Wenger backs Arsenal to put their ‘crisis’ behind them
Success in Europa League could make up for dismal domestic season, writes Graham Caygill
Arsene Wenger says Arsenal have “taken the time to grieve” after their League Cup pummelling by Manchester City and are ready to face the pressure of a Europa League quarter-final against CSKA Moscow.
The London side are sixth in the Premier League, 13 points off fourth-placed arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Only the top four sides in the Premier League qualify for the Uefa Champions League, which means Arsenal’s only realistic route back into European club football’s elite competition is by winning the second-string Europa League.
It is also the only trophy they can lift this season.
Wenger told reporters he is well aware of what is at stake.
“There is some extra pressure on us to do extremely well in this competition,” he said.
“That’s part of being where we are. I must say we have to see it in a way that it’s an opportunity we want to take.”
Arsenal have won their past four games since the disappointment of two 3-0 defeats by English champions-elect Manchester City in the League Cup final and the league followed by a shock 2-1 league loss to Brighton & Hove Albion.
“We were very disappointed with our results against City,” Wenger said. “It takes time to grieve and to recover. But because the mentality in the team is very good, strong and healthy we’re recovered.
“I think always you judge a team by the way they come out of a crisis. On that front I believe that is very positive on our side.”
Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal since 1996 but has yet to win any European silverware with the club, although they were beaten on penalties in the 2000 Uefa Cup final, the forerunner of the Europa League, and lost to Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final.
Wenger has a fully fit squad, with France international Alexandre Lacazette available following knee surgery.
Lacazette came off the bench to score in last weekend’s win over Stoke City and could enter the fray straight from the kickoff tonight.
“Lacazette is ready to start, yes,” Wenger said. “I have not decided if he will start or not yet, but he’s available and ready to start.”
Wenger added that he hoped the current diplomatic unrest between British and Russian authorities would not be a factor in either tonight’s action or next week’s second leg in Moscow.
Britain has suspended high-level diplomatic contact with the Russian government after a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned with a nerve agent in the southern English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.
“I just hope it won’t affect both ties [the second leg is in Moscow] and that it will not affect the supporters,” Wenger said. “Nor for the Russian people who come over here and not for English people who want to travel there.”
Perfect sporting farewells are very hard to come by. In the world of competition and headto-head encounters it is very rare that you see an athlete or a coach leave at exactly the right moment.
It does happen.
Alex Ferguson retired as Manchester United manager in 2013 having won the Premier League title for a 13th time.
Pete Sampras’s last competitive tennis match was winning the US Open in 2002 against Andre Agassi, while Nico Rosberg announced he was quitting Formula One just days after he became world champion in 2016 at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
So those kind of occasions are out there, as rare as they apparently seem.
That is why for fans of Arsene Wenger, or people who appreciate the work he has done as manager during his 21-year stint at Arsenal, it is continually frustrating that the Frenchman has snubbed three ideal opportunities to leave the London club on a high note. He ended a nineyear run without a trophy in 2014 when Arsenal came from two goals down to beat Hull City in the FA Cup final.
That could have been a good time to go, but he stayed on.
Twelve months later in May 2015 they retained the FA Cup by trouncing Aston Villa 4-0 at a sunny Wembley Stadium, but again Wenger was not for moving.
Then last May Arsenal again won the FA Cup, deservedly beating Premier League champions Chelsea 2-1.
Wenger came in for heavy criticism last season, both from Arsenal fans and the media, as his side finished outside the top four for the first time since 1996.
It meant no Uefa Champions League for the club and the expectation had been again that an FA Cup success could be another nice chance for Wenger to bid adieu on a positive note to a club he had enjoyed tremendous success with in the early years of his time there.
But Wenger again stayed on and signed a contract extension through to the summer of 2019.
Unfortunately if he thought that beating Chelsea would galvanise the club into kicking on to better things, he was wrong.
The club are sixth in the Premier League and are nearer basement side West Bromwich Albion than league leaders Manchester City in terms of points.
Their FA Cup defence ended in the third round in January when they lost to Championship side Nottingham Forest and they were well beaten by City in the League Cup final in February.
It is not difficult to see why so many Arsenal fans are staying away from the Emirates Stadium as was apparent by the empty seats during Sunday’s 3-0 win over Stoke City.
The side is in decline, or at the very least in need of a severe rebuilding operation, and has been overtaken by City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and most painfully for them, arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur. A fond farewell from here appears very difficult to find for a man who remains the only manager to have guided a team to an unbeaten season, and has four Premier League titles to his name, as well as a record-breaking seven FA Cups.
But there could be one in the shape of the Europa League. The competition looked down upon for not being the Champions League could still offer Wenger another chance to sign off as a winner.
Quarter-final opponents CSKA Moscow, who they face in the first leg tonight at the Emirates Stadium, should not be underestimated, however.
They led at Old Trafford in December against Manchester United in the Champions League before losing.
That result ended their hopes of reaching the knockout stages and saw them slip into the Europa League.
Arsenal have shown signs of building some momentum of late, having won their past three games, and are beginning to gel in front of goal with Alexandre Lacazette, Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil all showing good form.
It is far too late to salvage the domestic campaign, but if Arsenal can get past the Russians then they have a decent chance of winning the competition. Atletico Madrid have to be considered favourites, but Wenger would certainly fancy his side’s chances.
They beat Manchester City and Chelsea on the way to winning the FA Cup last year.
Both sides finished above them in the league. The beauty of a cup competition is you do not have to be better over a season then your opponent, just on the day.
Arsenal have proven they can do that domestically in the FA Cup and there is no reason why they cannot do that now in the Europa League.
Winning the competition would tick a number of boxes for a victorious end to his reign. It would get them back in the Champions League and it would give Wenger a European trophy, something he has yet to achieve with the club.
Given what has gone before, even if Arsenal did win the Europa League it is more than likely Wenger will still be in the dugout in August.
But a European title, albeit not the Champions League, would be another welcome reminder that even if his best days appear to be behind him, he will still deserve respect when he finally steps down.
Whenever that is.