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Arsene Wenger Faces Mountain To Climb As Arsenal Continue To Regress
Even by Arsenal’s standard, the opening weekend of the new Premier League season was a difficult one to endure.
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By Graham Ruthven (@grahamruthven)
Even by Arsenal’s standard, the opening weekend of the new Premier League season was a difficult one to endure. It wasn’t just the 4-3 home defeat to Liverpool that sent the club’s support into a spin, but everything else that preceded it. Arsenal is a club in crisis just one match into the 2016/17 campaign. Only 37 to go.
In order to truly understand the disgruntlement that gripped the Emirates Stadium on Sunday it’s necessary to view the North London club through the prism of the last decade. Frustration has been building for quite some time now, with the opening day defeat to Liverpool something of a new nadir for the Gunners.
Much of that ire has its source in the lack of transfer market activity at the club over the summer and over the past few years in general. While the rest of the Premier League have made big-money moves for big players, Arsenal have been left standing still. The club’s hierarchy might be content with more of the same, but the Gunners’ support certainly isn’t.
Even when viewed through a more short-sighted scope, things went badly for Arsenal as soon as the team-sheet was released on Sunday. There was no Granit Xhaka - the club’s only summer signing - with Wenger opting for a centre-back pairing of Rob Holding and Calum Chambers.
That in itself was illustrative of where Arsenal find themselves as a team right now. Injuries have hindered their preparations ahead of the Premier League season, with Laurent Koscielny not quite up to speed following his participation in the summer’s European Championships. Nonetheless, the pairing of Holding and Chambers - two inexperienced youngsters - against Liverpool provide a damning indictment of the Gunners’ state at the moment.
To make matters worse, the players who have been linked with a switch to the Emirates Stadium this summer excelled over the weekend. Alexander Lacazette netted a hat-trick for Lyon, with the French striker seen by many as the solution to Arsenal’s issues up front. Yet he remains no closer to joining the Gunners, making his early season success so frustrating for those of a red and white disposition.
Wenger seems to have lost control, not just of his own fans who are now in open revolt, but of the club and his team in general. He demonstrated a lack of leadership by not rushing back both Olivier Giroud and Koscielny in order to ease Arsenal’s injury issues.
“You are in a catch-22 situation with the Euros, whether to give players a rest who need it,” said Wenger after the defeat to Liverpool. “They are not ready to play this sort of game and get injured, like Ramsey, or you give them a rest and not have them for the start. You have to consider, as well, that we have been unlucky with losing Mertesacker and Gabriel, and having Koscielny not fit.”
Of course, Wenger was caught out by playing Aaron Ramsey, who sustained an injury which will rule him out of action for a month. The same thing could have happened to either Koscielny or Giroud and then the Gunners boss would have found himself in the firing line to an even greater extent than he already is.
Only two weeks remain of the summer transfer window, but Wenger has plenty to address in that time. He needs an experienced centre-back with top-level pedigree and a striker who can either replace Giroud or at least provide some back-up to the much-maligned Frenchman. Time is running out if he is to find those figures.
But it’s about more than just plugging gaps in the Arsenal squad for Wenger. This has become an existential crisis for the club. He needs to change the tone and mood around the Emirates Stadium. That could prove the toughest task of all.