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Arsenal: The club is in serious, serious trouble
Arsenal lost once again in the Premier League, this time a 2-1 defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road. The loss is just a minor drop in an ocean full of trouble for the club.
Trust me when I tell you that fans like myself don’t like to rant about the Arsenal board, manager and players. We don’t want to be bringing out banners opposing the club or the manager, and we sure as hell don’t want to be chanting ‘Wenger Out’ during every single game. But desperation and repetitive neglect of the fans have left us furious at the direction the club has taken.
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It’s as if we could have predicted the downfall. And yet, nothing was done to stop it. Sometimes, it feels as if the fans that know what’s best for the club, even over a manager who managed his team to win the league title undefeated.
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Apart from being mocked for ridiculous rants on ‘Arsenal Fan TV’, Gunners fans have also been ridiculed for their treatment towards their manager by former players and coaches. But right now, the bigger problem is not the behaviour of the fans. It is the state of the club. Arsenal are in serious trouble, and the problems lie deeper beyond Arsene Wenger.
Most prominently, the issues start with the anticipated loss of the two star players of the squad, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. What makes this so infuriating is that both of these players love the club and the fans, but are being driven away by poor club management. The club’s lack of ambition and desire sent Robin Van Persie out the door to Manchester United, leading him to criticise Wenger and the lack of investment that was being made at the time, and it will do the exact same with Ozil and Sanchez. Both players were not sold over the summer so that they could help Arsenal to compete for the top four. But they are now barely being utilized correctly, which gives the impression that they should’ve just been sold during the summer, recouping the last scraps of value possible.
Among this, there is a very toxic atmosphere within the club and the dressing room. From the crowd who are divided to a room full of players who don’t want to be at the club anymore, there is a rift and friction that has infected the whole environment. During the Watford game, for example, there was no desire shown in the second half, and when Watford equalized, the players showed no guts and determination to regain the lead.
What hurts most about the loss is that it really wasn’t that surprising. We are so used to disappointment that losing games that we should have won is no longer a surprise. Had we won, we would have gone within the top four and maybe the belief among the players would have reignited a little.
But, instead, in a week where Manchester United and Liverpool drew, and Chelsea lost, we were unable to capitalize. It has really got to the point where fans have resorted to laughing at losses these days because of the predictability and repeatability of them.
The icing on the cake, though, is when a player with the credentials of Troy Deeney is able to mock our club and players, and there’s nothing that we can say about it because Deeney’s statement is true. Deeney claiming that the Gunners lacking balls is in every way correct. We have become pushovers, losing the fear factor of team’s gone by. Our biggest rivals are drawing at the Bernabeu in the Champions League, whilst we can’t even beat a team that was thrashed 6-0 at home at the hands of Manchester City.
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There are still many more issues not mentioned such as the declining attendances to home games, our inability to bring in top players because, let’s face it, who’d want to play at a club with an atmosphere as toxic as ours, and a club which may, or may not, make the top four. The fact that the manager of 21 years can’t motivate his players to turn up and play with pride is more than enough reason to worry about the future of our beloved club. And with no signs of improvement, there’s very little to be positive about.