Football Musings
Just a couple of weeks ago, Arsene Wenger declared that his current Arsenal team is the ‘most mature’ squad and that they have a fighting chance of winning the title this term. To say that comment raised a few eyebrows would be underselling the reaction it generated, with Wenger’s latest upbeat message largely meant with derision and howls of uncontrolled laughter.
To be clear, it’s not exactly outlandish that Wenger would be positive about his side’s chances this term and the quality within his team; moreso he was speaking in the aftermath of his expensive purchase of LaLiga duo Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez to further bolster his options. But the reasons for doubting if Arsenal are really strong as their manager thinks they are are not far-fetched, the past decade has provided ample evidence that the club have flattered to deceive far too many times despite Wenger’s rallying cry of ‘mental strength’ and ‘electricity’.
For the best part of the last decade, Arsenal have been synonymous with defensive frailties and a general inability to stand firm when the pressure is cranked just a little bit higher. The football has always been easy on the eye – that’s never in doubt – but they’ve lacked what men like Robbie Savage, with brows furrowed and lips pursed as if mourning the demise of a loved one, would generalise as ‘leaders in the dressing room’ and ‘strong characters’. While it would be unimaginative to narrow down Arsenal’s problems in the last decade to an absence of natural leaders, it also wouldn’t take a psychic to notice the departure of players like Patrick Vieira has left the club searching for on-field direction when the going gets tough.
Far too often Wenger has backed his side in the media only for them to fall like a badly-put together piece of architecture and if Arsenal are to show the progress their manager wants us to believe they’re making, there are no fitting opponents more than their arch-enemy Chelsea who they play this Saturday.
In many ways both clubs have been polar opposites in the intervening years following Arsenal’s departure from Highbury. Arsenal have been beautiful and brittle, Chelsea direct and brawny; in the years of Arsenal’s stadium-imposed austerity, Chelsea spent freely; and although Mourinho is no longer in charge, his fiery spectre still looms over the club in contrast with Wenger’s more measured approach at Arsenal.
Arsenal have lost to Chelsea more than any other club over the last ten years; not so much a rivalry these days but a predictable one-sided affair where the streetwise team take all three points after some naïve defending by their opponents. The statistics make for grim reading: since the 2004/05 season with 24 games played between both sides, Arsenal have won only four times to Chelsea’s 13; they are winless in their last nine Premier League encounters with Chelsea since that wonderfully chaotic 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge in October 2011 when André Villas-Boas was boss, and Chelsea have won more league matches (4) at the Emirates Stadium than any away side. In Chelsea’s annus horribilis that was last season, they still managed to win all six points against Arsenal. Death, taxes, and Arsenal capitulating against Chelsea.
For all of Chelsea’s edge over Arsenal, however, Saturday presents a welcome opportunity for Wenger’s side to take advantage of Antonio Conte’s side who have massive problems of their own.
The obvious place to start is a defence that is yet to take shape in the manner Conte would have wanted. Chelsea have kept only one clean sheet this season, and it is a testament of the state of their defence that a 35-year-old John Terry remains their best defender. Their summer pursuits of a number of centre-backs showed there was recognition of the need to strengthen at the back, even if all their enquiries ended unsuccessfully. Thibaut Courtois is also a going concern, with the goalkeeper not especially commanding and spreading calm through his skittishness, all with the demeanour of a man who would rather be anywhere but Stamford Bridge.
In last Friday’s loss to Liverpool, Chelsea were truly abysmal, a display that was perhaps in part a homage to the dying days of the Mourinho era when performances were abject and uninspiring. Conte himself got his tactics wrong when he chose to sit back to invite wave-after-wave of Liverpool attacks in the early stages when their leaky defence surely couldn’t withstand the pressure.
Conte also faces the small matter of re-integrating Cesc Fabregas into his starting line-up going forward. The Spaniard has yet to start a Premier League game this season with the ex-Juventus manager preferring the powerful duo of N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic at the base of his midfield. Yet Fabregas grabbed a brace and an assist in the League Cup tie against Leicester to stake a claim for his place in the side for the weekend, and although the argument goes that he lacks the requisite fight and bottle to play in a Conte team, there is the need for his manager to show some flexibility to accommodate his team’s creative hub.
With Chelsea still struggling to forge an identity under new management, Arsenal are well placed for their fourth consecutive league win for the first time since October 2015. A key battle will be how Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny handle Diego Costa’s presence; a test Gabriel failed at last year when he allowed himself to be caught up in Costa’s web of roguish antics.
Arsene Wenger’s most ‘mature squad’ must indeed show the rest of the league that they are as mentally tough as their boss believes they are, and what better way to start than against opponents who have made it a habit of getting under their skin and robbing them of points for the best part of the last decade.
