Arsenal Vs Cardiff City: The ideal anti-Arsene Wenger test

Arsenal travel to Cardiff City on Sunday afternoon. The contest, one that the Gunners should be looking to win, provides the perfect anti-Arsene Wenger test.

It started with Sam Allardyce’s Bolton. It then became Blackburn, Stoke City, others in the Allardyce ilk. The latter years of the Arsene Wenger era were defined by technically gifted but physically and mentally impressionable and overpowerable players. He never seemed to be able to solve a fairly obvious conundrum.

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Consistently, Arsenal found themselves outduelled. They lacked the natural height and physical presence to battle throughout the pitch, but then also allied this rather limp physicality with a mental attitude that belied their desire to win. The requirement of fighting for the victory was rarely met.

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As such, when the team’s play was not at its fluent and fluid best, the results tended to go the way of the performance. Perhaps the most troubling aspect was the predictability and repeatability of it. Before every trip to the Britannia Stadium, it was inevitable that Arsenal would be in for a huge physical challenge, one that they were rarely able to meet with the necessary attitude and intensity.

This lack of presence and mental fortitude in these games is one key reason why Wenger is no longer at the club — I am aware that, officially, Wenger resigned, but this was a sacking, not a willing resignation. It is one of the key areas of the team that Unai Emery, Wenger’s successor, must address and improve. And when Emery leads his team to the Welsh capital on Sunday afternoon, he and his players with be provided with the ideal anti-Wenger challenge.

Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City are very much a team built in the Allardyce style. Tough tackling, hard-nosed, a brutish defence with real size and stature, a workmanlike midfield with industry to disrupt and annoy, a direct counter-attacking style that relies on scoring goals, something that Cardiff are yet to do this season, with quick moves that have very few passes involved.

This season, Cardiff have contested 192 aerial duels, the most in the Premier League. 23.5% of their passes have been long, again a league-leading tally. Moreover, their passing accuracy, 64.2%, is the third-worst tally in the Premier League in the last 10 years. Six of the other top seven are Stoke (09/10; 10/11; 08/09), Bolton (08/09; 09/10) and Blackburn (09/10).

These are the kind of teams that Arsenal, under Wenger, struggled against mightily. It is the first opposition this season that plays with this type of style and it provides yet another prism through which to judge this new Emery era. Can he and his players succeed where his predecessor repeatedly failed?

This is a game that Arsenal should win comfortably. Unfortunately, the same was said about all of the Wengerian losses. This is the test of the anti-Wenger, and it is the perfect barometer for this new era.