Why Arsenal fans’ six-year wait for a trophy will not be ending anytime soon...

July is an exciting month for Arsenal fans as it marks the annual Emirates Cup- a rare chance to put something other than dust or Emmanuel Eboue fan mail in the trophy cabinet. Well, I say ‘trophy cabinet’; it’s just a cabinet really. After witnessing another Arsenal campaign for trophies go the exact same way as the past six years, one must wonder if Arsenal will ever again win a meaningful trophy to display at Ashburton Grove. Over the past few seasons, we have seen Arsenal come close time and time again, but never being good enough and it is again likely that we will see the same from the Gunners again next year. They will probably be looking good in January, but by March, it would have all fallen apart. So then, one must ask what is wrong at Arsenal Football Club, and why have they constantly failed on the big stage over recent years.

27^th February 2011. The date of the Carling Cup final, and the date that many pinpoint was responsible for Arsenal’s catastrophic, yet oh-so-familiar collapse last season. In a recent poll, on the Arsenal.com website, 51% of fans believed the club would have gone on to win the title, had they beaten Birmingham City on that fateful afternoon. Now we will never know if this is true or not, but it is doubtful. The game itself showed Arsenal’s major faults and the reasons why they fell away in a very open title-race, namely the failure to deal with set pieces, a tendency to throw them in at the back and a lack of a backbone in the games that really mattered. It came as no real shock afterwards when Arsenal stumbled home to a fourth place finish following a poor run of results. The tame Champions League exit at the Nou Camp and a poor show in the FA Cup against a severely weakened United side, also did not surprise the long-suffering Gooners.

Nevertheless, that game at Wembley does hold the key to Arsenal’s continued failings. Birmingham’s first goal was straight from chapter one of the How to Beat Arsenal guide. Swing a corner into the box, stick a big 6’ 8’’ centre forward up there and there you have it, you’re 1-0 up. Whilst Vermaelen’s injury did compound this last season, Arsenal still have a lack of a big presence at the back. Chelsea have Terry and Luiz and Manchester United have Ferdinand and Vidic, Arsenal’s defence just does not compare. Someone like Terry or Vidic would take control in the area and make sure that the main threat (in this case Nikola Zigic) was taken care of. Exhibit two- the mistakes. You would assume that the Polish Wojciech Szczesny and the part-Polish Laurent Koscielny would be on a similar wavelength when shouting ‘mine!’ but as we saw from Obafemi Martins’ winner, this was not the case.  Koscielny and Szczesny’s miscommunication at Wembley was not the only mistake of last season, not by a long way. Who could forget Manuel Almunia surging out of his area for no good reason, allowing Peter Odemwingie an easy finish at the Hawthorns, for example. All players make mistakes, but it happens far too frequently at Arsenal. This may be down to inexperience, but with the experienced likes of Almunia and Sebastian Squillaci, it might be the simple fact that they are not good enough for a side who wants to win things. Finally, there was the simple fact that Arsenal just bottled it in the game. The players looked nervous, and the same can be said about every important big game of last season. When the pressure was off, they were able to pull-off an impressing victory over Manchester United towards the end of the season, but when it really matters, most of the team just cannot rise up to the event.

So one would think Arsene Wenger would be desperate to plug the holes in his team that are so obvious to all outsiders at the club, but after years of buying cheap imports to solve his problems, there is some doubt about this. Now, as we move into the transfer period, it will be a summer of rebuilding for most. Manchester United have already spent big money on improving their squad, ditto Liverpool. Manchester City will spend big as always (especially with their hefty new stadium sponsorship deal with Etihad), and we can expect Chelsea to make big changes now that Andres Villas Boas is in charge. Arsenal have made two signings, neither of which are addressing Arsenal’s major problems. Carl Jenkinson looks like a decent prospect, but how many times have we said this about Wenger signings? The £1 million signing of Jenkinson from Charlton was followed by the £11 million capture of Lille forward Gervinho. Whilst he looks like a good player, a winger/striker is not really where Arsenal should be looking to strengthen. A couple of centre halves, a tough-tackling central midfielder, an out-an-out goalscorer, an experienced second choice keeper and possibly a left back are Arsenal really need. Nonetheless, Arsenal’s title rivals are getting stronger. As aforementioned, Liverpool and Manchester United are spending big and City and Chelsea will soon do the same. Even Spurs, assuming they keep all their big names, will be up there again next year. It is more important than ever that Arsenal get it right in the transfer market this year to keep up with their ever growing list of competition.

Of course, at the moment, the focus at the Emirates is on the players headed for the door marked ‘Exit’. Gael Clichy has already jumped ship to City. One could argue that Arsenal have a ready-made replacement in the talented, but injury-prone, Kieran Gibbs, plus Clichy did not exactly have his best season last year, but many Arsenal fans fear that more important players will leave. Two prospective exits are worrying in particular. Cesc Fabregas (left out of the Gunners’ pre-season tour of Asia) and Samir Nasri reportedly both have their eyes on a move away from North London. Now I am sure most Arsenal fans would not begrudge the Spaniard a return to his boyhood club, that he has made no secret of wanting. He has stayed loyal to Arsenal over the past-couple of years and has not done anything along the lines of handing in a transfer request. Furthermore, whilst he without a doubt a very talented player, he was not the same player last year, that we had seen over the past few seasons. This may be because his heart does indeed lie elsewhere. The loss of Nasri however, would be a completely different matter. A player who, on occasion, was out of this world last year, as underlined by his sublime double against Fulham at the Emirates with two brilliant strikes preceded by mesmerising Messi-esque footwork. Also, with his combined tally of 15 goals in all competitions, Arsenal had finally found a goal-scoring midfielder fit to replace Robert Pires. His exit would be made all the more worse for Arsenal, if he joined rivals Manchester United, City or even Chelsea. Moreover, what would stop the other big names from joining him. The likes of Robin Van Persie or Jack Wilshere may also want to leave after seeing other players leave to win things. It is so crucial that Wenger gets Nasri to sign a new contract at the club. And, as the talented Frenchman has made clear, he will sign on the dotted line, provided that Arsenal show ambition and make big signings. Only time will tell if Wenger will make the big signings or not, but they would certainly be showing the ambition Nasri craves if the rumours about Juan Mata of Valencia and Karim Benzema are to be believed.  

Talking of Le Professeur, his football philosophy is another reason Arsenal will most-likely go another season without a trophy. Paul Scholes recently questioned the point of Arsenal’s ‘pretty football’ by publically stating “they do play the best football to watch at times, but what is the point of that, if you are not winning anything?”. It’s a fair point from the former Manchester United midfielder. Six years down the line, Wenger must accept that his experiment of bringing through youth and playing good football has failed, or at least has been nowhere near as successful as he had intended. Chelsea and Manchester United both play good football at times, but can grind out results or ‘play ugly’ when needed, unlike Arsenal. Their lack of a ‘plan B’ has been a criticism levelled at Wenger’s side for years. Fans did hope this may have changed last year with the signing of Marouane Chamakh, but alas his impact was scarce. Even Barcelona, who do what Arsenal do so much better, have options as well with the likes of Mascherano and Keita in the middle of the park to shake things up.

So, there we have it. The main reasons why Arsenal have fallen apart over recent years, and why they are likely to do the same again this year. Of course, Wenger may amend all these problems and buy the type of players that Arsenal need to mount a serious title challenge in between now and September. But as we’ve seen from Wenger’s inaction in the transfer window of previous years, that’s as likely as Emmanuel Adebayor getting a standing ovation at the Emirates.

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