CHEER TO STAY
Despite beating an under-strength Manchester United side, this was the kind of victory that will keep eternal optimist Wenger at the Emirates for two more years
AS Danny Welbeck’s header fizzed off the bar and into celebration territory, it is a wonder Arsene Wenger did not pull out his pen there and then.
This is what will keep him at Arsenal, this is what will keep him in management, this is what will keep him in football.
Never mind that a top-four finish is still odds against, never mind this was a triumph against a United team not weakened in talent but weakened in attitude, never mind it was a win born mighty fortunately on the back of Ander Herrera.
Wenger might have long lost the spoony spectacles that came with him two decades ago but he still peers through a rosy lens.
He won’t for a moment take into account his first win against a Jose Mourinho team in 16 competitive attempts had a lot to do with his rival embedding seeds of negativity into his team’s mentality.
He certainly won’t reflect on the sitter Wayne Rooney missed in a goalless first half, a moment that could have polluted the Emirates climate.
Instead, he will delight in the performances of the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rob Holding.
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s contribution was frenetic, occasionally ill-disciplined but adventurous, daring and underscored by speed.
He is a player, turning 24 in the summer, who
be not far off his peak but Wenger will only see him as crammed full of potential. Wenger will watch the beautiful delivery for Welbeck’s goal and think he has a world-class wing-back on the roster. He will watch the tenacity and clean tackling of Holding that secured possession for Oxlade-Chamberlain (right) and purr to himself over the young centre-half ’s potential. That is the thing with Wenger, he never sees a malaise or a disease, he just sees an off-day or a bug.
He will believe this squad, presumably with some additions, is good enough to challenge next season.
He will believe G r a n i t Xhaka, for a more disciplined display than normal, deserved the fortune that had given Arsenal the lead a few minutes before Welbeck’s peach, the midfielder’s ticket-buying punt from 30 yards spiralling off Herrera’s spine to swizzle United’s Spanish keeper David de Gea.
He will believe those few moments of accelerated dominance, followed by a comfortshould able coast to the tape, represent a return towards elite form for his side.
To some extent, he will be right.
There was enough from Arsenal to suggest the emptiness of some recent performances gave a misleading impression of the shallowness of the squad.
Everyone’s favourite scapegoat — and Mesut Ozil was at his selfieinflicted best/ worst post-match — posted an elegant reminder that languid does not have to mean lazy.
Former United star Welbeck still looks ring-rusty but had already ruffled feathers before despatching Oxlade-Chamberlain’s assist.
Petr Cech made a couple of decent stops, Aaron Ramsey a couple of decent runs, Laurent Koscielny a couple of decent interventions. The truth, though, is that Arsenal did not have to scale any great heights to get past a United side that played with all the conviction of one that had been listening intently to, and believing, Mourinho’s posturing dismissal of their top-four chances this season. In other words, they had little conviction. Wenger, of course, will not see it that way. He will see another resurgence, he will see promise, he will see character. And if that contract had appeared when Welbeck struck, he would have scribbled on it with a flourish.