Same old Arsenal......

Swansea 2-1 Arsenal

Arsenal failed to hold onto a lead for the second game in succession on Sunday as the Gunners lost 2-1 away to Swansea having scored the opener.

It is extremely frustrating following Arsene Wenger’s side at the moment as the same mistakes are repeated time and time again, with the manager failing to address key issues.

In the pre match press conference Wenger hit back at Paul Merson’s comments, following the collapse against Anderlecht, in which the former Arsenal man described the Gunners as tactically inept. The manager’s reaction was rather disrespectful to the supporters too as he effectively denounced the opinions of those who have not managed a team at a professional level. Yet it also said much about Wenger and his stubborn approach to the game. This is a man who no matter what the situation or the opposition will steadfastly stick to the exact same game plan. It is therefore rather ironic then that those who have not managed a single game can spot clear deficiencies in the side which Wenger (over 1,000 games in charge of Arsenal), either cannot see or refuses to address.

Even before the game started anyone who has watched this Arsenal side of late could have predicted that with the physical presence of Wilfred Bony or Bafetimbi Gomis up front, Nacho Monreal would at some point be outmuscled at centre back. But once again Wenger stuck to his belief that the Spaniard can do a job in this position despite him never having played at the heart of defence before this season. Once again the inevitable happened and Monreal was embarrassingly outmuscled by Gomis for the winner.

Playing Monreal at centre back meant that once again Callum Chambers was deployed at right back, despite it being clear to anyone who has watched this team recently that the Englishman’s best position is at the heart of the defence. Chambers had an absolute nightmare against Swansea winger Jefferson Montero on Sunday. The Ecuadorian had the beating of Chambers from the very first minute of the game and attacked the Arsenal man at every opportunity. As Montero is right footed, Chambers could not show his man inside, onto his favoured right foot and therefore had to show him down the line. Unfortunately this just meant that Chambers’ lack of pace was exposed, with Montero bursting past him on numerous occasions. The fact that Hector Bellerin, rumoured to have broken Walcott’s sprinting record during pre-season, was sat on the bench spoke volumes for Wenger’s tactical decision making. Having seen Montero rip Chambers to shreds, the logical solution would have been to make adjustments to the team in order to provide the right back with better cover, reduce the risk of him becoming isolated with the winger and effectively nullify the threat from that area of the pitch. Anyone watching the game could have easily reached that conclusion, but Mr 1,000 plus games in charge refused to address it and surprise, surprise, Swansea’s winning goal came from Montero easily getting past Chambers and crossing the ball to Gomis.   

This Arsenal team just do not learn from their mistakes and while the players should take their portion of the blame, ultimately the buck stops with Wenger. At 3-0 up against Anderlecht the Gunners were pouring forward, leaving space in behind for the opposition to exploit. Nothing changed at 3-1 or 3-2 and Arsenal were caught out. Having scored the all-important first goal against Swansea, one would expect the Gunners to have learnt their lesson from the mid-week horror show, sit back, allow Swansea to come on to them in search of the equaliser, then hit them on the break. After all, the away side had opened the scoring on the counter attack, with Oxlade-Chamberlain bursting forward, passing to Welbeck, who squared to Sanchez for the Chilean to score once again. From this point on the game seemed perfectly set up for Arsenal, but the Gunners continued to pour forward and were caught out yet again. Modou Barrow exploited the ridiculous amount of space afforded to him by the Gunners, as he sauntered through the middle of the park, towards the box, before being brought down by a desperate challenge from Kieran Gibbs. Swansea equalised from the resulting free kick thanks to a wonderful strike by Gylfi Sigurdsson, but Arsenal only had themselves to blame, once again, naively allowing three points to slip through their fingers. Only three minutes later, Gomis headed home the winning goal.

A major problem for Wenger is the lack of defensive options from the bench, but it is a problem all of his own making. Having sold Vermaelen during the summer it was clear that he needed to sign at least one more defensive player, if not two, but the manager failed to do so and accentuated the problem further by allowing Carl Jenkinson to leave on loan and then this week sanctioning Francis Coquellin’s loan move to Charlton. As a result, with the Gunners 1-0 up yesterday, there were no players on the bench the manager could bring on to help see the game out which could explain the reason behind their pouring forward in search of the second goal, in the hope it would kill the game off. There is a clear sense of unease amongst the Arsenal defence at present as they threaten to buckle under any sustained pressure, something which the opposition must relish.

Wenger has not helped matters at all with his complete refusal to address clear issues, undermining the team’s progress. The manager can hit back at the critics all he wants and belittle their lack of managerial experience, but ultimately four wins against sides who were in desperate trouble at the time the games were played, speaks for itself. The supporters are increasingly becoming frustrated and things could quickly turn ugly at the Emirates.