Arsenal: Lack of Leadership Is An Unmitigated Problem

Arsenal’s ‘leaders’ seem to be incapable of digging their teammates out of bad patches of form and into winning form. What can be done to fix this issue?

Like Arsenal always, always do, they had a good start to their match against Swansea City. Bottom-seven opposition is what Arsenal often beat after they fail a test against “better” teams – though Manchester United haven’t been conclusively better than many teams this season.

After nearly half an hour, Mesut Ozil thought he was fouled on the halfway line and the rest of the team seemed to stop playing. Why are the center backs, supposedly the backbone of the side, not yelling at anyone to get back in position?

More importantly, after the goal goes in is no one, on or off the field, able to pick anybody up and re-ignite the flame?

In their second most recent Premier League match against Manchester United, the Gunners were blessed with facing a team that was not only crippled by injuries, but also a team that had been unable to play decent attacking football all season.

Not only did Arsenal give up three goals during the match, but they scored their goals from both slightly fortunate and very unorthodox chances, without generating many regular goalscoring opportunities.

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It’s not like Arsenal fans haven’t been asking these questions recently. Against Barcelona, Arsenal may spent sixty minutes playing tactically astute football and not allowing the Catalan giants many chances.

As soon as they were hit on the counter one time by the best counter-attacking team on earth, however, they lost all of their drive and lost a game 2-0 that could have been rescued.

Now they are faced with the challenge of going to the Nou Camp down two away goals – so they may as well have knocked themselves out of the Champions League.

Arsenal have been skidding since the start of 2016, and now that it is March and there are only ten games left in the Premier League it’s not like this poor run means nothing.

Mesut Ozil has been the only player to continue producing goals and assists, but he is not a leader, he is a quiet footballer and his work rate oscillates too much for everyone to rely on him.

Somebody with a bigger personality needs to step up and kick some life into the Arsenal side, because nobody other than Alexis is taking responsibility for their actions, and even fewer people – though fewer than nobody might not be possible – are taking seriously enough the fact that Arsenal are sliding out of the title race.

The upcoming ten days are arguably the most important week and a half of the past year for Arsenal, and they could be determinant over whether or not their season is a ‘success’.

They have the biggest Premier League game of the year to play away at White Hart Lane this weekend, and then they have an F.A. Cup replay away at Hull City – which never should have been necessary – before a home match in the Prem with West Brom.