Arsene Wenger was in the line of fire. He trained his guns on himself. The Frenchman was conducting an inquest. He was asked to explain why, for the first time in his long reign, Arsenal had failed to finish in the top four. In an intriguing if indirect admission, he argued uncertainty about his own future had hampered his players?
“Psychologically, the atmosphere was horrendous,” he accepted. Fuel for the “Wenger Out” brigade, perhaps, or an indictment of them? Whichever, Arsenal’s spring slide came when calls for Wenger to go were at their shrillest.
If a run of seven defeats in 12 games revealed psychological shortcomings, that reflected on Wenger, his charges and his critics alike.
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Read more
■ Team of the week: Chelsea, Tottenham, Man City and Liverpool sign off in style
■ Greg Lea: Arsenal in 'very strange' territory – outside of the Premier League top four
■ Richard Jolly: Jubilant Liverpool are back in the Uefa Champions League
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The paradox of Arsenal’s failure was that they secured fifth place with a record points tally for the position, 75, yet reasons for an inability to finish in the top four abounded. There was the side that buckled under pressure. There was the defence that conceded too often, especially from set pieces. There was the away record of a team who lost two more games on the road than any of the rest of the top six. There were the horrific displays against Watford, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace.
There was the overreliance on Santi Cazorla, cruelly limited to seven league starts by injury. There was the way Granit Xhaka did not prove the defensive midfielder Arsenal needed. There was the enduring enigma of Mesut Ozil. There was the question of speculation around Ozil and Alexis Sanchez’s futures contributed to that horrendous atmosphere.
Around 200 miles north, Anfield staged a different sort of inquest. Jurgen Klopp was asked when he started to believe Liverpool could finish in the top four. Perhaps, it was suggested, when they won at Chelsea in September? “You could say after we beat Arsenal,” the German replied. That opening-weekend triumph contained a four-goal blitz in 18 devastating minutes.
Nine months later, after a season when Liverpool finished one point ahead of Arsenal after taking six points off Arsenal, it had a greater significance. A draw in either game and, all other things being equal, Wenger would have preserved his 100 per cent record of top-four finishes.
Klopp’s answer highlighted Wenger’s delay in signing Shkodran Mustafi, eventually bought on 30 August after an interminable wait. The callow pair of Calum Chambers and Rob Holding – combined age 41 – anchored the defence destroyed by Klopp’s high-speed raiders. If Wenger was justified in giving France’s Euro 2016 finalists, including his best centre-back Laurent Koscielny, a proper break after their summer exertions, Arsenal’s understudies were nevertheless exposed. They looked ill-prepared. Liverpool seemed primed to go.
Wenger’s logic was understandable. His team have won only one of their past six league openers. They have always played catch-up successfully before. There were still 111 points to play for. The season may be a marathon, not a sprint, but as Arsenal dawdled on the start line, two who flew out of the blocks, Manchester City and Liverpool, ultimately deprived them of Uefa Champions League football.
That Arsenal missed out with 75 points shows the pace has been raised. This particular race is about both speed and stamina. That August 4-3 setback has the potential to reshape the division, and not merely if Arsenal, having spent every year in the Champions League, now invariably find themselves out of it.
It brought to mind how another manager whose teams tended to peak in April and May had to adjust his approach. Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United tended to be unworried by the sight of others leading embryonic league tables. Then Jose Mourinho arrived, his Chelsea made a fast start and disappeared out of sight. There was no catching them.
So United copied their tormentors, began the 2006/07 season at a gallop and regained their title. Now, with six genuine contenders jostling for four positions, the Champions League fight has grown more intense. Perhaps the lesson for Arsenal will be that those who snooze when the starting pistol is fired lose out nine months later.
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