“Lightweight, soft, and fundamentally flawed”

By: Martin | May 11th, 2009

That’s one view on the Arsenal side that was exposed as a pretender in the last couple of weeks, most severely yesterday against Chelsea. I think that may be a tad harsh, but facts are facts. And the fact is that we’ve faced Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester United 5 times since the middle of April, and have failed to win a single match. If it hadn’t been for Arshavin’s virtuoso performance against Liverpool which salvaged a draw, we would have lost all 5.

The bottom line is this–not good enough. Those results are not good enough and this team is not good enough. I love Wenger for all he has done and all he is doing for the club, but it’s gotten to the point where serious questions about his approach have to be asked, even for die-hard Wenger apologists like myself.

I became particularly alarmed recently when Wenger said he would not spend “magic money” in the summer, because he would not “kick out a quality young player like Walcott, Fabregas, Diaby or Bendtner.” And that, to me, says it all. When I watch Diaby play, it’s all I can do to keep from screaming at the television “Go out and buy someone to replace him!” Wenger watches him and apparently has the complete opposite reaction.

Now, Wenger has been right where I have been wrong before, many times. In the fall, I couldn’t understand what Wenger saw in Eboue and Song, but both players have started to repay Wenger’s faith in them by becoming important contributors in the spring. So I suppose it’s possible that Diaby will become a good player, although I personally don’t see it.

I guess my biggest complaint is that Wenger’s theory of developing young players seems fundamentally flawed to me. His idea seems to be that young players can only develop into good players by playing all the time. And I’m just not sure that’s true. Just to take one example that pops into my head–did Denilson develop more this year by playing all the time, or would he have developed a lot playing the understudy/occasional substitute role to an experienced vet like Gilberto? It seems to me that there’s some value in having veterans around not just for their presence and ability on the field, but their role as mentors and quasi-coaches to younger players. One need look no further than a team like Manchester United, which has both a veteran presence and promising youth players, for evidence of that. And that’s something Arsenal just doesn’t have in the squad at the moment.

However, Wenger is correct that we shouldn’t just completely abandon our system and go to the Manchester United approach. Because the fact is that we currently have a bit of a competitive advantage when it comes to getting young players to come to the Emirates. We don’t have as much money as the other big clubs. If us, United, Chelsea, and Liverpool are all interested in the same young player, we will not be able to outspend those clubs to get the player. But where we do have an advantage is that the player knows he’ll get a chance to prove himself and play more and sooner with us than any of those clubs. And we’ve seen that make the difference a couple of times–Walcott and Ramsey both chose Arsenal over other big clubs largely because they knew they’d be given a chance to play without having to apprentice for 5 years.

I just think there’s a way to incorporate the presence of veteran players, and specifically bringing in veteran players in the transfer window, into our approach. Arshavin is the perfect example of how bringing in a veteran player can (a) improve the team on the field and (b) improve the atmosphere around the club. And whose development has he hindered? Granted, Vela and Bendtner may not get to play as much in the first-team as they would if we hadn’t bought him, but you will not be able to convince me that showing up to training and games with a player of Arshavin’s attitude and skill doesn’t help them by setting a good example that will help, not hinder, their development.

Now, I do still believe in Wenger and still believe in this group of players. But as I wrote recently, I think at the moment the club’s transfer policy is that Wenger has to raise money to spend money, and I’m becoming convinced that that’s just not going to cut it. Wenger seemed to confirm that he was working with very limited funds available when he said recently, “[a]t the moment I do not know what funds will be available. I will be told by the club.” Even a relatively small transfer kitty (£10 to £15 million) would make a huge difference in the on-field product, I think.

This was supposed to be a match review of the Chelsea match, but you’ll forgive me if I really can’t muster up too much to say about it. Maybe I’m just too depressed by the whole thing, or maybe it’s just hard for me to get too wound up about it given that we were going to finish in 4th place anyway.

And maybe I’m as delusional as Wenger (although I don’t still hold out hope of our winning the Champions League this year), but I didn’t think Sunday’s game was quite as bad as the scoreline. I’m not being a sore loser, and not taking anything away from Chelsea, but I thought we came out and were playing pretty strong at the beginning of the match. We were controlling possession, playing in Chelsea’s half, and putting the ball in and around the box.

In a way, this game was symbolic of Arsenal’s last few seasons. We held the ball, we showed some talent and created some chances, but lost our composure and couldn’t finish any chances we created, and were completely shambolic at the back whenever we were under danger. In contrast, Chelsea’s defense held together well, and whenever they did create a chance, they finished it. Full credit to them. In the end it wasn’t even that close. Until we figure out how to make our “beautiful football” turn into goals and wins, we’re going to keep seeing this kind of result against elite opponents.

So that’s pretty much that. Chelsea just need one point from their remaining matches to seal up 3rd place. We will, once again, finish 4th, and the trophy cabinet at the Emirates will remain empty. Despite all the promise of this season after last year’s run, we failed to even make a final for the second consecutive season. It’s simply not good enough, and unless our approach changes, I fear it never will be.