Arsenal: It’s the predictability, not the pain, that is so infuriating

Arsenal were dismantled by Liverpool on Sunday in remarkably worrying fashion. But it’s not the pain of the loss that is so infuriating. It’s the predictability of it.

I had the pain of watching Sunday’s 4-0 loss with my Uncle, who is a die hard Liverpool fan. We had a family gathering and, as is ever the case with family gatherings in my clan, it centred on football, and with me being an Arsenal fan and my Uncle a Liverpool fan, it was natural that the four o’clock Premier League clash take centre stage.

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Before the game, my Uncle and I were discussing what we think might take place. During our conversation, I stated my fears that the pace of Liverpool through Saido Mane and Mohamed Salah, combined with the ever naive and ill-disciplined midfield of their visitors, could lead to a rather unfortunate and damaging scoreline.

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I was right. For all of Liverpool’s wonderfully fluid attacking, their interchangeable movement, their fizzing passes, their sharp one-twos, the pulling and probing of the Arsenal defence, it was the apathetic and asinine Gunners’ defending that was the true architect of the four goal deficit.

The key issue, though, is the not the pain of the defeat or the laziness of the performance. It is the predictability of it. It was so obvious. The shortcomings of this team have been the same for far too long. It could be argued that the weaknesses that Liverpool exploited on Sunday were the same ones that were evident over a decade ago. And during that whole time, Arsene Wenger is yet to address them.

I was trying to think of ways to describe how abject Arsenal’s performance was. I started by describing their lack of effort, lack of heart, lack of fight. I moved on to detail their inaccurate passing, their pressure-inviting tempo, their dullness and lack of creativity in possession. I ended by starting the sentence: ‘I haven’t seen them play that bad since…’

But then I stopped myself. I paused. And then I thought: I actually saw them play that bad last season. In fact, after jogging my memory with a list of their results, I can recollect six games where they played to a similarly shocking standard: Bayern Munich twice in the Champions League, a 2-0 loss to Spurs, 3-1 losses to Liverpool and West Brom, and a 3-0 loss to Crystal Palace. That does not include games like the 3-1 defeat at Chelsea and the 2-1 loss to Watford just a few days prior.

And if you go back further, it is easy to remember games where Arsenal were so painfully and stupidly vulnerable. A 6-0 loss to Chelsea. A 5-1 battering to Liverpool. The infamous 8-2 trip to Old Trafford. This is a team that, time and time again, crumble.

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Sunday was just the latest line in a series of dismantlings. It was a devastating loss. Shocking, Disgraceful, as Gary Neville rightly described it. But the worst thing about it was that it was predictable. You could see it coming from a mile off and that is as damning an indictment as anything.