Blues soar towards glory as Gunners feel pain
IT IS only just over four months from a sunny, late September afternoon to the chill of a mid-winter February day; just four months ago, when Arsenal humiliated Chelsea and even made Antonio Conte’s long-term tenure as manager seem doubtful.
Yet, as late summer passes on to autumn and through into winter, so much changes. That day in September at The Emirates, you could believe that an Arsenal squad might finally have thrown off the psychological hold Chelsea maintain over them. You could convince yourself that this might be squad made for a title challenge, rather than the standard top four finish and traditional early exit from the Champions League.
But long winters bring some hard truths. Conte’s story is well told, how the shambolic performance in the 3-0 defeat saw the formation changed, veterans quietly moved aside and Chelsea embarking on a run which now looks to be heading for yet another Premier League title, their fifth since Arsenal last won it.
For Arsene Wenger, stuck frustrated in the stands as he serves his four-match ban, the problem is that he has the same team as always. His journey since September has been a bit more convoluted but ultimately Arsenal have ended up in the same place: unable to mount a serious title challenge.
Not winning the league in this mostcompetitive of seasons would be no disgrace. But not challenging seriously last season and being 12 points behind Chelsea at this stage of the season is a record which deserves to be challenged, no matter how eminent the coach.
‘A lot has changed,’ said a triumphant Conte. ‘After those two defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal I remember I said we had faced two great teams but we are not a team. We are 11 players playing. I remember my words.
‘I said we must show in the pitch to be a great team, not only because you are at Chelsea. And now we are showing this. After that situation, we totally changed the spirit, the will to fight together, to be a team, the will to try something important in this season. It changed a lot. For sure now, we are another team.’
Wenger could and did plead some mitigation yesterday. Marcos Alonso’s opening goal for Chelsea on 13 minutes should have been ruled out because of his use of an arm on Hector Bellerin to win his header. Unintentional or not, it took out the player, so much so that he had to be removed with concussion.
Bellerin didn’t even know the score when Arsenal doctor Gary O’Driscoll reached him.
‘Of course it was a foul,’ said Wenger. Conte smiled. ‘In England, in this league, this is always goal. I can’t listen in England that this is a foul!’ In Italy? ‘Maybe,’ he conceded.
But it would hard to argue that, but for that decision, Arsenal would have matched Chelsea and Wenger didn’t take that line. ‘Chelsea is very strong at defending and very good on transition and counter attack. And we paid for that,’ he said.
‘We maybe were not good enough in possession to get our game more dangerous. We lost many balls in positions where you cannot afford to lose it when you play against a team good on counter-attack.
‘It was the kind of game Chelsea loves and they mastered very well.’
Indeed Chelsea’s second goal was more in keeping with the balance of game. Eden Hazard, who was electrifying all afternoon, picked the ball up on the half way line, shook off Laurent Koscielny once, then Francis Coquelin, Koscielny again and evaded Shkodran Mustafi’s lunge to score.
It wasn’t quite Diego Maradona but it was a joy nonetheless. For the always-
expressive Conte it prompted a delighted sprint down the touchline and a dive into the crowd, surfing the fans like a rock star.
There was worse. Arsenal conceded from their own throw in the midweek Watford debacle at The Emirates and did so again in the dying embers of yesterday’s game, Petr Cech skewing his clearance to Cesc Fabregas, whose lob over the goalkeeper was so gentle and slow that it was almost torturous in its capacity to humiliate before it finally dropped into the net. Arsenal had some good chances of their own, most notably Gabriel’s header from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross on 33 minutes, prompting a good save from Thibaut Courtois. Then, when the game had begun to slip away from them, Danny Welbeck’s glancing header was well saved by Courtois on 78 minutes, and from the resulting corner Mustafi should have scored with his header. When they finally did get their goal, with Olivier Giroud heading in Nacho Monreal’s cross, it was the 92nd minute.
From his elevated vantage point in the East Stand, Wenger presumably sees all the issues. It is not that Arsenal lack players of Hazard’s stature. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have that capability, though they didn’t show it. Search for your scapegoats where you like.
But something is rotten with the state of Arsenal.