Same old Arsenal frailties on show
SO THERE will be no silver lining for Arsene Wenger’s farewell. No glorious final chapter in his native France.
It is Atletico Madrid who face Marseille in the Europa League final in Lyon and it is over and out for Wenger, unable to conquer Europe, his final frontier.
He may have transformed Arsenal for the 21st Century but he leaves no welcome gift for his successor. No ticket to the Champions League.
Instead the next man will inherit a daunting task to reinforce this squad with limited funds and instil the belief to compete with teams such as Atletico.
The captain, Laurent Koscielny, was carried off with an Achilles injury which will rule him out of the startt of next season.
Jack Wilshere,re, who took the armb mm and from Koscielny, is outt of contract in less than a month.
Aaron Ramsey, perhaps thee team’s mostt potent attackingng threat, albeit fromrom midfield, has onee year left on his dealal and is resisting attempts to extend it. Mesut Ozil, on his lavish new salary thought to be around £350,000 a week, was unable to influence this semifinal when it mattered.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, valued at £35million when he traded places in January with Alexis Sanchez, began on the bench.
Alexandre Lacazette, a £50m record signing last year, could not score when it mattered.
It felt as if Wenger was heading for the exit as his proud creation crumbled in the background. This despite the fact his team performed with ssome credit. TThey passed tthe ball and rrefused to bubuckle when DieDiego Costa fired AtletAtletico ahead. But tthe tie was lost when ArsArsenal failed to make their dominance count at the Emirates. Wenger’s team have never discovered how to beat Europe’s best in a two-legged knock-out format. In the Champions League, they have found it impossible to get past the first knockout stage. Then into the Europa League, football’s great goose chase: to Eastern outposts of Moscow, Borisov and Belgrade and Ostersunds in the north, before yielding in Madrid. More than 60,000 Atletico fans turned up the noise. They were still going long after the pitch had cleared. They believed and, in truth, Arsenal never had the look of a team that did. Not when they were in charge against 10 men in the first leg. That was the part of the tie where the initiative was surrendered.
Wenger tried his best to revive the spirit of 2006, when they reached the Champions League final, but that was a very different Arsenal, still boasting genuine swagger.
Such a performance always seemed beyond this group. Costa had already trampled through the centre of Arsenal’s defence before Koscielny was carried off.
The former Chelsea striker knows all about the frailties within Wenger’s team and when he got on the ball he spread panic.
High in the stands, the restless figure of Diego Simeone celebrated the goal by clenching his fists and pacing.
Costa is the embodiment of Simeone on the pitch, all menace and aggression, sometimes passive but often not.
Arsenal flickered around the edges of the penalty box and rode their luck on the break. It was tense but the outcome predictable against a team which can defend quite magnificently.
Wenger will wave goodbye to his people on Sunday. The campaign will end without a trophy and with their lowest Premier League position since he arrived in 1996.
Arsenal will be back in Europa League next season and it could start on July 26 if they are passed by Burnley and finish the season in seventh. But that won’t be Wenger’s problem.