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| Not happy at all...El Capitano |
In the aftermath of the Stoke non-event over the weekend; the first game at the Emirates to be knifed by a snowstorm, it was a golden opportunity for the players, the bench, Arsene Wenger the polymath and the press that feeds off his hands at every opportunity to take stock and look at what we’ve done well and what has been lacking in the season so far.
The Stoke game would have been our 18th of the league and one match later, we would have reached the halfway mark of the league season. That game is against none other than Chelsea – the rolling juggernaut created by Roman Abramovich in 2004 – who have contributed more than any other club to knock us off our perch and keep us trophyless for the past five seasons.
So, what better time to take stock of where we are at the the halfway mark of the season before the business end of things kickoff in the New Year. And who better to put things in perspective, than our skipper himself.
His interview over the weekend very much belled the cat and brought to the fore, issues which Wenger, in his calculating manner and keen sense of double speak, would never mention in a million years.
An intense and passionate character, Cesc laid the blame for all our recent reverses against the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd and lack of progress in the silverware department, on fear. Read him:
“Sometimes we seemed scared of losing these big games – we don’t really go for it and we’re tempted to drop back and see what the opposition does. We look to see if we are capable of beating them by what they are doing and how good they are on the day. Instead of us going forward, causing them problems and dominating the game ourselves”.
His comments highlighted what can easily be described as a psychological problem that has afflicted the team since Wenger’s youth project started about six years ago. It’s all in the head, Cesc was saying.
He is definitely spot-on in his assessment. Success breeds success. Lack of it leads to self-doubt, uncertainty and ultimately unbelief in your own methods. The lack of success of the youth project has planted great swathes of doubt in the minds of the very players on which the success of the project itself depends. No one knows what Wenger tells his players in training and the control freak that he is, no one outside London Colney will ever have a clue.
Whatever it is however that he feeds them on, the message doesn’t look to be getting through. Because despite the worldwide acclaim that the team often enjoys when they brush opponents aside with often lopsided scorelines, they immediately forget all of Wenger’s tutorials and freeze like rabbits when the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd are lined up in front of them. Add Barcelona to that list as well.
Is it an inferiority complex? Or a second class citizen thing? Methinks that is exactly what Cesc is saying in very diplomatic language.
Wenger’s bunch, contrary to what he keeps telling them day and night, simply cannot believe they are as good as the Drogbas, Lampards, Terrys, Giggs, Rooneys and Iniestas. They cannot believe they are occupying the same pitch as those exalted names and automatically lose confidence in themselves when these names turn up.
Cesc, who along with Andrei Arshavin and Samir Nasri are the only genuine world-class players in Wenger’s team, drives the point home:
“I’m realising more and more that football is all about confidence and mentality. Sometimes you do the right thing, but if people tell you it’s not right, you start believing them even though you were right the first time”.
Because Wenger’s bunch haven’t won a nickel in five years – which for a club of Arsenal’s stature is an eternity – they have slowly lost the belief in their own abilities. Wenger’s tutorials and remonstrations which they are fed on daily, are only good enough to pummel the Blackburns and Blackpools of this world when they get it right. Against the big, battle-hardened brigade from Chelsea and Man Utd, those tutorials become meaningless.
Wenger of course knows all this but will never, never admit. Faced with a revolt at the June 2009 Supporters’ Forum, where an enraged fan described Mikael Silvestre as ‘geriatric’, Wenger boasted that his youth project would surely deliver at the end of 2009-2010 season. “Don’t judge me now”, he said then, “judge me at the end of 2010 season”.
He was of course forced to eat his words at end of last season, when Arsenal again ended the season empty-handed. His response? The likes of Silvestre were released from the club, while he immediately signed-on Marouane Chamakh as an experienced, hotcake purchase – on a free.
Yes, Chamakh has so far gone onto justify his goalpoacher reputation in world-record time, but he remains just a drop in an ocean of mediocrity. Just like he did with Arshavin two-and-half seasons ago, Wenger dilutes his acquisitions with cheap imitations, which eventually overwhelm the gems he bought. Sooner than later, the gems see no point in fighting and dishing out their best as their efforts eventually amount to little and the team makes little progress. Surrounded by artisans, a genius will ultimately look like the rest of the crowd. Gradually, the lack of success afflicts everyone in the team and therefore where the artisans naturally fail to perform, the genius in their midst loses the motivation to take responsibility and drag the rest through matches.
Cesc himself, despite his 23years of age, has done a lot of dragging-of-the-rest especially since the captaincy was forced upon him exactly two years ago. That task has obviously wearied him, particularly as he’s got zilch to show for it.
Like I said earlier, success breeds more success. Lack of it just creates a poisonous atmosphere where everybody accepts that they are just not enough. It is that feeling of negativity that is currently plaguing this team. That feeling which makes Wenger’s bunch freeze like mice caught in a blaze of lights.
Speaking just days before we meet Chelsea, Cesc’s words are very well-timed. It is now left for his mates to digest them and take a second look at themselves. Otherwise, el capitano will keep casting admiring glances at the likes of Barcelona.
Arsenal football club deserves better than this constant humiliation at the hands of Man Utd, Chelsea, et al.
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