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Arsenal’s Mental Fragility Becoming A Staple
Arsenal’s 2015/16 season has been an up and down affair with more valleys than peaks at the moment. Barring a spectacular 5-2 victory over Leicster on the road last weekend, the Gunners have been struggling mightily to find their form.
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One of the most glaring issues already in this young season is an absolute lack of mental toughness. If we take a look at the fixtures that Arsenal has already played we can easily find a pattern of mental fragility.
Example number one is the inexplicable defeat at home to West Ham to start the season. Arsenal won the FA Cup in resounding fashion back in May They then proceeded to go undefeated throughout the preseason where they bested Lyon, Wolfsburg and Chelsea. Arsenal were coming into this season with sky high expectations.
This is arguably the best Arsenal side since the Invincibles of 2004. After finishing 3rd in league last season, supporters are expecting a bonafide title tilt. All signs pointed to big things on the horizon for this Arsenal squad. Yet as soon as they took the pitch we witnessed a defensively disorganized and offensively toothless group of players.
Example number two was the horrific loss to Dinamo Zagreb to launch this season’s Champion’s League campaign. Year after year Arsenal are cast a familiar role as the tournament’s annual placeholder. The team’s defeat in Croatia was exactly the wrong way to shed that moniker.
Arsenal have qualified for the tournament a mind-numbing 18 consecutive years now but have not gotten past the round of 16 since 2009. Further evidence of Arsenal’s fragile mindset is evident in the manner Olivier Giroud was ejected from this match.
Example number three was the farce of a football match that was the London Derby versus Chelsea. Although it can be argued that Mike Dean was completely at fault for falling prey to Diego Costa’s evil machinations. It can be said that the current state of football officiating is ostensibly flawed.
Arsenal still fell right into Chelsea’s cheating hands. Gabriel was easily duped into taking the bait, which anyone could see was Costa’s prime objective. In a flash of indignation and poor judgement Arsenal were left chasing a game that until that point was firmly within their grasp.
The final example came just this past Tuesday, when Arsenal were beaten at home by another Champion’s League bottom feeder, Olympiakos. Due to abhorrent defending and an inexcusable gaffe by back-up keeper David Ospina, Arsenal surrendered an embarrassing three goals to the Greek visitors. The most maddening part of this most recent defeat is the manner in which it was executed. Olympiakos had simple objectives that have undone countless Arsenal sides in the past: stay organized defensively, concede possession and score from set pieces or counter-attacks.
This strategy seems to be all teams have to do to get the best out of the Gunners lately. As long as you defend in numbers, close down spaces and then break quickly on the counter, Arsenal’s defensive fragility will give you a chance to win. On Tuesday the pace of Brown Ideye and Felipe Pardo was enough to put Arsenal’s back four into disarray. Sloppy defending on set pieces has been a glaring issue for Arsene Wenger’s sides for almost two decades now and there seems to be no signs of it ever changing.
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When you couple these four examples with the terrible showings against Monaco and Anderlecht last season in the Champions League, a vivid picture begins to come into focus. Can we really say that Tuesday’s loss was shocking? If we have now lost soundly to three teams that shouldn’t be a match for us, doesn’t that say something about this team’s identity?
This deficiency must come down to the manager. It is the manager’s job to prepare his team and ensure that they are ready for all possibilities on the pitch. A football squad takes after their gaffer and clearly something is wrong here.
I might be about to say something unpopular but this statement is in no way a knee jerk reaction. Arsenal will not win the Champions League with Arsene Wenger at the helm. This is a cold hard fact. I do believe that Arsenal can and will claim a League Title before Wenger’s retirement, but the manager refuses to address the same naivete that has hindered this team in the Champions League.
He continues to blame bad luck for failures and Arsenal continue to look disorganized and sloppy in Europe. It is time that we made the distinction between qualifying for the Champions League and actually belonging there. Until Arsenal shed this mentally frail personality the Gunners will be unable to claim the highest honor in club football.
Next: Did Highbury Curse Arsenal?