Arsenal: Arsene Wenger exposes himself as his worst habit resurfaces

Arsene Wenger admitted that the energy levels of the Arsenal players dropped in the second half, while bemoaning the misguided penalty decision. The comments expose his own mismanagement and see his worst habit resurface: Shifting the blame.

Arsene Wenger had much to say from in his post-match comments. From bemoaning the awarding of a penalty to criticising the panicking of his players as the pressure built from Watford in the second half, Wenger was clearly not happy with the result or the performance of his Arsenal team. And rightly so.

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In a futile attempt to try and summarize what Wenger said, here is what I thought was the most significant aspect of his comments, where he talked about the penalty decision, and, crucially, the energy levels of his players in the second half:

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"“The penalty? It was never a penalty. It’s unbelievable to lose a game because of that. It’s unbelievably hard to take because we had the opportunity to win the game. We played very well in the first half and in the second half we dropped our level a little bit. Physically we were not at the same level and on top of that we missed chances to score the second goal. After that we were punished by a bad refereeing decision. There’s a lot to swallow tonight and a lot to be really disappointed [about].”"

The first thing to note is Wenger’s criticism of the penalty decision. Wenger is right. It was not a penalty and it should not have been given. But it was. And title-winning — title-challenging, nevermind title-winning — teams find ways to win games, even when the refereeing decisions do not go their way.

Arsenal did not lose this game because of a rogue penalty decision; they lost this game because they were reluctant to battle, unwilling to fight, and unable to manage a game that they had an undeserved one-goal lead in.

The second aspect that Wenger touches on is energy levels of his players in the second half. This was something that I noticed also, especially in central midfield, with Watford continually winning the race to every second ball, not allowing Arsenal out of their defensive third, suffocating them of any breathing room, and, ultimately, dominating the latter stages of the game.

And yet, Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny, the two central midfielders, did were kept on the pitch. Instead, Olivier Giroud was introduced for Alexandre Lacazette, and Mesut Ozil, a notoriously unenergetic and unworkmanlike player. It does not make sense to criticise a lack of energy, and then make subs that do not help.

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These are some of my biggest issues with Wenger: his unwillingness to take the blame, and his naive and misguided substitutions. And on this occasion, he is guilty of both.