Complacency costs Gunners again

Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace

Arsenal once again produced a performance lacking in any hunger, desire or commitment and lost yet more points in a season which is becoming more and more embarrassing by the game.

Coming into this match off the back of losing a two goal lead to West Ham the week before, the Gunners should have been chomping at the bit to put things right at home to Crystal Palace. Given the visitors had virtually guaranteed their Premier League survival and had one eye on the upcoming FA Cup semi-final, with manager Alan Pardew confirming he would be resting players and giving those who had not played too often, a run out, Arsenal should have been looking to do a number on them.

But as so often happens with this squad, Arsenal approached the game with complacency rather than the mentality of winners. Their play was laborious, slow and cumbersome with sideways passing nullifying any attack before it had a chance to build any momentum. In the final third sloppy passing saw possession squandered time and time again as the match was allowed to drift away from the first minute to the last.

Not one player in a red and white shirt showed any urgency to win the game with former Arsenal great Alan Smith accusing them of already signing off for the season. To look at this squad and think that so many Arsenal fans believed this would be the group of players who would finally end the club’s title draught, is frankly laughable. There isn’t a back bone among this squad. Not one player wants to fight for the shirt, the club or the fans and the performances and results are telling. Great club captains such as Tony Adams must look upon this set of players with utter contempt and disbelief. Adams would have gladly run through a brick wall for this club, but these players have no heart, no passion and no guts. If Adams were in that dressing room, there wouldn’t be many of these players who would have survived as long as they have. The likes of Theo Walcott would have been long gone, chased out of the club as a result of a lack of heart. It may be brutal, but it’s the mentality of winners.

This is Arsenal Football Club, one of the greatest and biggest clubs in English football and those that are representing our club are embarrassing it each and every time they take to that field. The apathy the players have for the season’s end is shared amongst the supporters too. A top four finish this year will not be enough to appease the fans, who are being taken for granted. If you cannot win the league when your only real competitors are Leicester and Tottenham, then quite frankly you are not good enough and should leave the club.  Wenger has already dampened expectations of a major squad overhaul in the summer by suggesting that finding new signings won’t be easy, however a large scale clear out is exactly what is needed. The complacency which has been allowed to set in and fester at this club, stinks and the manager should be held accountable, but of course won’t.

Against Crystal Palace it was an all too familiar and frustrating game. Arsenal struggled desperately once again to create goal scoring opportunities but did manage to take the lead on the stroke of half time. A clipped ball over the top of the Palace defence from Danny Welbeck saw Alexis Sanchez head the ball over Wayne Hennessey, who had advanced off his line. Having taken the lead many would have expected Arsenal to take all three points. However although the Gunners did dominate possession, they did very little with it and when Adebayor was allowed to carry the ball towards the edge of the box unchallenged before laying it off to Bolasie., who was allowed to cut inside, the Gunners were in trouble. Cech got a hand to Bolasie’s shot and should have kept it out but failed to do so and Arsenal dropped points once again.

The major problem at Arsenal is the fact that there is no ambition at the club. It stems right from the top at boardroom level and spreads throughout the personnel, right down to the players. Arsenal are simply a higher level version of Aston Villa. Villa’s approach in recent years has been to spend as little as possible in order to remain in the Premier League, while Arsenal look to spend as little as possible to stay in the top four. The problem with this approach is that sooner or later you will get found out and as Villa dallied with relegation once too often and will be playing Championship football next season, Arsenal could easily find themselves playing Europa League football if their form does not improve soon. Manchester United could be just one point behind the Gunners by the time Arsenal take to the field against West Brom. The signs are not good and Wenger must be worried that he could soon lose his safety net of another top four finish.