Arsenal Fan View: Same story, different summer

Every season we the fans of football say the same thing, “Never predict”. No matter what we believe in, or how much we might want our team to win, the golden rule remains; and with good reason. The wonder of Leicester City last year, the relegation battle every other year-multiple proofs for the irregularities of the Premier League exist. Football teams in London, however, do not seem to follow that trend. Be it Tottenham’s ability to screw up their entire season’s worth in one day or Chelsea’s gift for firing the manager instead of the players, some bets are always on. Of course, Arsenal’s annual façade-not just in the Champions League-is the poster boy for things which are destined. The only surprise this time is the occasion is just a little too early.

The first game of the season at the Emirates has not yielded any special results for the last five years. Arsenal have recorded just one victory on the first matchday since the 2012-13 season till date. And while they finished in the top 4 each time, the issue remains why Arsenal can’t reproduce any of their pre-season form when the gong of competitive football sounds. The match against Liverpool managed to envelop everything there is to know about Arsenal into 90 minutes of football. ‘Promising start, pass, pass, pass, push for an opener, get an opportunity, mess it up, then score out of nothing to raise hopes. Lull your own defence into a false sense of security and then let the opponent score once, twice, thrice and four times. Realize your mistake in the starting 11 and then make the most obvious changes, which immediately brings results and make it look like there’s a chance for a late surge, but ultimately fail to climb a huge mountain built by yourself.’ If you’ve been watching Arsenal play since the 2007-08 season, you will be able to translate every word of that into any match situation featuring the Gunners and actually see how each year is just about 80% similar to the last.

Now this isn’t about #WengerIn or #WengerOut, it’s about #PleaseWengerLearnFromYourMistakes. As Liverpool recovered from Theo Walcott’s opener, I saw a pattern of football not associated with Klopp, but with his long standing rivals in the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich. The side to side shifting of the ball followed by quick crossing and interplay is what brought the Reds their flurry of goals and was also what caught young Holding & Chambers on their heels. The same thing has happened on the Emirates pitch season after season when we host the Bavarians in our yearly bowing-out-of-the-CL bout. Klopp had learnt his lesson and came to Arsenal with a plan to use his gegenpressing tactic when the gunners least expected it. After conceding, it was patient play by the Reds and once they had Arsenal on the back foot with that Coutinho special, they never let it up. As for Wenger, well, he might have avoided Koscielny getting injured but his decision to not start the in-form Ox backfired and did not make the change until forced due to Ramsey’s injury. Even in the second game against Leicester City, the decision to not feature Mohamed Elneny once Coquelin had been booked is baffling. Elneny offers an attacking threat and does well to cover up the counters with his reading of the game; instead we saw Jack Wilshere come on. He did what he does best, jump into tackles, break up play and mess up the last pass when he really should just be taking a shot.

Sadly, it’s not just about adjusting with the times on the pitch for Arsène Wenger; he also refuses to work with the truth of the market. For someone who believes in making his signings early, his refusal to pay up the right price for both Shkodran Mustafi and Alexandre Lacazette could mean Arsenal end up with nothing. While he may bemoan the inflated market and the fact that clubs tend to raise prices when they know an English club is interested, it still won’t change the fact that this isn’t 2001 anymore. His arguments are bang on, but guess what, everyone is adjusting with the change and it’s about time that Arsenal did too. With just nine days to go in the transfer window, the quality he looks for is not going to get any cheaper. So either we will see a repeat of the Ozil-deadline day craziness or the panic buy mode could kick in with Jonny Evans getting signed for £25m and Wenger calling it a “quality signing”. Having said that, with the current defensive situation, even that seems like a prediction I wouldn’t mind coming true.