked.
The end of an era
Yesterday had the feel of an era ended. Anger over listless draws in the past week left the camel’s back a straws’ weight from breaking. Then Swansea dropped a big, fuck-off tree on it.
The boos that some in the press described as “deafening” were far from unanimous but the overwhelming sense both in the ground and online was that the people in charge of the club had broken it.
The decline that we have witnessed over recent years will hopefully begin to be reversed in January, when reinforcements will surely be made. If they aren’t, or if they extend only to Thierry Henry and Wilfried Zaha, the fans will revolt. And not unreasonably.
The board
This is a problem at board-level. Profit is their trophy and a business model of selling the best players and scraping fourth has done them no harm whatsoever.
If you want to know what floats their boat then look no further than Ivan Gazidis’ £675k bonus payment. While he’s getting very rich, my problem isn’t with Ivan. He’s a professional, and he’s evidently hitting his targets very successfully. Give him new targets and who knows? He might be exactly the man for the job.
The problem is the people setting those targets. It’s only by getting to them that the direction of the club will change. Maybe sitting 10th in December will wake them from their slumber. Maybe some will remember what running a football club entails. Constructive protest matched with support come kick off is called for.
News of Peter Hill-Wood’s heart attack is a distraction. While I wish him the very best in his recovery, he has failed the fans. Not that I suspect he cares.
The squad
When the fans bastardised the Robert Pires chant to praise “Super Tom Rosicky” me and my North Bank neighbour – a poor sod who comes down from Huddersfield every game – could barely believe it.
This is a man who has played about ten good games for the club but mostly sat around getting paid handsomely for doing nothing. When Tomas Rosicky is the messiah, you must be desperate.
When he ‘earned’ his contract renewal last year I sighed. A handful of decent games and the club signed him up, happy to have a permacrock take up one of the limited squad spaces. The same goes for Abou Diaby. He’ll be treated like Paddy Vieira reincarnate when he comes back, and will then get injured within five games.
Abysmal squad management is Wenger’s biggest crime. Even if losing Fabregas, Nasri, van Persie, Song etc. was not his choice he still has had plenty of opportunity to build a stronger set of players. We’re lumbered with average players on big contracts, and that’s his fault.
The midfield
And Wenger has also failed to find a system that suits these players. Has he even looked?
We still play like any minute Fabregas will arrive to orchestrate things. Wilshere, Cazorla and Arteta are fine players in their own right but none of them are the former captain. And even then this system won us nothing.
The first goal Swansea scored was all about our midfield. The back four was left prostrate by a lack of cover. Michu is a beast, you can’t miss him, but Mikel Arteta certainly did.
Arteta was magnificent last year but playing him at the base of midfield is a failed experiment. We need someone who can tackle and shield the defence, and it’s not the Spaniard.
Ideally January would see a defensive midfielder and an out-and-out winger arrive, along with cover for Giroud, but surely the time has come to play Cazorla out wide, where he has more space to make an impact. Doing that allows Wenger to introduce stability to midfield through Coquelin.
A midfield that creates more and concedes less sounds like a good place to start sorting out this mess.
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