All that was made clear by Saturday’s performance is that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have a serious job on their hands. Not only did it confirm the fears of many Arsenal fans that we may not achieve a top-four finish this term, but also does nothing to make them believe that they will be ending their trophy drought this year. And after the long-expected departure of ‘El Capitan’, Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal seem to be a club spiralling out of control.
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| Adios: Cesc finally leaves |
Even the players’ discipline problems were on show on Saturday. Whereas no one can defend Song’s blatant stamp on Joey Barton (he should have stamped harder, in my opinion), along with many Arsenal fans, I do feel a little sympathy for Gervinho, despite his rightly deserved sending off. Yes, Barton once again displayed his thug-like behaviour that never fails to amaze us, but Gervinho’s actions were inexcusable, although his reasons for doing so were pretty much justifiable.
I think the most frustrating aspect of the melee is that Gervinho did not dive in the first place, which prompted Barton to deploy his schoolboy tantrums. What makes it even worse is that that should have been a penalty, which resulted in a sending off for the man who was probably our star player, and the performance never really recovered. Although, I am fully convinced that Jack Wilshere would have made a huge difference and helped win it for us.
What infuriates me is that Barton stayed on the pitch. Surely the referee has to know how it all kicked off in the first place. The linesman clearly wasn’t any help to our cause. Even this early in the season and the referees are on our back. It can surely only get better than this for the Gunners.
Aside from what was one of very few highlights at St. James’ Park, it was a poor performance, at least in the attacking sense. Defensively, we were quite sound, for once. Koscielny came closest to scoring for us too, apart from RVP’s free kick. Koscielny could be a key man this season if his form is consistent.
The main concern for Arsenal right now is Udinese tomorrow. I sense the feeling of anxiety and slight worry from the fans. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception they get on Tuesday, or even the reception they get against Liverpool next week (I’ll be there myself) should they fail to perform tomorrow. The fans will demand a performance from the team to reassure them as there is uncertainty around the team. The future after Fabregas will make or break this club. As it really begins in tomorrow’s game, it is much more than just a qualifier.
Of course, Wenger has an arguably much trickier task to complete – replacing Fabregas. The problem is, every passing day makes a decent replacement less unlikely and if a worthwhile replacement is not found soon, or not found at all, Arsenal will have a squad with as much quality as some Europa League teams, especially with Samir Nasri seemingly nearing the exit door every morning when you read the papers. On top of this, there is also the serious matter of finding a centre back, and a good one at that. I’ll be honest; I would not like to be in Wenger’s shoes right now.
The harsh reality is that if Wenger does not address these issues before the end of the month, Arsenal’s constant failures on and off the pitch will bring their reputation down as the long wait for success shows no signs of ending.
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