Arsenal: Theo Walcott Captain’s Team Of No Consequences

Arsenal’s loss to Chelsea hurts, but when you look at the players, you wonder who is actually bothered by it. This is a team of no consequences.

There were a lot of Arsenal men suiting up against Chelsea that looked disinterested, especially after that first goal was surrendered. The title never seemed likely from that first goal, but still, to see the sulking shoulders, almost as if the team was attending a funeral (they might have been, actually), was a bit much.

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There were some guys that played hard throughout. Alex Iwobi was hustling throughout and Danny Welbeck was too when he came on. But the majority of these Arsenal men had a shared mindset – so what?

It brings up this unfortunate reality that Arsene Wenger has built this team of ‘no consequences’. What happens if I don’t come out and play hard today/don’t win today/don’t score today? I get to try again next week/month/year.

There are no consequences. So we don’t win the title this year? Eh, Wenger won’t sell me/drop me/shun me I’ll be back next year to give it a good shot for a few months.

Theo Walcott is the captain of this ‘no consequences’ team because he’s been doing it for at least half of his Arsenal career. What are the consequences to him personally if he doesn’t play well? I think he’s only been legitimately dropped one or two times. in those five years. The rest of the time he has just been hurt.

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Then you see guys like Iwobi and Welbeck who actually have consequences. If they don’t play well, they do get dropped. They don’t have a Harry-Potter-esque bank vault full of credit to use any time they have a poor performance. So they want it.

Mesut Ozil – what happens if he doesn’t play well? Wenger don’t drop him, ever. If it doesn’t work out, he can make bookoo money somewhere else.

There have to be consequences to poor performances. Coquelin and Koscielny were terrible today and they weren’t that great against Watford either. Monreal has been flustering all year, but what will be done? Nothing. They will be marched right back out there to try again next time. And if/when they fail again, well, they’ll always have next time.

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That is a poor environment to build a team in. You have some fighters in the team, but the fighters mostly consist of guys who have consequences and have to perform day in and day out. And those are the guys who keep getting pushed to the side.