Just look at what I’ve done
IF THE Arsenal board still need a nudge over whether or not to extend his contract, Arsene Wenger heads into their meeting tomorrow with the perfect plan. Show them the DVD of Saturday’s FA Cup final.
“The best presentation I could give the board? Watch the game – and there can be no doubt,” Wenger said simply.
As he stood clutching his medal in the corridor along from where his players were celebrating in the dressing room on Saturday, there was nothing to suggest he is a man about to fall on his sword.
It seems unfathomable that Wenger would want to walk away on a job he has cherished for 21 years on the back of some admittedly hurtful criticism which, even as the emotions of the season ebbed away, began to feel increasingly ridiculous.
Yes, there will be no Champions League football next season but perched on the dashboard of the team bus was the FA Cup – won for a record 13th time – and more importantly in a fashion which demonstrated that Wenger is still able to cut it with the big boys.
Perhaps, instead of defending himself at tomorrow’s board meeting, he should be asking the board whether between them they can finally address the lack of ambition which lies at the heart of all the angst of this season.
Tottenham may have ended up trophyless, but Arsenal fans had to watch them having a go. On Saturday, players who had been missing literally and metaphorically all season, finally showed they were capable of the same positive thinking.
Per Mertesacker was a rock in the heart of defence but his return after missing all but 37 minutes of the season is not going to turn Arsenal into title winners.
He needs an Alexis Sanchez ready to run for the cause rather than sit on his haunches. A Mesut Ozil who again finally turns up to a big occasion. He needs somebody strong enough to dominate midfield – then perhaps Granit Xhaka can continue to develop while Aaron Ramsey carries on surprising as an unlikely match-winner.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has the makings of a decent wing-back, albeit on the right, not the left, a position Wenger needs to address in the summer.
And he needs to go out and spend big bucks on a topnotch striker with the funds the board insist have always been there.
It is pretty much the same mantra that Wenger has been presented with for each of the last dozen or so summers – replace Patrick Vieira, replace Robin van Persie – but by changing formations and the final trajectory of Arsenal’s seasons, he has at least shown that the old dog some new tricks.
Not that the 67-year-old quite sees it that way. “I’m not a young man – I’m a very young man,” he said. “I just don’t look very young! I have desire. I love my job. I love to win, I love to build, I love to get people going and I love what I do. It’s as simple as that.”
Arsenal rode their luck with the ludicrous handball missed in the build-up to the early Sanchez goal. But the fortitude they showed in
bouncing back so quickly from Diego Costa’s equaliser would breathe fresh life into anybody – especially as the end result was so richly deserved.
Wenger has not forgotten aeroplane protests at West Brom and placards closer to home when the fans really began to turn the screw. “I don’t think that we are human beings if we say, ‘Oh fantastic, I enjoy that’,” he said.
“There’s a kind of violence in our society now where everybody has opinions and we have to live with it.
“If people want me out, they want me out, I can accept that. But in the game, you support the team, it’s as simple as that.
“I am a forgiving man, though. This job is basically about trusting human beings, so if you cannot forgive, you cannot trust.
“There is only one thing I advise to young coaches: if you have tendency CHANGE OF TUNE: Fans back Wenger to stay
I’m not a young man – I’m a very young man. I just don’t look very young! I have desire. I love my job. I love to win. It’s as simple as that.
to paranoia, don’t do this job.” If Wenger really thought his board was out to get him tomorrow, he was hiding it very well.
ARSENAL (3-4-3): Ospina 6; Holding 6, Mertesacker 9, Monreal 7; Bellerin 8, Xhaka 7, Ramsey 8, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6 (Coquelin 83); Ozil 7, Welbeck 5 (Giroud 78), Sanchez 8 (Elneny 90). Booked: Coquelin, Ramsey, Holding, Xhaka. Goals: Sanchez 4, Ramsey 79.
CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 5; Azpilicueta 7, Luiz 6, Cahill 7; Moses 3, Kante 6, Matic 5 (Fabregas 61, 5), Alonso 5; Hazard 5, Costa 7 (Batshuayi 88), Pedro 6 (Willian 72, 6). Booked: Moses, Kante. Sent off: Moses 68. Goal: Costa 76.
Referee: A Taylor (Cheshire).