Arsenal: Julian Draxler Summarizes Every Arsene Wenger Failure

Arsenal were wholly destroyed against Bayern Munich and there are just too many things to criticize. But let’s instead look at Julian Draxler for a lesson.

It’s impossible to pick one thing to be angry at following Arsenal’s 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich. So many things went horribly wrong. But if I had to round everything up into one concise sentence (which is difficult to do) it would read as this:

Why would you expect anything to change if you don’t make any changes?

We go into Bayern Munich having seen PSG dismantle Barcelona 4-0 and seeing Benfica upset Borussia Dortmund and the first thing we see on the team sheet is Alex Iwobi staying in the squad and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain being moved out wide after being our best central midfielder of the past month.

This is typical Wenger, with his typical shenanigans.

But the true shenanigans came later on. After having to use Gabriel as an injury sub, Wenger had two subs left to use and the first one he used was…. Theo Walcott.

That is where I truly lost it. Here we are getting based at the Allianz Arena and Wenger turns to the same old guy who hasn’t been enough for the past decade. But maybe today is the day he finally proves to be enough!

Spoiler: It wasn’t.

And all I kept thinking to myself was “what if instead of sticking with Walcott for a decade, we had actually gone after Julian Draxler?”

How can Wenger justify it? Draxler has gone into PSG and gone on a tear. He was a huge part of the reason why PSG ran right over Barcelona. And he could have been a huge part of why Arsenal could have hung with and possibly even stayed level with Bayern Munich.

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But we didn’t try for him.

Why?

Because Wenger thinks that Theo Walcott is still a legitimate threat. Wenger thinks that Iwobi is a bonafide starter.

It’s infuriating, really. To see all these players that Wenger ‘almost signed’ making impacts at their new clubs and then seeing our same old drones doing the same old things.

Again – why would you expect anything to change if you aren’t going to make any changes?

Walcott got his coffee maker, Iwobi needs improving. What purpose is there, then, in sending them out there over and over when it just isn’t working, when you could have sent out Welbeck? At the very least you can’t deny that Welbeck wants it.

Julian Draxler could have been a game changer but Wenger didn’t want a game changer. He wanted the same old thing at the same old time with the same old people.

Draxler is only the tip of the iceberg though. How many times have we heard Wenger say of a superb player ‘I could have had them’? N’Golo Kante was another. Instead we stuck with Francis Coquelin.

Next: Arsenal's 30 Greatest Players Ever

There is no guarantee that anyone would have worked here like they worked elsewhere. But I’m pretty sure there is a better chance than Walcott suddenly becoming worth the minutes he plays.

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