Arsenal's era of mediocrity continues with Champions League exit at Monaco
For the fifth season in a row, Arsenal was stranded in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. Having taken a deflating 3-1 defeat to AS Monaco at home two weeks ago, it was all fairly hopeless going into the return leg. And indeed, with a 2-0 win in Monte Carlo, courtesy of Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey goals, they fell short of reversing their flagging fortunes on away goals.
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Arsenal had been counterattacked to a quick death in the first leg, when the Gunners enjoyed the bulk of possession but could hardly locate any seams to sneak through and found themselves picked apart on the break.
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On Tuesday, they showed a somewhat reluctant willingness to deploy the same game plan. Monaco duly gave up on attacking after the first few minutes, knowing full well that what it does best is defend. So that's what Monaco did. Leonardo Jardim's men hadn't conceded at home in 12 games and not once all year in the Champions League. They shipped two, but since Arsenal needed three, that suited them fine.
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In the 36th minute, Giroud was played in by Danny Welbeck. The Frenchman, who had misfired so horrendously in the first leg, was denied by Monaco goalkeeper Danijel Subasic at first but then collected the rebound with his face, spun and whacked the ball into the roof of goal from close range.
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Then, in the 78th, Ramsey picked up a bad clearance in the box, just after Theo Walcott had hit the post, and smacked it into the far and low corner of goal.
But other than those goals, Arsenal didn't muster much danger. Laurent Koscielny hit the bar and Welbeck was denied on the line. And maybe Arsenal should have had a penalty, when Alexis Sanchez was penalized for an alleged dive, but that was really it in spite of a desperate offensive late on.
Truthfully, until the very late going, the Gunners never looked remotely in danger of turning this around. They didn't seem to believe that they could do it, and didn't.
They came close, as they always seem to at this stage, but fell inches short of the finish line after slogging through the marathon-like group stage. And so, a few months from now, they will yet again look back on a season in which they survived the group stage in Europe but didn't get much further, and placed in the top four in the Premier League for a 19th year in a row. They're presently in third place and in good form, having won five in a row and eight of nine.
They will have preserved the status quo, and that's really all Arsenal seems capable of in recent years: not getting worse without ever getting better.
You begin to wonder – and many have been wondering for years – if Arsenal, under its professor-like manager Arsene Wenger and the fiscally-responsible CEO Ivan Gazidis, is mired in a culture of mediocrity.
The club, for its big, shiny stadium and all its revenue and cachet and purchasing power, seems to be run like a small business. And like in most small businesses, everybody is happy if the bills get paid and they all get to keep their jobs for another year.
Whatever they do, whoever the one player is they splash out real money for each summer, it's never quite enough to put Arsenal over the top, to help them win major trophies again. And they never do too little to fall away from the top, causing anyone to get fired and for others to come in and rethink some things.
Arsenal might win the FA Cup again this year, like they did last year. But they won't win anything else. They aren't a contender in the Champions League, or really any other league.
It's just the same old Arsenal.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
