TRAVEL-SICK GUNNERS HOLD NO FEAR — THEY ARE CANNON FODDER
IT no longer matters who arsenal play away from home. When the Gunners leave the emirates, their opponents view them as little more than cannon fodder.
This latest surrender at Leicester was arsenal’s eighth defeat on the road this season. of their 37 away trips over the past two campaigns they have lost 19, drawn eight and have won just 10.
That record is embarrassing. at the very least, teams know that if they can dig in against arsenal and stay in the game for long enough, at some point they will collapse.
Leicester dominated the game from the off yesterday and had chances to punish arsenal before gaining a numerical advantage.
Unai emery’s task at the King Power Stadium was not made any easier by ainsley Maitland- niles’ red card after 36 minutes but that cannot be used as an excuse for that performance.
When you go down to 10 men, you have to adopt a siege mentality. You might not win the game but you certainly are not going to lose. arsenal used to have that reputation. They remain the only team in Premier League history to have won more games with 10 men than they have lost.
When we won the double in 2002, we had players sent off in six Premier League matches. We went on to win five of them. I would joke to arsene Wenger that we were trying to win the league with 10 men.
one of those games was at anfield when Giovanni van Bronckhorst was sent off after 36 minutes with the score at 0-0 — exactly the same scenario arsenal found themselves yesterday when Maitland-niles saw red. Kanu dropped into midfield and fought for everything as we battled to a 2-1 victory. Liverpool were not the team they are now but to win at anfield with even a full complement was no mean feat. When you looked at the likes of Thierry Henry, robert
Pires and Freddie Ljungberg still on the pitch, you were confident that the 10 remaining players would give everything to win against all odds.
Where are the leaders in the current arsenal team demanding these kind of performances? When arsenal fall behind on the road now, or go down to 10 men, there does not seem to be any belief that they can get a result.
There have been plenty of positives in emery’s first season. arsenal are six points better off than they were this time last year, have been dominant at home and are in the semifinals of the europa League.
It is the away form that remains their achilles’ heel. emery can help his players by settling on a system. He keeps switching between a back three and a back four and that cannot help the side develop any consistency.
arsenal’s travel sickness is a problem that emery ( left) has inherited but it is his responsibility to fix it. Until he does, it will prevent any real success from returning to this club.