Patrick Barclay: A hapless Arsenal display and pathetic contribution from Ozil - now Arsene Wenger has his work cut out

 
10 February 2014

So now we know it’s true: Arsenal’s fatal flaw is that they can’t beat the big teams.

Luckily, their next fixture is only against mid-table Manchester United.

I’m kidding. United have been a big team since Matt Busby arrived there at the end of the Second World War — and always will be. And, for all their troubles in the first season after Sir Alex Ferguson, one thing David Moyes has to his credit is a win over Arsenal at Old Trafford.

On Wednesday he brings his team to the Emirates for yet another of these mouthwatering matches that have so liberally sprinkled this classic Premier League season.

Arsenal must win to retain serious hope of the title, United to maintain contact with the fine thread that links them to the possibility of Champions League football next season. It seems certain now that Brendan Rodgers will restore it to Liverpool.

By beating Everton 4-0 and Arsenal 5-1 they have made Anfield seem such a scary place that Bill Shankly can be imagined growling approval.

Equally evident is that the title trophy will be be draped with blue ribbons on the late afternoon of May 11.

My own fancy, which naturally swung towards Manchester City when they were beating Spurs and Chelsea being held at home by West Ham — was it really only 12 days ago? — has lurched south again, in the familiar direction of Jose Mourinho.

When in Spain, Mourinho had a habit of making Pep Guardiola swear. Now even Manuel Pellegrini regularly appears on the edge of a rant. In this case it’s the City manager’s own fault. He believes what the agents provocateurs of the press convey to him and reacts to it. But this is a sideshow; City have too strong a squad not to maintain their challenge.

So which of the top four would Spurs, Everton and — as they clutch at straws — United perceive as the weakest?

The answer would make uncomfortable reading at London Colney and, if anyone writes it between now and Arsenal’s final training session before Wednesday night, Arsene Wenger might be tempted to pin the message to the wall.

Throughout his 17-and-a-bit years at the club, Wenger has usually been able to lift heads when required.

A supposed lack of mental strength — compared with Ferguson’s United, mainly, but also Chelsea on occasion — has been largely mythical and yet Wenger alluded to it in the wake of the Anfield result because they have to get over this thrashing immediately, and permanently, if the lofty ambitions again acknowledged this season are not to fade.

It was the sort of defensive display that wrecks confidence. Yes, the notion of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny as a George Graham class of central partnership was mocked, but truly the problems were in every area of a hapless team, except between the posts, where Wojciech Szczesny did his best.

Mesut Ozil was especially poor, to the extent that he looked unhappy. He has been ordinary for weeks but this was a pathetic contribution. Ozil, even more than the rest of Wenger’s rightly vaunted midfield, appeared to believe he could compete at testimonial speed against a super-charged Liverpool.

Moyes will have looked at Arsenal’s remaining Premier League fixtures — they include visits to Stoke, Spurs, Chelsea, Everton and Hull and a home match with City — and known the straw to clutch. A win at the Emirates and the gap is 11 points. Almost certainly unbridgeable in a third of a season. But Moyes’s players were brought up to believe in the non-existence of lost causes.

At least the presence of Robin van Persie should guarantee an edge to the atmosphere and help Arsenal to deliver a redemptive performance. They have contributed too much class to this season to be remembered as the catalyst of a United revival.

The guessing game is not for West Ham

Something has to be done to take the fear out of relegation. It causes directors to panic and sack managers, which wastes the fans’ money because compensation must be paid and players expensively traded.

And it doesn’t always work. Fulham, Cardiff and West Brom are no less favourites for relegation for having brought in Rene Meulensteen, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Pepe Mel.

On the other hand, Crystal Palace bless the day they hired Tony Pulis, while Sunderland celebrate Gus Poyet. The truth is that most boards rely on guesswork. Which makes it all the more gratifying that West Ham stuck with Sam Allardyce and continue to climb.

An Eden better prize

Jose Mourinho has stated: “This country must be full of fantastic players,” finally alighting on the reason for Eden Hazard’s otherwise inexplicable lack of player-of-the-month awards. But, while the Chelsea wizard (right) keeps piling up performances as dazzling as Saturday’s against Newcastle, he could become eligible for an even greater prize. Certainly no one else, for the time being, threatens to deny Luis Suarez a crowning as Footballer of the Year.

Luis grapples with issue

An interesting alternative to “going down too easily” emerged in the prelude to Liverpool’s first goal on Saturday. Luis Suarez, feeling Per Mertesacker tug his shirt, stayed upright but appealed by gesture — spreading his arms — for a foul, which the referee awarded. Personally, I’d like a yellow card every time for grappling because it’s the bane of the game, the father and mother of most simulation. Suarez was really making that point. Only a footballer of supreme balance could do it as he did.

'Playmakers' and 'Match of the Day' - footballer art by Daniel Nyari

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