Charming the press gang

Having enchanted London's football writers for a decade and a half, very few poison pen-pushers have been eager to plunge a fatal knife into Arsene Wenger's back as he lives through his darkest days as Arsenal manager.

As a sixth successive season looks certain to end with Wenger still locked outside of the winner's circle, an increasingly vocal clutch of Arsenal supporters have turned against the manager who transformed their club from the relatively ordinary to the exceptional in glorious fashion.

However, that change of mood at Emirates Stadium has not been complemented by a media campaign calling for his head, with the 'Wenger Out' headlines that could have complemented the extension of his trophy drought not in evidence after the club's title challenge ended with a defeat at Bolton last Sunday.

You see, while personal relationships should never be allowed to get in the way of honest reporting, this is one manager who will never be roundly condemned like so many who have gone before him. The privileges that go with being the darling of the press pack appear, for now, to be keeping Wenger on his lofty pedestal.

On face value, Wenger's refusal to address the glaring flaws that have existed in his team's make-up for half a decade could be considered to be a sackable offence, yet spending ten minutes in the company of this football fantasist would convince even his most devoted doubter that he will get it right in the end.

I have been a regular member of Wenger's congregation throughout his time as Arsenal boss and he has always been humorous, honest and fascinating, a dream subject for us reporters eager to find a story worthy of print.

In an era when managers and players have mastered the art of revealing nothing in their media briefings, Wenger bucks every trend every week by offering up strong opinions aplenty in his always entertaining and well-attended pre-match press conferences.

As he faced up to his latest post-mortem in front of the familiar faces who have quizzed him for so many years on Thursday, a reflective Wenger attempted to convey an upbeat mood ahead of a game against Manchester United and yet he could not hide from the burning sense of failure that is clearly giving him some sleepless nights.

"I go to bed every day thinking about how I could have done things better and that will never change for as long as I'm in this job," Wenger said, feeling his side's Carling Cup final defeat at Wembley in February marked the beginning of the end for his side's trophy hopes.

"There is no doubt I have made errors this season and I would never deny this, but we all have to try and improve as I believe we are closer than ever to success with this team.

"Of course, I have had moments when I doubted myself. You wonder if you are good enough to do the job and also whether this is what you want to do in life. Like anything, you try it and see if it is for you. I feel proud of my achievements at Arsenal, but I refuse to believe we cannot be winners once again.

"We are having to deal with a lot of scepticism around this team at the moment and this is understandable as the final analysis will show we did not win a trophy for another season, yet I believe it is just the smallest of improvements that need to be made to take us onto the next level.

"When you consider we are up against opponents who spend millions on new players every year and we are still showing consistency even though we are carrying the financial burden that comes with moving to a new ground, I feel there is much for this team to be proud of. People don't see it that way, but we have to continue to fight."

Wenger's desire to shield his players from the media glare has seen him hold fort for an average of two press conferences a week throughout his time as Arsenal boss, with television, radio and those of us in the written press ranks afforded time and respect from the man at the centre of so many stories.

More than a few managers opt out of Sunday newspaper briefings or ask one of their players to share the media burden, yet Wenger refuses to take a step back.

The compelling figure we are fortunate to share a room with is anything but the comical and irate touchline clown who has thrown water bottles aplenty of late, though Wenger accepts his time at Arsenal can be brought to an end at any point as American tycoon Stan Kroenke prepares to complete his takeover of the club.

"I'm just a servant of this club and the new owner may decide at some point in the near future that they want someone else to take my place," he says. "It's his right to make a change and there is nothing to stop the guy who replaces me being more successful than I have been.

"Whether I stay after my contract finishes in three years is something we will have to discuss nearer to that date, but I feel active and focused on trying to help this team make the improvements we need at this moment.

"When I was 33 and starting out in management, the idea that I would still be in this job beyond the age of 60 was an impossible target. This game is so much linked with luck and handling pressure and you never think you will last too long anywhere. As it happens, I have lasted a long time here so I must have done something right."

Frustration is a word Wenger used time and again to describe his mood heading into the his latest tussle with Sir Alex Ferguson and that emotion is shared by many of his media combatants, who struggle to fathom why this intelligent man puts himself through the same agonies every year with a squad of players who continue to let him down.

The photographs depicting Wenger and his former players holding trophies aloft adorn the walls of the Arsenal training-ground press room and serve to confirm that this is a manager who will go down in English football history as an all-time great, yet his legacy is taking one hell of a battering right now.

Wenger set the bar so high with his brilliant Double-winning side of 1998, his majestic 'Invincibles' who finished the 2003-04 season unbeaten and the thrilling team that came within 13 minutes of Champions League glory two years later, yet those triumphs have made the last six years of heartache all the more difficult to accept.

It may be that evolution and not revolution are what is required at Arsenal now and, while those of us who continue to respect Wenger for what he has achieved are rapidly running out of excuses for his long-running stretch of failure, his status as one of the game's few untouchables remains intact.

Those calling for his head should be careful what they wish for as a new Gunners manager would doubtless hail a third-place finish in the Premier League as a success if he was in this position a year from now. Wenger has spoilt the Arsenal fans for so long and, for that reason, their continued support should now be granted.

Source: Kevin Palmer, ESPN Soccernet on 30 Apr 11

Styles of Manchester United and Arsenal managers on collision course

Sunday's line-ups will show how philosophies of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger have never been further apart

Victory in the 2005 FA Cup final brought a moment of searing joy for Arsenal, particularly since they had beaten their great rivals of that period, Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson's side were overcome but it took a penalty shoot-out to settle the issue. Few guessed then that the clubs would diverge so sharply.

The intriguing aspect of that afternoon is that the losers have not gone through a complete overhaul subsequently. Seven of them, including the substitute Ryan Giggs, could in theory take some part in the Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium this weekend. For Arsenal, the sole survivor from the 2005 starting line-up liable to be on the field is Cesc Fábregas, although Robin van Persie did feature as a substitute in Cardiff and Jens Lehmann is now back on the books.

Continuity is one of the benefits of success for United. The silverware comes regularly enough for them not to convulse themselves in panic. Transfer dealings have been well-conceived since. It is sometimes necessary to sack a manager, but continuity in the post can deliver a long-term benefit in building up a squad strength that prevents dependence on a single individual.

United's owners will appreciate the £80m Ferguson took in from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo as well as the steady supply of prizes. The unease will be felt by fans wondering whether there will be a suitable budget for the partial reshaping of the squad that is necessary. Matters, however, do appear to tick over.

It looks as if Fábio da Silva has inherited Gary Neville's job at right-back, even if the experienced John O'Shea is also picked in that role on occasion. Whatever the identities of those involved, United have sustained a marked ascendancy over clubs such as Arsenal.

Since that 2005 FA Cup final, they have lost just three of their 15 encounters with Arsène Wenger's side in all competitions. The other 11 games brought nine wins and two draws. United's true rivals of late have been Chelsea and they have an almost identical record against Arsenal during the same period.

Wenger's side were once the Invincibles, undefeated en route to the Premier League trophy in 2004, but there has since been a chronic brittleness that keeps on being exposed. Life resembles a cruel cliche. Even the manager virtually gave up hope of the League title last weekend at Bolton when his side suffered a caricature failing by conceding a winner from a corner in the 90th minute.

So far as fans are concerned, the frustration lies in the fact that Arsenal would happily channel greater funds into the transfer budget if Wenger wished. An established centre-half could be bought in the summer, but the manager normally has as firm a view of how signings are to be made as he does of the way in which football ought to be played. The record purchase seems to be the £15m Andrey Arshavin since José Antonio Reyes was shipped out before his fee reached its maximum of £17m.

The commitment to responsible spending is pleasing, but the quality of the squad has waned. The mind goes back to that FA Cup final of six years ago, when Patrick Vieira's penalty settled the shoot-out. That was also his last touch of the ball for Arsenal before moving to Juventus. On that afternoon, the Frenchman was paired with Gilberto Silva to bring about a combination of steel and knowhow. It has been a while since United expected that sort of confrontation in a match with Arsenal.

Neither Alex Song nor Abou Diaby convinces as a counterpart to the members of that duo in 2005. Ferguson tends towards selecting the more methodical types when playing Arsenal. This season, Giggs was fielded only as a substitute in the wins over Wenger's side in Premier League and FA Cup. United kept a clean sheet on each occasion yet also had the sharpness to score in 2-0 and 1-0 wins respectively.

Perhaps events will turn in Arsenal's favour this weekend. The hosts do still have their good days, which included the defeat of Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League tie.

Even so, Wenger will appreciate better than anyone that a robust core is lacking. United will be as eager as usual to expose the defect.

Source: Kevin McCarra, The Guardian on 29 Apr 11

Match Preview: Arsenal vs Manchester United

This is not a preview.

Unless something seismic occurs in the final month of the Premier League title race, the time for those has gone. The season is not in total wind-down just yet – points are required to secure Arsenal’s perennial passage to the Champions League Group Stage and the visit of Manchester United this weekend is incapable of being a quiet affair. But the remaining four games in Arsenal’s campaign can only serve to place perspective upon everything that has gone before.

Of course, there is irritation and anger in the air right now. A season that promised so much will almost certainly end trophyless. But, just before they play a side who are “90 per cent” champions according to Wenger, the manager set out his belief that progress has been made.

It is hard to sell the promise of next season amid the debris of a fast fading campaign. But at Thursday’s press conference the Frenchman made his pitch.

“We have exceptional quality but, at the moment, we have to face skeptical attitudes from people,” he said. “I can understand that."

“But it is not as bad as people say. We live in a world where if you do not win you are criticised and we have to accept it. But that doesn’t mean you are nobody."

“We have produced consistent quality. We have just lost after 16 unbeaten games in the last minute against Bolton. But we have to improve of course."

“And,” he went on, “we have to accept that only one team can win the title."

“It’s frustrating to accept you’re close as we were and that, in one week, basically [it is gone]. What is more frustrating is that it happened without disappointing performances because we produced [one] against Liverpool, Tottenham and even at Bolton. It is highly frustrating, but that’s part of the game and top-level competition.

“Still, when you are ahead after 97 minutes against Liverpool, not every season will you get a penalty in the 102nd minute. When the team has lost a little bit of confidence, is a bit more nervous and in a more difficult patch, you pay for some things but you do not necessarily pay for every year.”

Forget any previous profligacy, had Arsenal beaten Liverpool, Tottenham and Bolton, Sunday’s game might well have been the decider portrayed in its inevitable pre-match billing.

Wenger has said he will assume Arsenal are in the title race until the mathematics tell him otherwise. However he admits that, having slipped to third last week, he must start to look over his shoulder aswell. Fourth place would mean a Champions League qualifier, fifth would mean the Europa League.

“We have to watch that,” he said. “I am convinced that is not done. Even being in the top four is not done. We have to fight like mad.

“It is not a massive concern maybe because if Tottenham come up then Manchester City or Chelsea drop as they all play each other. But our focus has to be to win our games.”

Thomas Vermaelen’s successful comeback in the Reserves on Thursday was welcome but it arrived too late to affect Arsenal’s season. However it does mean that Abou Diaby (calf) and Lukasz Fabianski (shoulder) are the only injured players. Fatigue may have been a factor in Arsenal’s fall away but not injuries.

Manchester United may have spent the past 20 games on top of the Premier League yet, for all but the last half-dozen, they have drawn criticism themselves. Broadly speaking, a miserly defence and misfiring frontline took them to the top. The goals then began to flow more easily when leaks sprang at the back.

Only recently have they begun to put it all together and a supposedly less than vintage Manchester United now find themselves on the brink of a record 19th League title and a place in the Champions League Final. Given their dominance in Gelsenkirchen this week, it is hard to see Schalke overturning a 2-0 deficit at Old Trafford.

Arsenal’s record against Manchester United needs improving if they are to once again challenge for the title next season. They have won just three of the last 17 Premier League meetings. The home side may have Robin van Persie, who has scored 23 goals in his last 24 League starts but the likes of Wayne Rooney and Ji-Sung Park possess eye-catching scoring records against Wenger's men.

Despite recent disappointments, Sunday remains a useful measuring stick for Wenger. The English press is blamed for many things these days but, in the wake of Arsenal’s demise, the general swathe are not suggesting wholesale changes are required at Emirates Stadium. The manager concurs and a win this weekend would certainly support his view.

“We are there,” he said. “It is about getting from where we are now and that is a position very close to winning the title. I feel we are strong enough but the pressure is high and it will be difficult."
“Next year Chelsea will invest, Liverpool will invest. Liverpool have not won the title for 20 years. However people think you have to win it and yes, of course, we want to win it. But we were very close.”

It is ironic that the three teams below Arsenal – Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool – have, or at least had, a real feelgood factor surrounding them this season. Whereas Wenger’s men and Chelsea have not, Manchester United have only gained theirs in the last month or so.

It is all about expectation of course. Liverpool are on the rise after off-pitch problems and on-field decline while Tottenham have ventured into the unchartered territory of the Champions League. Manchester City look like usurping them this season and, after gleefully dispatching their cross-town rivals, have an FA Cup Final on the horizon.

There is a feeling Arsenal’s campaign started to unravel in the other Wembley showpiece.

“Certainly winning the Carling Cup would have taken a little bit of weight from the shoulders of the players,” agreed Wenger. “For me, the Carling Cup in itself is not important. But what it could have given, a little bit of playing with less weight on your shoulders.

“I watched, I don’t know 100 Cup finals, I’ve played myself maybe 15 to 20. It’s difficult to imagine you can lose a cup final like that.”

But Arsenal did and perhaps their season never truly recovered.

The job now is re-build, renew and re-focus. A case for progress can be constructed but, right now, it would be torn down once the ceremonial ribbon was cut.

Assuming Manchester United hold on top spot and assuming Arsenal stay in the top three, a safe stroll to the close season is what we will all look to right now.

However having beaten Barcelona at Emirates Stadium back in February, seeing off the other likely Champions League Finalist would at least support the manager’s view that consistency – not ability – undermined Arsenal’s campaign in season 2010/11.

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 30 Apr 11

'It has been a heavy burden on Fabregas'

Arsène Wenger believes that the burden of responsibility has weighed too heavily on the shoulders of Cesc Fabregas this season.

The Spanish midfielder, 24 next week, has suffered as much as anyone during the gradual decline of Arsenal’s campaign in the past two months. Fabregas has carried the armband and much of the expectation as one of the team’s key players. Injury has hampered his contribution but his frustration has been clear.

“It has been too much for him at his age,” said Wenger. “He is the captain of the team, with van Persie vice-captain, and they put a lot of pressure on themselves."

“Cesc is a winner. He is desperate to win the games and, of course, when it does not work he is frustrated."

However Wenger swept aside suggestions that Fabregas should be relieved of the captaincy. To the contrary, he ventured that this could make the World Cup winner a better leader.

“It is too much [for him] because it has not gone as well,” said the manager. “Once it goes well, he will grow with it. Every difficulty in life will make you stronger, especially when you have a strong character. And he is a strong character."

“I believe it will make him stronger but maybe this season it has been a bit of a heavy burden.”

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 29 Apr 11

Gunners reach the crossroads

At times, it can feel like there is checklist of Arsenal's failings, real or imagined. Game by game, they are ticked off: the susceptibility to set-pieces; the habit of conceding late goals; the need for a dominant central defender; the profligacy in attack; the lack of leadership; the psychological frailty.

Arsenal assemble the case for the prosecution and reproduce it with disturbing regularity. The unexpected element was that, for once, Arsene Wenger crossed the courtroom to support some of their arguments. In a season that has nosedived since the Carling Cup final defeat and an era where Arsenal have polarised opinions with their seductive but silverware-starved football, perhaps this was the watershed, the day when the Frenchman accepted the masterplan of economic austerity and football finesse can only take his team so far. Then again, perhaps not.

But as their title challenge came to a depressing and definitive conclusion at the Reebok Stadium, perhaps the most frightening factor was the predictability of it all. This was the Arsenal of caricature, the side whose fragile beauty goes unrewarded because of their own flaws, the talented technicians seemingly condemned to finish third in a two-horse race now. This was justification for the pragmatists in their criticism of the purists.

After letting in a 102nd-minute goal seven days earlier, conceding in the 90th minute was comparatively early. Fergie Time means dramatic, decisive goals for Manchester United; Wenger Time late frustration for Arsenal, and on Sunday Bolton added their names to the litany who have breached the Gunners' defence in the closing minutes. Arsenal's anxiety, like United's buoyancy, turns such strikes into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the process, a match became a microcosm of their season, as Wenger admitted. The reality that the title is not bound for Emirates Stadium made the manager more willing to accept his side's shortcomings. "Our chances are minimal now, that's for sure," he said. "We dropped too many points. It is very frustrating because we should come home this week with nine points and we come back with two. The numbers are the numbers. We conceded six goals this week. You cannot afford to concede six goals in three games, particularly in April."

This year afforded Arsenal's best opportunity to reclaim the title they last won in 2004. "It is very unsatisfactory because that's one of the easiest run-ins we have had for quite some time," Wenger added. "We didn't take our chances many times in the season because the potential is there. We still lack something that is called maturity, experience, calm in key situations."

It was more mea culpa than an assault on the underachievers. "The facts are the facts but I feel the players had an outstanding attitude all season," Wenger added. "If someone is to blame, it is me."

On this occasion, others were culpable, too. Opportunities were squandered at the Reebok, just as they have been over the course of a couple of months: Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri all spurned chances. Only Robin van Persie displays a deadliness in front of goal, scoring with expert precision after a one-two with the captain.

Meanwhile, a defensive generosity manifests itself. In the build-up to both goals, a man was allowed to burst clear of their defence: first Chung-Yong Lee, then Johan Elmander. From the resulting corner, a Wanderer was granted the room to meet it with a powerful header: first Gary Cahill, then Tamir Cohen. The opener was delayed by Nasri's goal-line clearance before it was headed in by Daniel Sturridge. The second was simpler, the replacement Cohen celebrating what Owen Coyle called "an emotional winner". Cohen promptly revealed a T-shirt displaying a picture of his father, the former Israel international Avi, who died in December. "I think it was fitting he got the winner," his manager added. It was less so, but sadly inevitable, that his tribute brought a booking.

While Arsenal's character is invariably questioned, Bolton displayed theirs. Hammered 5-0 at Wembley seven days before, they responded. "What we had to do was come out and give a big performance," Coyle added. "We gave an unbelievable performance." The win could have been more comprehensive: Kevin Davies had a penalty saved by Wojciech Szczesny after Johan Djourou was adjudged to have bundled Sturridge to ground.

Previously one of the most improved players of Arsenal's campaign, Djourou endured an awkward afternoon. The debate about Wenger's failure to sign a commanding centre-half last season has never gone away, but now it may intensify, because when the weaknesses in their candidature are so apparent that even the sometimes myopic manager is accepting some of them, they have reached a crossroads. It is time for change; not at the helm, but in the team.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Daniel Sturridge
A seventh goal of his brief spell at Bolton was one indication of his potency, but his contribution went far beyond that. A delightful flick to release Lee was a sign of his skill and, while the penalty may have been soft, it highlighted Djourou's inability to deal with him.

BOLTON VERDICT
Spirited and determined, they regained some of the pride they lost at Wembley. Employing an open approach against Arsenal can be a risky policy, but Jaaskelainen's saves ensured they got away with it and Coyle, as is his wont, showed positivity in his tactics. It helped that he recalled Taylor in place of Martin Petrov, who was particularly poor against Stoke, and they remain on course for a top-eight finish.

ARSENAL VERDICT
Fabregas and Jack Wilshere played some delightful football at times and Walcott appeared to have the beating of Paul Robinson with ease. Yet Arsenal's inability to turn that into victory was all too typical. Wenger will not abandon his football principles, and nor should he, but the need for a couple of hard-bitten stalwarts to shore up his side has rarely been stronger.

Source: Richard Jolly, ESPN Soccernet on 24 Apr 11

Gunners' hopes brought to an end

Arsenal's title bid was surely ended at the Reebok Stadium today as Tamir Cohen netted an emotional late winner for Bolton.

The Israeli powered a 90th-minute header past Wojciech Szczesny and then removed his shirt to reveal a picture of his late father Avi, who died in December following a motorcycle accident, before breaking down in tears.

On-loan Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge had opened the scoring in the 38th minute while Kevin Davies also missed a penalty for Bolton at the start of the second half before Robin van Persie netted a 48th-minute equaliser.

The result leaves Arsenal nine points behind Manchester United and three behind Chelsea with only four games remaining.

The first half was a familiar story for Arsenal fans, with the Gunners bossing possession but struggling to create clear-cut opportunities, while Bolton's more direct approach paid dividends.

Probably the Gunners' clearest opening came inside four minutes when Cesc Fabregas played in Theo Walcott on the right.

The England man's strike was parried by Jussi Jaaskelainen and Samir Nasri saw his follow-up effort blocked by a combination of Gary Cahill and Zat Knight.

Arsenal's pace looked to be the greatest threat to the hosts and from a quick break Fabregas forced Jaaskelainen to tip his 25-yard effort round the post before a Robin van Persie volley was well blocked by Cahill.

Bolton were giving as good as they got, though, and they probably should have been ahead in the 24th minute when Sturridge caught the Arsenal defence napping with a superb through ball for Lee Chung-yong, but the Korean chose to try to pick out Kevin Davies and the chance was lost.

Lee had another golden chance in the 37th minute, with Sturridge again the architect courtesy of a lovely chip into the centre of the box. The winger made good contact eight yards out but Szczesny was off his line quickly and blocked the shot.

There was no denying Bolton from the resulting corner, though, as Sturridge made the breakthrough. Lee's cross was headed powerfully towards goal by the impressive Cahill and, although Nasri cleared off the line, Sturridge was on hand to head in the ball.

Fabregas almost squared things before half-time but his 20-yard shot cannoned off the post with Jaaskelainen well beaten.

Things got worse for Arsenal in the opening minute of the second half and again it was Sturridge causing the problems.

The striker's neat turn took him past Johan Djourou and, when Sturridge fell in the box under pressure from the Gunners defender, referee Mike Jones pointed to the penalty spot.

Captain Davies stepped up but his effort was tame and straight at Szczesny, who easily blocked the shot.

It seemed inevitable Arsenal would capitalise on their second chance and little over a minute after the penalty, Van Persie picked up the ball on the right and played a one-two with Fabregas before placing the ball just inside the post.

It was the seventh successive away game in which the Dutchman had found the net - a new Premier League record.

Bolton responded well but they were indebted to their goalkeeper for keeping them level when Nasri ran on to Van Persie's through ball in the 65th minute.

The Frenchman was in space but Jaaskelainen made himself big to block the initial shot and, although the ball rebounded to Nasri, the angle was too tight and Cahill was able to block his follow-up.

The Gunners pressed but Bolton defended superbly and it was they who created the clear-cut chance Arsenal craved when Johan Elmander took advantage of a defensive slip to run into the box and fire in a shot at Szczesny, who did well to palm it behind.

There was no stopping Bolton from the corner, though, as Taylor's cross picked out the head of Cohen, who had replaced Sturridge six minutes earlier.

With the game in the 90th minute, the Israeli powered a head into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

Cohen broke down in tears as he was mobbed by his team-mates but it was Arsenal who were left distraught moments later as Jones blew the final whistle.

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 24 Apr 11

Wenger - Bolton defeat sums up our season

Arsène Wenger says the last seven days have encapsulated Arsenal's season - a campaign full of promise that will ultimately end in disappointment.

A last-minute Tamir Cohen header effectively finished Arsenal’s title challenge as Bolton recorded a 2-1 victory on Sunday to end the Gunners’ 16-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.

The defeat concluded a miserable week for Wenger and his side that saw crucial points dropped on three separate occasions.

“We have taken two points out of nine and we should have taken nine. That, a little bit, sums up our season,” said the Arsenal manager.

“We were leading against Liverpool until the last second, we were leading against Tottenham and on Sunday we were close to winning and we lost the game. It sums up what has happened since January."

“I do not want to blame the players. I believe the players have an outstanding attitude [and] it’s a shame they are not rewarded. But we have to accept it and go on."

“It’s very unlikely [that we can win the title] but the size of the Club means we have the pride to fight and that is what has to inspire us.”

Source: Giuseppe Muro, Arsenal.com on 25 Apr 11

Tamir Cohen strikes late for Bolton to crush Arsenal's title hopes

Arsenal's journey has turned down its final cul-de-sac. In truth, there was probably one wrong turn too many before their latest trauma but there is surely no way back for Arsène Wenger's side now, nine points adrift and fast disappearing into Manchester United's wing mirrors with only four games remaining.

They were undone here by a 90th‑minute goal from the substitute Tamir Cohen, flashing a header beyond Wojciech Szczesny to expose Arsenal's seemingly ceaseless vulnerability when defending corners. At that moment Wenger turned away in anguish and hurled his water bottle to the floor. Earlier we had seen him release his pent-up frustration by doing the same with the ball, throwing out his arms in anger. His team had contributed to a game of rich entertainment but once again there was a telling demonstration of the flaws that have brought them to the brink of a sixth successive year without a trophy.

Attacking-wise, they were beguiling at times; defensively, they were bewildering. Their football was slick, penetrative and frequently thrilling, culminating in a frenetic onslaught of the Bolton goal before Cohen's goal. Yet there were other times, particularly in the first half, when their opponents sliced them open with ridiculous ease.

This defeat ends a 16-match unbeaten run in the league stretching back to December but even that was deceptive. Eight of those games had finished as draws, including five of the past six. In all competitions Arsenal have registered one win in their past nine matches.

Wenger may need to re-invent this team if they are to emerge as more credible challengers next season and he will have to start with the side's defence. The frequency with which they switch off when facing set pieces has become as much a part of Arsenal as their red and white strip and, as well as Cohen's winner, it also manifested itself for the opening goal: another badly defended corner, ending with Daniel Sturridge nodding in the rebound after Samir Nasri had blocked Johan Elmander's header on the goalline.

In fairness to Arsenal they were thwarted by some terrific goalkeeping from Jussi Jaaskelainen and some last‑ditch defending – epitomised at 1-1 by Gary Cahill's block to keep out Nasri's goalbound effort – and they also had legitimate reason to believe they should have been awarded a penalty for Paul Robinson's early challenge on Theo Walcott. Kevin Davies was fortunate, too, to last the distance, yellow-carded for one challenge on Laurent Koscielny but let off for a worse offence committed on Alex Song.

Yet it is probably time Arsenal started to focus on their deficiencies and it was not a one-off to see them guilty of wastefulness and, at times, an over-elaborate build-up. The sense of déjà vu was overwhelming – and the same applied to their defensive shortcomings. In many ways it was a performance that symbolised Arsenal's season.

Sturridge, in particular, was a constant menace. Even ignoring his goal, his vision, intelligent positioning and ability to play the killer pass reiterated his credentials as a player of enormous potential. He has now scored seven times in his nine games for Bolton since joining the club on loan from Chelsea and was also involved in the penalty from which Davies should have made it 2-0.

It was, however, a generous decision from the referee, Mike Jones, with Johan Djourou barely making contact with his opponent. Davies's effort was poorly struck and Szczesny's save had seemed as if it could be the defining moment of the game. Within a minute Robin van Persie had exchanged passes with Cesc Fábregas and driven his shot past Jaaskelainen to establish a new Premier League record, the first player to score in seven successive away matches.

What followed was a period of almost unremitting pressure. Fábregas and Jack Wilshere were tremendous in the centre of midfield. Nasri, however, is not carrying the same threat as earlier in the season whereas Walcott, after a bright start, ought to have done more to expose Robinson's lack of pace.

Then came the final, telling blow. Bolton's corner had emanated from a breakaway attack in which Elmander was left clear on goal. After Szczesny had turned away the shot. Taylor swung in the corner and Cohen, on the pitch only five minutes, took advantage of some statuesque defending to leave Wenger howling in anguish.

It was an emotional moment for Cohen, who took off his shirt to reveal a picture of his father, Avi, the former Liverpool player who died after a motorcycle accident in Israel in December. Cohen broke down in tears after the match as he was being interviewed. It put Arsenal's own anguish into perspective but, for very different reasons, their pain was considerable.

Source: Daniel Taylor, The Guardian on 24 Apr 11

Wenger's reaction to the Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Arsenal match

on where the result leaves the title race…
The chances are very minimal now, that is for sure. But we have to continue to fight. It is true that we have dropped too many points today.

on a disappointing week…
It is very frustrating because we should have nine points from this week and we have two. That’s a little bit the story of our season.

on the mental strength of his team…
The facts are the facts. I feel the players [have] had an outstanding attitude [during] the whole season and they are not to blame. If there is someone to blame, it is me. I pick the team and I choose the players. For me, the players [have] had an outstanding attitude all season.

on an unsatisfying season…
Yes, it is very unsatisfactory because that is one of the easiest run-ins we have had for a long time. We didn’t take our chances many times during the season and that is frustrating because you feel that the potential is there. But we live in a job where you have to take your chances and be realistic. We still lack something that is called maturity, experience or calmness in important situations.

on whether he is tempted to move away from some of his beliefs and principles…
If you can convince me that the principles are wrong, then I am ready. But I feel we try to play football the proper way. When you don’t win, your principles are questioned. You always have to take the right distance to see what is right and wrong in what you do. I think if something is wrong in our team, it is not the principle of playing our football.

I am convinced we are a very good footballing side. We have not been stable enough defensively. The numbers are the numbers, we have conceded six goals this week at a moment where you cannot afford to conceded six goals in three games and win the championship. We were too frail defensively during the season.

on conceding goals from set-pieces…
In games like this it is important not to be 1-0 down, we came back to 1-1 and had chances to make it 2-1 and 3-1. We had given so much, physically, that in the end we did not have the concentration to stop the corner.

Source: Arsenal.com on 24 Apr 11

24 April 2011: Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Arsenal, Reebok Stadium

Arsenal’s bid for the Premier League title is all but over.

They went down 2-1 at Bolton on Sunday thanks to a 90th-minute header from substitute Tamir Cohen. The goal ended a 16-game unbeaten Premier League run going back to mid-December and leaves Arsène Wenger’s side nine points adrift of their conquerors that day - Manchester United - with only 12 available.

Defeat was hard on Arsenal this afternoon. Daniel Sturridge headed the home side in front seven minutes before the interval but Robin van Persie levelled three minutes after the restart. Inbetween Wojciech Szczesny saved a penalty from Kevin Davies.

In the final stages it was they who were chasing the game with more intent. But football, like life, is not fair. Arsenal have fought hard all season but fallen away at the sharp end of the campaign.

They must simply renew and rebuild for next season.

Both sides came into this game on the back of a tough week. Arsenal had lost leads to draw against Liverpool and Tottenham - consequently they were now outsiders to be champions.

Meanwhile this was Bolton’s first game since that 5-0 humbling to Stoke in the FA Cup Semi-Final the previous weekend.

Wenger brought back Jack Wilshere for Abou Diaby (calf). The English midfielder had spent a profitable loan spell at the Reebok Stadium last term.

Chelsea striker Sturridge was in the midst of something similar this season. He was a crucial miss at Wembley last Sunday but was restored to the side this afternoon.

It was Easter weekend in England with summer sunshine to boot. Arsenal had to ensure the end-of-season feeling did not permeate their football this afternoon.

They started well enough but, by half-time, they had lost their edge and were behind.

In the fourth minute, Theo Walcott went through but his cross-shot was batted away by Jussi Jaaskenlainen. It fell to Samir Nasri, who let fly. However the Bolton defence was upon him and blocked the shot almost at source.

Seconds later, Arsenal broke quickly again and Walcott once more raced clear on the right. He cut the ball back towards Cesc Fabregas but the skipper hoisted his shot over the bar.

On the quarter-hour Bolton created their first real opportunity when a low near-post cross from Gretar Steinsson was clipped into the sidenetting by Davies.

Arsenal’s response was to go closer still. Fabregas fired goalward from distance and his bouncing shot was turned around the post by Jaaskelainen. After that the Spaniard found Van Persie, whose volley was blocked.

However, by now, Bolton were exerting themselves too. In the 25th minute, Sturridge sent Lee clear in the right-hand channel. His pass towards Matt Taylor was intercepted by Alex Song with the Arsenal defence stretched to breaking point.

Seconds later, the Bolton midfielder went through but his shot was saved by Szczesny.

The home side had now taken a measure of control. Seven minutes from half-time, Sturridge released Lee once again but Szczesny stood up well to save and Laurent Koscielny mopped up the danger by heading the ball behind.

Lee fired the corner into the area and Gary Cahill timed his run perfectly to head goalwards with power. Nasri chested the ball off the line but Sturridge was on hand to stab home a header from close range. It was his seventh goal in nine games for Coyle’s side.

After the week they had endured, it was the last thing Arsenal needed.

Fabregas planted a pot-shot against the post as the seconds ticked away and Van Persie fired a free-kick horribly high.

Arsenal looked like the world was against them as they trudged in at half-time.

It certainly seemed to be the case when referee Mike Jones adjudged Johan Djourou to have bundled over Sturridge 30 seconds after the restart.

It was the ninth penalty Arsenal have conceded in the Premier League this season - the highest in the top flight - and looked to be one of the softest. Certainly the Swiss defender was incredulous at the decision. Davies tried to place the spot-kick down the centre of the goal but Szczesny managed to boot the ball away with his trailing leg.

It was a massive moment and one that the visitors would compound a couple of minutes later when Van Perise threaded his shot through a crowded area to pull Arsenal level.

However Arsenal could not maintain that momentum. As they had in the first half, Bolton ground their way back into the game - yet without ever really testing Szczesny again.

But as we reached the last quarter the visitors were the ones chasing the game.

With 20 minutes left, Van Persie sent Nasri through one-on-one but Jaaskelainen saved his first effort and Cahill blocked the rebound. A huge opportunity.

Shortly afterwards, Walcott’s cross was nudged away from the waiting Nasri at the last second.

Arsenal were now in the ascendency. Wenger had already brought on Marouane Chamakh for Song, he followed it with Andrey Arshavin for the tiring Walcott.

The Russian, in particular, gave Wenger’s side renewed impetus and pressure but nothing clear-cut.
A minute from time Johan Elmander burst clear and Szczesny pulled off a fine save. From the corner, substitute Cohen crashed home a close-range header.

It was tough on Arsenal and a terrible way for a title bid full of strife, struggle and purpose to end.

However they have surely proved they are strong enough to challenge more strongly next season.

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 24 Apr 11

Arsène Wenger 'optimistic' about keeping his young team together

Arsène Wenger has been emphasising the need for mental strength virtually every week since this Premier League season began but it is perhaps not his title-chasing side that will require it most at Bolton Wanderers on Sunday.

The state of mind of the hosts must have taken a battering during last week's 5-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat by Stoke and it will be no easy task for their manager, Owen Coyle, to rebuild it in time to thwart Arsenal. "It's down to belief," says Wenger, when asked to explain how a manager can fortify a team mentally. "If your belief is very low, your feeling is very low." Wenger insists that his own team's belief should be high because although their title challenge has faltered in recent weeks Arsenal have not been playing badly. "What we can get from our performances is the belief that we have the quality."

Wenger is confident that his players will retain their self-belief even if they do not win the title, which is why he does not foresee an exodus of disenchanted players. The 'Cesc Fábregas to Barcelona' bandwagon continues to roll, and the contracts of Samir Nasri and Gaël Clichy expire in 12 months, meaning that unless Arsenal re-sign or sell them soon, they could leave for free. "We are talking to Nasri and his agent already and we have the same situation with Clichy. I am very optimistic," Wenger said.

The manager insists that the Spanish press distorted Fábregas's views when claiming that the midfielder wanted Arsenal to change their youth-based philosophy to secure trophies, nevertheless the Frenchman feels it opportune to remind the players that it is not just the manager who determines whether trophies are won. "Nobody is asking them to wait. We can win straight away. The media talk like the players are not responsible for winning trophies. They are as responsible as I am, as the fans are. Why do you think we pay the players? A club, a football team, is a togetherness between the manager, the players, the club, the philosophy. It's very difficult to say that if you do not win I go."

Source: Paul Doyle, The Guardian on 24 Apr 11

Wenger - We are committed to youth policy

Arsène Wenger may buy in the summer but he will NOT abandon his policy of developing young talent at Arsenal.

The Frenchman is rightly proud that a side with an average age of 23 has pushed hard in all four competitions this season. However, like many supporters, he is disappointed that they have failed to landed a trophy in three of those four and a succession of draws leave them odds-against to lift the Premier League title.

On Friday, Wenger revealed that he can spend big money this summer if required but cautioned against adding too many new additions to a side that have come so close. And he will acquire players in a manner than does not block the emerging talent at the Club.

“We will continue to have an absolute commitment to youth,” he said. “We will add to that what is needed. I believe you cannot be responsible, be a big club and have no desire to develop young players.

“I feel there is always a need to improve the team but if you look at our season you cannot come to the conclusion we need a massive change,” he went on.

“That would be completely stupid because - without speaking about being 4-0 up at Newcastle or the Sunderland draw - if we just beat Liverpool and Tottenham we are two points behind Man United and we still have to play them at home.

“You cannot come to a conclusion this team needs a massive change. We lost against Barcelona – just, with ten men.

“We are up there yet because we have not won trophies people destroy us completely.

“But look at the reality,” he told journalists. “If you are the second-best selling newspaper in the country you do not shut your office.

“We live in a world where you are the second best by a little and everybody says you are rubbish. It is not true. That is the modern world but it is not the reality.”

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 22 Apr 11

Arsène Wenger is threatening to become part of Premier League's past

The Arsenal manager once showed English football the future - but now the dramatic effects of his philosophy have waned

The two most disappointed managers in England meet beneath Winter Hill this afternoon. Owen Coyle will doubtless still be hurting from the unforeseen and largely inexplicable events at Wembley last Sunday, though at least he may be permitted to regard the 5-0 drubbing as an aberration in an otherwise smooth-running season. Unlike Arsène Wenger, for whom life has become one slap in the face after another. Originally a witty and genial presence who brought a welcome erudition to English football, the Arsenal manager now cuts a pained and undeniably peevish figure, a creature beginning to shun the light because authority has been undercut by loss of credibility.

The exchange at the end of Wednesday's north London derby was typical. Harry Redknapp was left mugging into the television camera with his hand outstretched, as Wenger strode haughtily down the tunnel. While the impression given that the Arsenal manager had snubbed his Spurs counterpart was not strictly correct – Wenger did give Redknapp's sleeve a cursory tug before turning his back – the grinning home manager's depiction of his rival as a sour loser and crotchety self-obsessive was perfectly accurate. Redknapp had also seen two important points dropped but these days there is only one winner at playing to the gallery. Wenger has saddled himself with the role of permanent victim. Bang on cue, Sir Alex Ferguson has just confirmed he always thought Chelsea would be the greater threat this season. "Maybe Arsenal are better footballers, but Chelsea are the stronger team," the Manchester United manager said.

It should not have been this way. Not this season, at any rate. Perhaps Arsenal were due some sort of fallow period after the heady success of Wenger's early years, and any club trying to live within its means would find it difficult to compete with the cash injected into Chelsea and Manchester City, but this season Arsenal should have won the league. The opportunity was there. United were rarely convincing, especially away from home, City still a work in progress, Chelsea in sudden decline and Tottenham too dizzy with their climb into the top four and subsequent Champions League distractions to mount a serious bid for the title.

United will probably end up champions now, because they have not squandered quite so many points as their rivals, but the scoreless draw at Newcastle on Tuesday was entirely in keeping with their season. Just as Arsenal racing to a 3-1 lead at Spurs the following night, before being inexorably pegged back to 3-3 and ending up grateful to Wojciech Szczesny for keeping out Luka Modric's potential winner, neatly encapsulated the Gunners' campaign.

There is no suggestion that United do not deserve the title; the table never lies and, as Ferguson keeps saying, the most consistent team will finish on top. Yet Arsenal have frequently been excellent this season in a way that United have seldom managed. Should Ferguson's side hold their advantage to secure a historic 19th title one almost feels record books ought to append an asterisk to the achievement, together with a footnote explaining that Arsenal should have won the league that season, but forgot to sign a reliable goalkeeper/buy enough centre‑halves/hold on to important leads/spend more money/insert criticism of choice, using extra sheets of paper if required.

While every runner-up has a hard luck story, Wenger appears to be approaching the stage when he cannot listen to many more. Initially and unfairly dismissed as "a guru" by Ferguson when he came to England, Wenger quickly won respect and silverware because his methods so obviously worked. Premier League managers had not previously over‑burdened themselves with dietary innovation, knowledge of continental football and a high-tempo short-passing game, but Wenger showed the future. Now he is in the past, or at least moving towards it. His input no longer brings dramatic results, unless they are dramatic for the wrong reasons. Taken as a whole, even in a Carling Cup final against lesser opponents, the Gunners misfire.

This season should have been Wenger's swansong, the one where he answered his critics with a knowing smile and a fourth title, an impressive 13 years after the first. Instead it will almost certainly be remembered for Arsenal collapsing when 4-0 up at Newcastle, for throwing away not one but two interval leads against Spurs, for sending for Jens Lehmann, and for trying to pretend that Cesc Fábregas had not raised an uncomfortable truth when discussing his side's philosophy, whether or not his actual words had been faithfully rendered.

Not many clubs can honestly claim a philosophy. Most exist on the simpler expedient of sacking the manager or spending more money until results begin to improve. Arsenal are different, though not as different as all that. Once your own players start to question the success rate the game is probably up. Of course Arsenal still have a great chance next season, but they had an even greater opportunity this time. Chelsea and United can both be expected to strengthen over summer, City and Spurs will push on, and Liverpool could be back in the mix.

While it could be argued that Arsenal's season has been a case of so near yet so far, with Wenger deserving credit for perseverance and occasional highlights such as beating Barcelona, a sterner view would be that something needs to change if a team can finish in the top four every year for six years and not achieve anything else. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, Wenger's Arsenal have been shooting in the dark too long, and when something's not right it's wrong. But both parties will be lonesome should he go.

Source: Paul Wilson, The Guardian on 24 Apr 11

Match Preview: Bolton Wanderers vs Arsenal

“We are in a very interesting situation where we are fighting for the title and yet I am always sitting in a position where you force me to explain why we fail,” said a stony-faced Arsène Wenger at his press conference on Friday.

“For me it's not a comfortable situation because we are fighting in a period where the most important thing is to have belief in what we do and you keep saying 'why have you failed to win?'

“Let's just play for it first and have a go. For me it is important to give absolutely everything until the last game of the season and to be proud. Then, as I have said many times, if there has been somebody better we will have to accept that but, at the moment I don't accept that there is somebody better.”

Those three paragraphs sum up Arsenal’s position perfectly.

They themselves placed the high jump bar to an unprecedented level and have then been pilloried for knocking it off with their trailing leg as they leapt for gold.

Right now it looks like they must settle for a podium place in the main event but the competition is not over. During the past couple of months, Manchester United have provided Wenger’s men with ample opportunity to bridge the gap at the top - they did so in midweek at Newcastle.

Arsenal’s failure to take these chances only make their current predicament doubly frustrating but it does not make Sir Alex Ferguson’s side any stronger – only the position they occupy.

The midweek draws at St James Park and White Hart Lane helped push Chelsea up to second and gave them a scent of the title once more. The Stamford Bridge side have what Arsenal lack – momentum. But both have the opportunity to take points off Manchester United in direct confrontations in the final few games.

Arsenal’s comes next Sunday at Emirates Stadium. It is sandwiched between a couple of tough trips – Bolton this weekend and Stoke in a fortnight.

While the form, fortune and football fraternity are all doubting Wenger’s side right now, three straight wins would put them back in touching distance of the title.

That is why the manager wants the usual ‘blame game’ to start once the title race is over.

And that simply has not happened yet.

“I have no doubt at all we can win all five games,” said Wenger.

“We have a good basis because we are consistent. As you know, we have played 16 games without losing so what I feel is most important for us now is to keep the belief and to win.

“I am convinced that if we win our five games we will win the Premier League. But the target right now is just to win the next one so let’s focus and give absolutely everything to do that. This title will go to the most solid team, mentally. Not necessarily to anybody else. The mental part of the belief is the most important thing to have in the last five games.

“We have beaten Chelsea already and, in our plan, we have to beat Man United now for sure. But even then they can drop points [elsewhere] as well so let’s just win the next game when we go to Bolton.”

Abou Diaby (calf) is the only new absentee for the trip to the Reebok Stadium which Tomas Rosicky will also miss due to sickness. Thomas Vermaelen is in training and Lukasz Fabianski (shoulder) is out for the season. Those four are the extent of the injury list at the Club.

Crucially, Bolton will have Daniel Sturridge back in their side on Sunday. The striker has hit six goals in his eight Premier League games on loan from Chelsea and was sorely missed in the 5-0 defeat to Stoke in the FA Cup Semi-Final last weekend.

Owen Coyle’s side have had a highly-creditable campaign but that Wembley defeat will surely taint the memory and, perhaps, their end-of-season form. But they have won their last four games at home keeping clean sheets in three of them. Arsenal will not presume weakness.

“Bolton have done very well,” said Wenger. “They have just had a massive disappointment, certainly but overall they have been one of the teams above expectations.''

“They would have been thinking about going to the Cup Final and the disappointment must be huge for them. How they will respond I don't know but we have to focus on our own performance in a game of this stature.”

Arsenal are unbeaten in 2011 but have drawn five of their last six games. It was a similar run of stalemates that cost them the title in 2008 when they were leading the table well into March. The only difference this time is that they had most of those games under control.

Earlier in the week, Robin van Persie called their failure to hold on to a lead “almost criminal”. Wenger both disagrees and sympathises.

“I can accept that he feels that way but it is not criminal,” said the manager. “However I use that word sometimes as well. It's how he feels because he is committed to the Club and the team.

“And certainly it is difficult to comprehend. But I think it's a little bit through a desire to do well. What happened to us in the Carling Cup Final was not quality, just nerves, and it happened again against Tottenham and Liverpool.”

Forgive me for donning the rose-tinted spectacles but perhaps that is where the general perception of Arsenal actually may help the team this weekend.

The wider football world feels the team have blown their title chances so maybe the shackles can come off and the early season away form can return.

Either way, Arsenal cannot be discounted just yet. While the expectations have been extinguished for now, at least the hope remains.

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 24 Apr 11

Arsenal's failure to win trophies is not down to faint hearts

The fallacy that only British players have spirit means Arsène Wenger's team are regarded as gutless

There was something brilliantly provocative about the conjoining of two Arsenal related news items this week. The first was a familiar swell of pained and wincing why-oh-whying as it became clear that the Premier League's most consistently infuriating club would not win a trophy this season: talk of callowness, foreign-accented surrenderism and a crucial absence of Anglophone chest-thump. Then, on the same day, came the news that the club had signed, not a tattooed enforcer, or Brian Blessed dressed as Beowulf, but a highly promising eight-year-old boy. In the current mood this seemed like the final insult, not to mention a matter of some concern as though this might be too young to be subjected to full-blown Arsenal-ism, and that perhaps the entire Arsenal lifestyle ought to be ringfenced, available only to consenting foreign cowards.

This is the thing with Arsenal now. They arouse a deeply personal fury. Gutless, spineless, headless – not to mention lacking in heart, balls and biceps – it is a miracle there is anything left of them at all beyond a single slightly fey pair of yellow ballet pumps. It is a gloating, righteous kind of outrage; and no doubt entirely unrelated to the fact Arsène Wenger and his team are still seen as the most prancingly Euro-fied in the Premier League. This isn't anti-Frenchie-ism. We're past all that now. So what is it then?

There is a kind of intolerance at play here. Specifically, Wenger is being denied the opportunity to fall short in the way everyone else falls short – bad signings, muddled tactics, players not good enough. Instead, Wenger's Arsenal lose for one reason: because they lack "heart" and "leadership". They lack "that little bit of spirit", some vital gurning imprint of what a man on the radio described this week with tearful solemnity as "the Tony Adamses, the John Terrys".

It is amazing that this fallacy still exists: the notion that only British players have heart, or have heart as a matter of course whatever their deficiencies elsewhere – and that heart itself can be disassociated from talent and skill, as though one were not a function of the other. On the same radio show an ex-pro described Peter Osgood as "a continental player with a British heart" – a leap of logic that suggests the past 11 World Cups have all been won, miraculously, by players fundamentally lacking in basic courage.

The question remains, though: why is everybody so cross? How do Arsenal inspire this level of jeering moral censure by almost, but not quite, winning several trophies with a young and inexpensive team? The notion that they are guilty of a kind of high-end decadence, a preference for showing off ahead of the rousing, grubby-fingered victory snatch, is a familiar cultural misunderstanding. By now it should be clear that even the most rousing display of "passion" – the sleeve rolling, the finger wagging – is as much about showboating as any prancing triple stepover. Stuart Pearce, for example, is still hoist like a totem of un-arm-wrestlable Anglo-Saxon spirit for his famously gruesome display of passion-showboating after scoring a penalty against Spain at Euro 96. But England, like Arsenal, also fell short that summer. These are just different forms of display, albeit Arsenal's showing off is deemed the wrong kind of showing off, a symptom of some basic cowardice or laziness (never mind the extreme dedication needed to attain these skills in the first place).

Wenger has brought some of this on himself. Nobody likes being told off and Wenger is still the man who made English football feel so chasteningly juvenile when he emerged 15 years ago, single-handedly inventing pasta and stretching, and exposing decisively the myth that drinking lager and jumping up and down in a circle inside a night club called Starzz actually improve performance. After some reflex hostility he was embraced, too, his new age boffin template energetically adopted. This week it emerged that Liverpool's promising academy team have taken to shouting "Build!" at one another during matches, which is very encouraging, albeit perhaps only a step away from shouting "score a stylish continental-style goal!" or "be a bit like Barcelona!". And while it may be more useful for Arsenal's own youngsters to shout things like "maybe hoof it this time!" or "OK, stop building now!" it is possible to detect Wenger's influence even here, the original overseas advocate of the sinuous all-star youth team.

Positions have solidified recently. The Premier League has grown into cosmopolitan adolescence. And Wenger looks vulnerable suddenly. The temptation is there to gloat, to revel in momentary weakness, to swipe the spectacles from his nose. In a way it is heartening that he can still arouse this agitation, that there is space in our game for cultural differences, even imaginary ones (Wenger is after all not really a hoity-toity Frenchman: he is a hoity‑toity economist – coming over here, taking our jobs, failing to bankrupt our football clubs).

So Wenger should be allowed to lose in his own way: neatly, profitably, perhaps a little airlessly, polishing in private his own fiscally calibrated triumphs, parading his balance sheet around the deserted streets on his one‑man open top bus.

Source: Barney Ronay, The Guardian on 23 Apr 11

Arsenal keep the flame flickering but are left praying for favours

Arsenal's players fear that the recent run of damaging draws may have fatally undermined their Premier League title challenge. There remains optimism inside the dressing room that the leaders Manchester United can be caught, while Arsène Wenger said after the game that he considered the title race to be "completely open".

However, there is also an admission that Arsenal's only real hope now is on their rivals slipping up and dropping points in the remaining fixtures.

Chelsea, who have taken 19 points from an available 21 to promote their chances, have to visit Old Trafford and Arsenal have United to play at home. United lead both the London clubs by six points, with five games to play but the reality for Arsenal, who have drawn five of their last six, is that they need favours from elsewhere.

"Of course the draws are costing us," the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny said. "We want to win every single game and we know that every time we draw, we drop two points, especially when we need to catch Man United. But, thankfully, they are dropping points as well so it's not finished yet, although it's going to be very difficult."

"It's not in our hands and it has not been for some time and we have to rely on other teams to take some points off Man United. But they are not on top form, I don't think, and we have to hope that they are going to drop points. We have to focus on every single game and on getting the result on Sunday [at Bolton Wanderers]. We are going to fight until the end."

The defender Bacary Sagna was asked whether he felt Arsenal were drawing too many games. "I think so, to be champions," he replied. "Especially at home, we have dropped many points. From now, we need to look forward and we must not drop any more points."

"We have to play United and we have to win. They have some hard games coming up, it is not easy for them and it is down to us if we want to win something. We know that we have to win our last games. I believe we can do it."

Fatigue has become a major concern to Wenger. After the draining 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Sunday, when Arsenal conceded the equaliser in the 12th minute of stoppage time, the manager felt his players "suffered physically" in the second half at Tottenham. He is expected to keep changes to a minimum at Bolton and so he will ask the same players to dig deep once again.

Arsenal's biggest reason to be cheerful was the form that they rediscovered in the first half at White Hart Lane. "We played a good team but we played our own game, something we hadn't done for a long time," Sagna said. "We saw the real Arsenal."

Unfortunately, though, the real Arsenal tends to feature lapses and nervousness. The timing of Tom Huddlestone's goal for Tottenham on 44 minutes, which pegged Arsenal back to 3-2, ensured a jittery half-time break and Szczesny would leave his line recklessly to concede the 70th minute penalty that produced Rafael van der Vaart's equaliser. "We are a bit nervous at the moment defensively," Wenger said. "That's why we were caught. The second goal hurt us a lot."

Szczesny had no complaints about the penalty award for his foul on Aaron Lennon. "I did bring him down," the goalkeeper said. "He got the slightest of touches but it was always going to be given. I committed myself and he went down. He got to the ball first and it was a very good decision by the referee."

Hope, though, continues to swirl around the club, with Wenger and the players telling themselves that United will leave the door open. "We have games that we know we can win," the manager said. "At some stage, we know it will be down to us."

Source: David Hytner, The Guardian on 21 Apr 11

Rafael van der Vaart saves Spurs in six-goal thriller with Arsenal

Seldom can disappointment have been so spectacular. Arsenal will rue the 3-1 lead torn from them but the night deserves to be prized for the confirmation of the talent in their ranks and those of Tottenham Hotspur. Arsène Wenger had a weary tone to his voice afterwards even as he was claiming that the outcome of the Premier League is "completely open".

The prospects are poor for him. Arsenal are in third place behind Chelsea on goal difference, with Manchester United six points ahead of both. From another perspective it can be argued that Wenger's squad have the ability to thrive, even if yet more adjustments are necessary. He and everyone else appreciates where the problem lies.

Once again the defence were not steadfast and references to the unavailability of Thomas Vermaelen, who has missed virtually all of this campaign, also speak of the lack of credible alternatives. Yet it took Rafael van der Vaart at his very best to expose the brittleness of Arsenal.

He has usually been played behind a single striker for Tottenham and can look subdued. In this match the Dutchman was permitted more scope since the manager, Harry Redknapp, had two outright strikers in Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko. That approach may not continue since it leaves the midfield outnumbered but this was an evening for expansiveness.

As early as the fifth minute Cesc Fábregas released Theo Walcott to shoot low past Heurelho Gomes. Tottenham were not to be discouraged and it was simple sense for Redknapp to seek insistent attacking.

The equaliser came in the seventh minute. Vedran Corluka passed towards Van der Vaart and, as Johan Djourou lost his footing, the Dutchman finished strongly. Tottenham were again left in the visitors' wake when Abou Diaby set up Samir Nasri for a shot from 20 yards that went through the legs of Michael Dawson on its way to the net after 12 minutes.

This was a match that seethed with adventure. Gomes was able to reach a header from Robin van Persie after a Walcott cross but when the goalkeeper pushed the ball back Van Persie converted it with force in the 40th minute.

Tom Huddlestone then struck from 20 yards to cut Tottenham's deficit to 3-2 before half-time.

There was an abundance of interest, some of it troubling. Gareth Bale felt the impact of the Arsenal goalkeeper as Wojciech Szczesny collided with the Welshman. Bale made an effort to persevere but was clearly in trouble and was replaced at half-time by Aaron Lennon. Tottenham, however, do not believe the injury to be serious.

Bale's departure may have been encouraging for Arsenal, who have the best away form in the Premier League. Despite their spirit their lead was still slim and to Wenger's exasperation a drive by Van Persie that would have put the side 4-2 ahead was ruled out for offside. The manager was convinced the assistant referee was mistaken. The game became increasingly tough for the visitors, even if Szczesny was equal to the moment when he excelled in reaching and turning away a strong shot from Van der Vaart.

Tottenham were assured by then, pinning down Arsenal more than they had done earlier.

They equalised with a penalty in the 70th minute. Szczesny, who has just turned 21, looked gauche when he miscalculated while rushing out to bring down Lennon, who was tearing down Tottenham's left flank. Van der Vaart converted the penalty on an evening that could not bear to pause for breath.

In principle there is volatility still in this contest for the Premier League title. Manchester United must go to the Emirates and Sir Alex Ferguson's side also take on Chelsea in what could be the pivotal game at Old Trafford. There is intrigue in all of that, yet it is hard to picture Arsenal as the beneficiaries.

When the thrill of this spectacle at White Hart Lane has faded, the space will be filled by the realisation that Arsenal blew a 3-1 lead.

It ought to be appreciated that in advance of this fixture Tottenham had scored a mere 22 Premier League goals on this ground. If they were at times irrepressible, it was because Arsenal permitted them to be so.

Wenger is under an obligation to believe that all may yet go his way but the rest of football will think about what lies ahead in the longer term for Arsenal. If they are to win trophies again, they will have to discover a way of being more forceful.

Source: Kevin McCarra, The Guardian on 21 Apr 11

Rafa double dents Gunners title hopes

Arsenal threw away the chance to put themselves back in the Premier League title race as they surrendered a lead to draw 3-3 with Tottenham in a six-goal North London derby thriller at White Hart Lane.

The Gunners had stormed into a 3-1 lead after Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie all struck in the first half, with Rafael van der Vaart notching for the home side.

But a 20-yard rocket from Tom Huddlestone before the break and a 70th-minute penalty from Van der Vaart ensured that Spurs picked up a point, meaning Arsenal dropped to third, six points behind league leaders Manchester United.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas had criticised his team-mates before the match, claiming that the Gunners lacked a killer instinct, and that was certainly evident in the second period as they failed to finish their bitter rivals off despite dominating for large parts of the opening half.

Manchester United's draw at Newcastle on Tuesday night meant this encounter was the perfect opportunity for Arsenal to put the pressure back on the leaders and regain some momentum after Sunday's disappointing draw with Liverpool.

Spurs needed little motivation for the match though, as they knew a win would give the club their first league double over their bitter local rivals for 18 years and see them draw them level with fourth-placed Manchester City.

The game started well for Arsene Wenger's men as the game lived up to its pre-match billing with three goals within the first 12 minutes amid a white-hot atmosphere.

Fabregas took advantage of Huddlestone's carelessness in the centre of the park to release Walcott, who calmly slotted past Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes from inside the box.

Just two more minutes had passed before Van der Vaart equalised. Vedran Corluka threaded the Dutchman through before he beat Wojciech Szczesny at his near post to claim his first Spurs goal in over two months.

Arsenal were back in the lead five minutes later though as Tottenham's defence were made to pay for backing off as Nasri fired a deflected shot past Gomes from 25 yards.

The match was being fought with genuine steel as Abou Diaby proved when he clattered into Luka Modric, but referee Martin Atkinson waved play on, much to the anger of the home bench.

The Spurs defence seemed to have no answer to Walcott's pace as he raced through their stationary defence on the half-hour only to see his shot trickle wide.

The home fans were given a scare when Gareth Bale was left needing treatment after coming off second-best in an aerial tussle with Szczesny, but he returned to action a couple of minutes later as Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp urged his side to look for an equaliser.

It was Arsenal who got themselves on the scoresheet next though thanks to William Gallas' mistake. The former Arsenal man failed to clear the ball inside the Tottenham box and Walcott crossed to find Van Persie, who beat Gomes at the second attempt after the Brazilian had palmed away the striker's first header.

Bale was carried off on a stretcher after being clattered over by Szczesny and limped throughout the remainder of the half. Two minutes before the break Huddlestone put Spurs back in the game with a wonderfully-hit half-volley from 20 yards after Arsenal had cleared a corner. Bale did not emerge for the second half and was replaced by Aaron Lennon.

Peter Crouch gave Bacary Sagna a bloody nose as they went up for a header before Wenger brought on Jack Wilshere for Diaby, who hobbled off the pitch through injury.

Spurs started the second half quietly but they suddenly sprang into life in the 54th minute when Modric played in Van der Vaart, who hit a fierce shot that drew a top-class diving save from Szczesny.

Van Persie had the ball in the net soon after but the goal was ruled out for offside, with replays suggesting the Dutchman was half a yard onside.

Walcott broke through for Arsenal again, but this time Benoit Assou-Ekotto tracked back, forcing the England winger to shoot wide.

Spurs were handed a golden chance to get back into the game when Szczesny tripped Lennon in the box in the 70th minute and Van der Vaart duly obliged, slotting home from 12 yards to make it 3-3.

Modric should have put Spurs ahead from six yards but he shot straight at Szczesny, who cleared with his feet on the line.

Wenger, sensing his chances of winning the game, and indeed the title, were slipping away from him, brought on Andrey Arshavin and Nicklas Bendtner for Walcott and Nasri.

Substitute Sandro then danced past two Arsenal defenders before seeing his shot saved by Arsenal's Polish goalkeeper.

Tottenham desperately sought a fourth and Laurent Koscielny almost gifted it to them when his header almost flew into his own net in injury time as a breathless match drew to a close.

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 20 Apr 11

Time for Wenger to change the record

Arsene Wenger has been a figure ripe for satire ever since his first public utterance of "I did not see the incident", but the past week may have marked the point at which the Arsenal manager lapsed entirely into self-parody. So empty is his rhetoric at present, Wenger appears to have entered the realm of propaganda.

After that draw against Liverpool last weekend and his side's failure to hold onto a lead on three separate occasions against Tottenham on Wednesday, Wenger is again fiercely battling the perception that Arsenal are mentally shot, that their lack of experience renders them inept in the face of pressure at the business end of the season.

From his determination to blame anyone but Emmanuel Eboue for Liverpool's 102nd-minute penalty, to insisting in the wake of another capitulation against Spurs that "this team has a remarkable attitude", despite all evidence to the contrary, Wenger is engaged in a full-on information war with his detractors in the media and beyond.

It is a war he is losing. In fact, his stance could hardly be more transparent if he was declaring "there is no presence of American infidels" as a statue of Saddam Hussein was torn to the ground behind him and battered with 50 pairs of trainers.

In order to fight his corner, Wenger has long equipped himself with a stock of phrases that have been articulated to Arsenal supporters so often since their last trophy success in 2005. Time and again, they have been told that his young players are ready to seize their destiny, that they now possess a steely determination. When Arsenal lose, it is culpable referees who are at fault, or else the teams that travel to Emirates Stadium with no intention of playing football, by Wenger's very strict definition.

However, the result of continually pursuing such a discourse is a lack of accountability and responsibility at Emirates Stadium, perhaps contributing to the dereliction of duty his players now perform on a yearly basis at around February or March, as competition after competition is surrendered.

With Arsenal beating only Leyton Orient and Blackpool since the Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham, and all but ending their hopes in four trophies in the process, Wenger's refrain rings more hollow than ever. After the Tottenham draw his team were hailed as "remarkably consistent". Laughable, of course, unless Wenger was referring to their unerring success in accumulating draws at present, but another example of how he seeks to shape the popular perception of his side.

He is hardly alone in this - any manager with any inkling of how to do their job properly engages in similar pursuits - but unfortunately for the Arsenal manager, propaganda cannot entirely mask reality, and this week sensitive information slipped out from within his own camp in the form of Cesc Fabregas' interview with Don Balon.

It is worth revisiting some salient points from that interview. "Either go out and win or develop players ... for me it's more a lack of a winning mentality, also of maturity in key moments. We have plenty of quality but lack this bit of confidence ... the problem is that the team needs to win something ... nobody in the team has won anything. We are missing that ability to say: 'Now I know what it is to win and I know what it takes to win'."

All salient points, eloquently expressed, that go firmly against the party line. Speaking after the Spurs draw, Wenger expressed his disappointment with the way the interview was presented, particularly as he said the club had been given copy approval. Failing to control the message meant an inconvenient truth slipped out: his own captain had conceded that Arsenal lack a winning mentality.

Then again, the evidence was there for all to see. In recent seasons, the following scorelines are enough to bring any Gunners supporter out in a sweat: Arsenal 4-4 Tottenham, Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal, Arsenal 2-3 Tottenham, Tottenham 3-3 Arsenal, Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool, Wigan 3-2 Arsenal. All capitulations of varying degrees that you cannot imagine a club like Manchester United suffering with anything like that kind of regularity. The message is clear: Arsenal can't close out a game, let alone a title race.

Given the wonderful way in which they play on occasion and their long list of excellent results under Wenger, this particular vulnerability must be mental in nature. It is not a failure of technique or ability, and it needs to be rectified with the addition in the summer of players who have experience in winning a trophy, or else the mistakes of the past are surely destined to be repeated by a group of players who have known little else.

Losing a lead on three occasions against Tottenham provoked further questions about Arsenal

Doing so would not represent a complete betrayal of Wenger's transfer policy - a policy which was both laudable and necessary as the club moved from Highbury to Emirates Stadium. In fact, it is worth noting here that Wenger cannot be praised enough for the firm base he has given Arsenal in terms of infrastructure and finance, a base that should ensure their place amongst the elite for some time. Similarly, though he was pilloried for saying so, he was right that consistently finishing in a Champions League place is a form of success in its own right.

But that does not mean that more tangible success cannot be obtained with a more ambitious transfer policy, or that there should not be an element of flexibility in his approach in the market. After all, no one accuses Barcelona of abandoning their focus on La Masia having spent big on David Villa. Signing an experienced player who could improve the resilience of the dressing room would be a legitimate tweak to his approach.

The problem is that Wenger's stubborn adherence to his principles may preclude against him doing so. Most Arsenal fans were bemused when no new goalkeeper was signed at the start of the season, while the failure to recruit a new defender in January given Thomas Vermaelen's injury problems was also perplexing. Never prepared to stymie the development of a young talent, it appears Wenger has lost an element of ambition in his approach to the transfer market. Some room for manoeuvre is required, particularly as fans are steeling themselves for a rise in ticket prices just as it appears that Arsenal are not putting their considerable finances to pertinent use.

It barely needs stating that Wenger's legacy in English football is manifold, that he has transformed Arsenal beyond recognition off and on the pitch and is one of the great managers of modern times in English football. Any suggestions he should leave the club are beyond ridiculous.

But some element of change in his approach is required, even if his public utterances suggest that may be an unlikely prospect.

Source: Tom Adams, ESPN Soccernet on 21 Apr 11

Arsenal fall short in derby classic

Arsene Wenger fell back on the cushions that have provided constant comfort throughout Arsenal's barren years - but nothing can offer protection from the brutal reality that unfolded before him at White Hart Lane.

Despite seeing the Gunners drop to third in the Premier League table behind Manchester United and Chelsea, Wenger praised his players for their mental fortitude, commitment and attitude in a 3-3 draw with Tottenham that was a classic of its kind.

And yet the agitated, animated behaviour of the Frenchman in his technical area as Arsenal cast aside a two-goal lead, betrayed torment at the latest wasted opportunity.

Wenger, whose side lie six points behind United with only five games left, rightly stated that Arsenal can still claim the title but the body language of manager and players as referee Martin Atkinson called time on a wonderful game suggested this may well be the setback that takes the goal tantalisingly out of reach once more.

Wenger looked drained from the sheer emotion and disappointment of it all. And for all his understandable praise for Arsenal - and there is so much to admire - there is a vulnerability, a fragility about his side that has once again driven at the heart of their pursuit of success this season.

He railed against decisions with the fourth official, gestured furiously at his defenders when Arsenal were under pressure and engaged his backroom staff in heated discussion. The pressure, self-evidently, was on.

Arsenal have had six points for the taking against Liverpool and Spurs and walked away with two. In a Premier League season that has hardly been vintage quality, these are the fine margins on which it will be decided.

And if Arsenal do not win the title, they will have cast aside a golden chance.

The neutral would need a hard heart not to feel sympathy for Wenger and his admirable principles but the evidence suggests his philosophy needs tweaking.

For those who might want someone else in charge at Arsenal, they should be careful what they wish for. The Gunners do not need a new manager, just a slight change from the current one.

Spurs and Arsenal deserve huge credit for laying on a lavish feast at White Hart Lane, a carnival of positive intent, flowing football and excitement from first to last.

Arsenal were a delight in the first half but faced opponents who are also among the most pleasing on the eye in the Premier League and who finished the stronger following a free weekend.

The Gunners' boss appeared to derive only occasional pleasure from this purist's delight. Even a purist such as Wenger knows trophies have to come eventually. He is now looking at the sharp end of six seasons without success - unless there is a late twist.

Arsenal arrived at White Hart Lane knowing victory was imperative but produced a performance full of the good and bad that has come to characterise them.

For a team carrying the wounds from a Liverpool equaliser so late in the day on Sunday that it almost carried over into Monday, Arsenal were breathtaking in the first 45 minutes. Cesc Fabregas ran midfield with Samir Nasri, while the speed of Theo Walcott and thrust of Robin van Persie offered an added dimension.

Walcott, Nasri and Van Persie were all on target - but this fine work was undone by the strain of frailty that runs through this Arsenal side and which Wenger has failed to address.

Rafael van der Vaart cancelled out Walcott's opener then scored the 70th-minute penalty that rounded things off but the goal from Tom Huddlestone was the one that really drove a wedge between Arsenal and their title aspirations.

Leading 3-1 and with half-time approaching, the outcome may well have been different had Arsenal survived until the interval. Instead, sloppy work gave Huddlestone the opportunity to find the net with a thunderous strike - and Arsenal were left exposed.

A breathtaking second half ended with honours and the score even but it was Spurs who were more satisfied at the end. They had a point that keeps them in the hunt for the Champions League. Arsenal had a point that is likely to be less than they required.

Wenger praised his team under what he feels is the weight of media criticism, saying: "I don't know any team that has been hammered like us for the last two months who would have turned up with such an attitude."

The siege mentality is a predictable default position but Wenger requires a trophy to satisfy those he sees as Arsenal's critics. No-one ever won silverware armed only with a set of newspaper cuttings. Success is the best reply he can give.

He may still do it this season, remembering its unpredictability, but the odds are now against him. What he witnessed again at Spurs will tell him that Arsenal still require greater authority in central defence and midfield to cure their ills.

Wenger looks to have a keeper of stature in Wojciech Szczesny, who had an eventful evening but showed rich potential with fine saves and a legitimate show of bravery and decisiveness that effectively ended Gareth Bale's involvement after 45 minutes.

For Spurs, cut apart with regularity in the first half and threatened throughout, this represented a point gained. In Van der Vaart and Luka Modric, they had players fit to stand comparison with Nasri and Fabregas on Wednesday.

Van der Vaart was back to his early-season best, while diminutive Croatian Modric was on the receiving end of heavy physical attention but was still able to show the appreciation and awareness that makes him such an outstanding performer.

After Tottenham's victory at Arsenal earlier this season, Redknapp announced his side could be regarded as serious title contenders. This has not come to pass but Spurs have the squad and the capacity to be regular top-four contenders.

A share of the points was the right conclusion, although Wenger clearly felt a Van Persie strike ruled out when the score was 3-2 should have stood.

The season may yet hold one last twist - it has been that type of campaign - but the twist at White Hart Lane may well be the one that finally snuffed out Arsenal's title chances.

Source: Phil McNulty, BBC Sport on 21 Apr 11