Arsene Wenger cannot continue to praise Arsenal’s mental strength after yet another implosion

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James Olley19 December 2016

Both the success of Arsenal’s season and Arsene Wenger’s future will be defined by the club’s ability to break the cycle of past failures. This defeat is proof they remain trapped.

One step forward, two steps back. It is a rhythm the Gunners have been dancing to for years and here was a 90-minute reprisal for the second time in a week, as they again allowed a one-goal lead to slip against hosts battling their own inner demons.

Just as Everton threatened to implode before coming back to win at Goodison Park last Tuesday, Manchester City’s first-half performance was the manifestation of a team caught between instinct and instruction.

Pep Guardiola’s insistence on possession-based football playing out from the back is anathema to many of his players, an unfamiliarity compounded by the use of Aleksandar Kolarov as a centre-back and Raheem Sterling leading the line.

Amid the confusion, Arsenal took the lead with a superbly crafted and completed goal from Theo Walcott and thereafter the visitors held City off at arm’s length with a comfort that resembled their 2-0 victory on this ground in January last year.

By the end, it resembled the pandemonium on Merseyside last week. Leroy Sane and Sterling had struck and whereas Cech was racing up for a corner in the dying moments at Everton, here he galloped over the halfway line and took a free-kick short to Mesut Ozil, affording referee Martin Atkinson the chance to blow the final whistle before the ball made it in the penalty area.

Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Wenger was livid at Cech but the game was lost long before. He was furious with the officials, too, believing that both City goals were offside and while the officials certainly have a case to answer, Arsenal’s errant defending cost them dearly.

It was ironic that for all City’s problems in building out from the back, it was the Gunners who conceded from their own goal kick. Granit Xhaka lost an aerial battle for Cech’s clearance upfield and suddenly David Silva slipped the ball over a wandering back four and Sane slid a calm finish into the bottom-left corner.

Arsenal were equally negligent at Everton — coinciding with Shkodran Mustafi’s hamstring injury — but this problem pre-dates that game by a long way: the Gunners have not kept a clean sheet in any competition since October 25.

Cech has gone eight consecutive League games without a clean sheet for the first time in his career but up until now the team’s attacking prowess has masked such shortcomings; it was noted in these pages less than two weeks ago that this season’s average of almost 2.5 goals per game is Arsenal’s highest scoring ratio since 1934-5. One goal is not enough to secure victory these days and the Gunners capitulated after the interval in a manner that makes a mockery of Wenger’s regular praise for his team’s mental strength.

City improved considerably after Sane’s equaliser but they did not overwhelm Arsenal in an onslaught. Arsenal gradually surrendered their collective willingness to keep them out. That inability to maintain the work-rate and intensity has undermined previous campaigns and does not reflect well on the manager.

The Frenchman insists he will assess whether he is still the right man to lead the team at the end of the season, with fan opinion a factor, but this display littered with familiar frailties was an early Christmas present for the ‘Wenger Out’ brigade. Fourth place in the table only adds to the déjà vu.

Ozil’s detractors were out in force, too, after another peripheral display. The number of high-profile matches he has failed to influence this season is growing again.

There is no doubt he is one of the League’s finest players when on song but although Wenger denies speculation that the German’s contract situation is affecting his form, something clearly is. Perhaps a rest is needed.

A clear week gives everyone a chance to pause for breath. The fixture list thereafter also provides an opportunity for Arsenal to regroup, with League games against West Brom, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Swansea, Burnley and Watford before the end of January — the highest-placed team in that sequence are currently eighth and it includes three of the bottom five.

Another positive run is required and given a key factor in missing out on the title last season was dropping points at home to mid-table teams, Wenger would no doubt greet the successful navigation of that period as evidence of his team’s mental strength again.

Next up after Watford? Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and another examination of their big-game mentality. Every big game resets the prevailing consensus of a team’s capabilities. And so this particular cycle begins again.

Next up for Arsenal is the the Boxing Day clash with West Brom at the Emirates Stadium, which you can follow live on Standard Sport. Click here to find out how.

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