Arsene Wenger report card: Arsenal at an all-time low under the Frenchman

Arsene Wenger report card: Time to go after dragging Arsenal to all-time low of his reign

Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal may finally be up (Picture: Getty)

It was a summer of big change that saw Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte rock up at new Premier League clubs to establish the Managerial Super League, but at least Arsenal could, as ever, be relied on for consistency.
Heading into 20 years on the job, Arsene Wenger had been given yet another shot at getting the Gunners back to where they were in the first half of his reign at the club – after so many failed attempts, his employers have been remarkably patient, arguably to the point of delusion, and few could argue the Frenchman is a very lucky man indeed.
So, as we head into April and spend the international break reflecting on the season so far, has Wenger repaid that faith in him, or has it just been more of the same at Arsenal this season?
Conte has unsurprisingly been the hero of this mini-series, while there were mixed reviews for Mourinho and Klopp. Those who’ve been paying attention this season can probably already guess how Wenger measures up…

Start of season expectations

Depends on your definition of ‘expectations’, doesn’t it? Arsenal fans will rightly wonder if there are, in fact, any of substance actually set out at all.
All the right people, including Wenger himself, will have made the right noises about challenging for the trophies that matter – the Premier League and Champions League, but it’s debatable if any real work went into addressing the issues that have prevented it from happening in recent years.
The harsh reality for Arsenal fans to accept is that another trophyless season would be totally acceptable as long as a top four spot was achieved again. We don’t even really know if that’s a necessity for Wenger to hold on to his job, but the way things are going, we may soon find out.

Achievements so far

Well, they’re in the FA Cup semi-finals and, despite the traditional March car-crash form, the top four is still within reach. Supporters would be reluctant to call this an achievement at this stage, because, really, doing exactly the same thing you’ve done every season for the last decade is, by definition, not progress.

Credit where credit’s due, though – Wenger’s decision to move Alexis Sanchez up front has been a resounding success so far, with the Chilean scoring 22 goals and laying on 12 assists so far from his new role, while the effect it’s had on Theo Walcott – pushed out wide on a permanent basis to accommodate him – has also been notable. For much of the first half of the season, Arsenal’s attack arguably looked as good as at any point for the last ten years.
The 3-0 win over Chelsea was a highlight, with the Blues simply blown away before half time at the Emirates Stadium, though even that has to be seen as bittersweet now, as it proved the falsest of dawns in terms of how the Gunners were going to fare in the big games this season, whilst sparking Chelsea into a 13-game winning streak that saw them effectively wrap up the title by Christmas.

Where to start? Summer signings Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi have been disappointing for the most part, and while Lucas Perez has looked decent when he’s played, it looks as though even Wenger himself is unsure as to why he signed him at all.

The opening day of the season was a disaster as Liverpool romped into a 4-1 lead at the Emirates Stadium, with Arsenal only pegging them back to 4-3 late on as they took their foot off the gas. They didn’t lose again in the league until December, but, predictably, they contrived to lose in back-to-back games against Everton and Manchester City to send the hopes of their fanbase crashing down to earth.
Most recently, of course, were the two 5-1 defeats to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, which showed Wenger’s Arsenal at their very worst: just as some faint glimmer of hope seemed to have been snatched back, the loss of one player (in both games, Laurent Koscielny) was enough to provoke a total and utter meltdown in the rest of the team, with the goals flooding in for Bayern to kill the game in the first leg, and to rub salt into the wound in the second.

Arsenal vs big six this season

Played 7
Won 1
Drawn 2
Lost 4

At no point did Wenger seem to have any answer to the problem unfolding in front of him – his players continued to attack and to pass out from the back, Kieran Gibbs (!) was given the captain’s armband, and Arsenal once again looked like amateurs in a competition they base their entire season every year fighting to qualify for.
Remarkably, the mess on the pitch has almost been overshadowed by the failures off it, with Wenger also somehow allowing a situation to arise whereby both Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are yet to sign new contracts with little over a year to run on their current deals.

The saga has clearly been a distraction, and Arsenal look unable now to avoid losing both of them for below their market value this summer.
To summarise, in just over eight weeks’ time, Arsenal could be out of the top four, behind Tottenham for the first time in 22 years, trophyless again, losing their two best players, and still not rid of the man responsible for it all.

Tactical reputation

The little that remained of this surely died years ago. Beyond playing possession-based, attack-minded football that’s like a less good version of Barcelona, what is there to say about Wenger’s philosophy?
The man still can’t drill a defence (see last week’s debacle at West Brom), still can’t hack the Champions League, still can’t vary his gameplan to suit different opponents, still gets outclassed by a fellow top-six manager every time, and yet, he just keeps on going, despite the same results over and over again.

As already mentioned, moving Sanchez up front has clearly proven a good move, but even then one is reluctant to give too much credit as the tactical switch only really came about due to Wenger’s own bizarre resistance to forking out on any other striker better than Olivier Giroud. The Chilean has already finished as the club’s top scorer before (25 goals in 2014/15), so it’s hard to imagine most other managers wouldn’t have had the same thought at some stage.
Whether it’s stubbornness or just a lack of variation, Wenger can no longer be talked about as a master tactician, with the methods that set him apart when he first moved to England 20 years ago now glaringly out of date, and a gift to opposition managers who always, always know what’s coming.

Objectives for the rest of the season

Get the team out of this rut, and fast.
Win the FA Cup and make the top four, absolute minimum.
Sort out Sanchez and Ozil’s contracts.
Accept that that is now the absolute upper limit of your abilities as a top-level manager and do the noble thing and resign.

Arsenal's remaining games

Manchester City (H) – Sun 2 Apr
West Ham (H) – Wed 5 Apr
Crystal Palace (A) – Mon 10 Apr
Middlesbrough (A) – Mon 17 Apr
Sunderland (H) – Sat 22 Apr – postponed
Manchester City (N) FA Cup – Sun 23 Apr
Tottenham (A) – Sun 30 Apr
Manchester United (H) – Sat 6 May
Stoke (A) – Sat 13 May
Everton (H) – Sun 21 May

Job safety

Yeah, that last line was absolute fantasy at best – it seems pretty clear from all recent reports that Wenger’s job, surprise surprise, is as safe as ever.
A crushing Bayern-like humiliation at the hands of Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals and a torrid run of form dragging the team down to, say, 8th in the league might just do it, but that’s the only hope for those wanting to see the 67-year-old gone.

Latest stories suggest Wenger has not yet put pen to paper on the offer of a new two-year deal, but the fact that the offer is on the table at all speaks volumes. Expect an announcement in the next few weeks.
(Metro, UK)