Arsenal new man can’t do worse than latter-day Wenger
NOT since Charles Dickens wrote the death of Little Nell has anyone received such a sentimental sendoff as that being enjoyed by Arsene Wenger. The phrase du jour is that it’ll be impossible for Arsenal to find a better manager than Wenger has been for the past 22 seasons. But it’s equally unlikely that they’ll find one who does a worse job than Wenger’s been doing over the last two.
Yesterday’s defeat at Old Trafford means that since the turn of the year Arsenal have the worst away record of any team in Europe’s top leagues. They haven’t taken a single point from their six away games. It is the club’s worst away run since 1966.
Over the season Arsenal have conceded more goals away from home than bottom club West Brom. So when the teams entered injurytime on level terms you felt the visitors would still manage to lose this one.
And they did, allowing Marouane Fellaini to head home one of those hopeful high balls United favour in emergency situations.
A fortnight ago West Brom repelled the same kind of aerial bombardment easily enough. But it was too much for Arsenal to cope with. These days everything seems too much for Arsenal to cope with. They have become a team which keeps finding different ways to fall short.
Had they managed to hold on against United we’d have heard copious flannel about how this battling performance by an understrength team was a fitting Old Trafford farewell for Wenger.
In truth, the only reason the result remained so long in doubt was that United were overcome by one of those attacks of lassitude which have periodically bedevilled them this season.
SCINTILLATED
In contrast a Manchester City team who already have won the title scintillated at West Ham. Pep Guardiola’s side are going full tilt all the way to the end. Arsenal, on the other hand, threw in the towel long ago away from home. Only their ability to rouse themselves for home ties has them contesting sixth place with Burnley rather than 16th with Huddersfield.
Somehow Wenger maintains the aggrieved air of a man who feels he has been prematurely ousted. He is aided in this delusion by a general polite reluctance to dwell on the season’s catastrophic nature.
It’s as though 2017-18 is a mad relative from a Victorian novel who must remain locked in the attic till everyone has gone home.
Wenger is the aristocrat who can’t see why the peasants who once loved him are so worried about what is only a small famine.
Yet final judgement cannot be passed while the chance of Europa League glory remains. Thursday’s match in Madrid is massively important in terms not just of possible Champions League qualification but of Wenger’s legacy. A European trophy could redeem all at the death. The post-New Year fade-out might even be explained away as a crafty energy-saving manoeuvre.
Though maybe the chance of such a redemption effectively vanished last Thursday when Arsenal failed to capitalise on playing against 10 men for over 80 minutes. They
Fellaini ‘Fergie time’ winner ruins Arsenal manager’s Old Trafford farewell