After watching Arsenal execute today’s farce against a side that has never won on English soil in 12 attempts while scoring just three goals, one has to conclude Arsene Wenger to put it kindly, is an incompetent coach.
A fortnight ago, Dinamo Zagreb won it’s first Champions League match beating Arsenal. Period. A match that saw Olivier Giroud pulling a tantrum which got him dismissed. This our frontline striker. After that match, Wenger categorically classified Olympiacos “as a must win.” And in the light of forthcoming matches against Bayern and facing a rampant Robert Lewandowski, a common sense assessment- to boost chances for finishing second in the group.
Common sense would then dictate starting our very best players in their positions. That would entail Petr Cech in goal, wouldn’t it? He did not start because of a small calf injury which meant David Ospina took his place. Maybe its true and Cech did carry an injury but we also know Wenger’s Mother Teresa complex cannot bear the thought of a player agonized by feeling left out. No matter Ospina is the understudy who really faces no marginalization with his FA Cups and League Cup appearances. This being Arsenal you would expect this to somehow not go unpunished.
Sure enough, Olympiacos scored its second goal as Ospina made a complete mess of holding onto a fairly routine corner, losing control and actually helping it over the line for an own goal. After Alexis Sanchez, the one player who puts himself about and plays not to lose, equalized for Arsenal, one sensed this could be the critical turnaround for a winning goal.
It was the critical turnaround alright but for Olympiacos, as a woolly headed Arsenal, not for the first time forgot to heighten vigilance in the vulnerable moments following scoring a goal. Olympiacos’s excellent Kostas Fortounis reprised the fears of long suffering Arsenal fans by finding acres of space to motor forward and lose off a shot which was dug out by Per Mertesacker. A prelude to the disaster. Esteban Cambiasso corralled the service and with a perfectly placed lobbed pass found Felipe Pardo as the Arsenal defence milled around in utter chaos. Pardo’s drilled cross was touched into goal by Alfred Finnbogason for the winner. What followed was familiar as a reactive Arsenal side stung into action recycled the ball continually but to very little effect.
Olympiacos set the tone for the match going ahead through Pardo’s 32nd minute goal as his shot was deflected fortuitously by the Ox. Arsenal had all the possession stats but could do very little till Theo Walcott finished crisply from a sharp angle.
Shades of Monaco last season. There too, it was this naif like quality poleaxing the Gunners. Monaco was famously touted as the best chance for a quarterfinal entry since 2009. The Gunners are now a cartoon byline for stalled frustration having never gotten past the round of 16 five years in a row. What Wenger sees as a prideful achievement is looked on increasingly as a sign of stagnation much like achieving fourth in the league. Perhaps this is where the greatest difference in perspective – in defining success. Wenger will never be accused of being a tactically astute coach, he’s decidedly mediocre. There are no curved balls he’ll throw, no fleet of thought improvisations like the one that won Garry Monk the Swansea match against Man Utd.
One suspects Wenger is also clearly in the dark as to his best XI. Mental clarity has been jack hammered out by idealism and dogma. This clearly was not the case when Wenger took over Arsenal and with the likes of Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, bringing fear and respect with their scorched earth approach and rugged individualism. Well balanced as those sides were, as sturdy yet creative in all areas, what gave them their edge was their preternatural self awareness and emotional intelligence. Now it is a fleet of wide eyed, dewy lipped, nimble, undersized midfielders giving Arsenal their fluid brand but doomed to arrested development in Wenger’s protective cocoon and alchemist delusions.
Self-destructive patterns are repeated. Tactically, Arsenal flatlines against more self aware and ruthless sides. This was most evident in the league, now everyone in Europe has picked up on it. It’s not just Bayern, Barca, AC Milan administering the death rites. It’s AS Monaco, Dinamo Zagreb, and Olympiacos.