There is a wall-sized photograph at Arsenal’s training ground of The
Invincibles of 2003-04. Most of the players in the picture have departed the
club and time has moved on, but Arsène Wenger is caught in freeze-frame. For
him, it is still the case that Arsenal are never beaten. They can lose games
but it is impossible for them to suffer defeat.
“If you lose against a team who you feel are better than you, then fair
enough, but that’s not the impression we got after these two matches,” he
said, rejecting the notion that Champions League elimination by Liverpool
was any kind of tangible reverse.
It was not the first time in recent months that Wenger has declined to accept
being vanquished. He is a postmodernist when it comes to football results:
what a scoreline appears to say is not necessarily what it means, at least
when it comes to ones that show Arsenal with fewer goals than their
opposition. When Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 last month, Wenger sniffed: “It
was a game we should have won; they decided to play long-ball and that was
the only way they could trouble us.”
He added that Chelsea’s first goal had been offside. He was even dismissive
about Tottenham beating Arsenal 5-1 in the Carling Cup semi-final second
leg. “The score was very brutal but it doesn’t reflect what I have seen,
because the first shot was a goal, the second goal was an own goal, the
third goal was after half-time and the rest of the game had no real
meaning,” he said. Lucky old Spurs. Five fortunate goals.
The subtext in Wenger’s reasoning is always similar, that his side play the
“best football” and are therefore always, in one sense, tops. When his young
players staggered, dazed, from the beautiful wreckage of their game at
Anfield on Tuesday, as they made their way down the tunnel, you wondered
whether Wenger’s logic is becoming dangerous to their development.
No, Liverpool did not outplay Arsenal in their Champions League quarter-final
but they scored against them five times, enough to make them plausible
victors in any football contest. Arsenal were ahead (taking away goals into
account) three times in the tie and could not make it over the line. By
suggesting, continually, that his team have not been overcome when actually
they have, is Wenger giving his players excuses to lose?
At Old Trafford this afternoon he meets opponents whose record is troubling to
his logic. It would be hard to argue that Manchester United’s play has been
inferior to Arsenal’s over the past two seasons and Sir Alex Ferguson’s side
are reigning champions, top of the Premier League again, and in their second
successive Champions League semi-final. United are a young side, too, but
they appear to have found a way of being gorgeous on the eye while getting
on with the ugly business of winning.
And there was a curious role reversal when the clubs last met at Old Trafford,
in February. Then, in the FA Cup fifth round, Arsenal were unsightly in
their play and negative in approach and their captain, William Gallas,
kicked up the backside a young opponent – Nani – who “insulted” him with a
show of skill.
Where Wenger is right is to keep pointing out that Arsenal still have a title
to race for. If they only had their hosts to run against there would be more
of a frisson about today’s game but it is unlikely, with so few fixtures
left, that both United and Chelsea can be overhauled in the Premier League.
Yet it is possible and Wenger is also correct to make proclamations about
his young team’s reserves of determination. The willpower of Cesc Fabregas
and company is demonstrable in the number of last-minute goals they score,
one of which rescued a point against United at the Emirates stadium in
November.
On Tuesday evening, Robin van Persie was asked if he welcomed the fact that
Arsenal’s next game was against Manchester United and a big enough one to
offer some measure of redemption. “Of course. It’s like a bonus or
something,” he said. “The whole situation has changed because everybody
expected us to go through [to the Champions League semi-finals] and that
didn’t happen, so we can only hope on the last five league games and that’s
that. Everyone’s really upset now, but on Sunday we’ll give it our best shot
because if we win we’re three points behind Man U and anything is possible
from there.”
Should Arsenal finish prize-less for a third consecutive campaign, their run
of one trophy – an FA Cup – in four years would be Wenger’s worst since he
arrived in England 12 years ago. Jose Mourinho said that he found it odd
that the Frenchman’s position is not endangered. “I don’t think he is ever
under pressure,” said Van Persie, “because what he did for Arsenal is
really, really big. I understand the question but the boss has the trust
from people above him and it’s good because when you sign for Arsenal, you
know you’re going to have this manager for a couple of years. For me, the
basic of football is to give enjoyment to people. That’s where it starts.”
It is no surprise that Van Persie, the son of two artists, and a Dutch
footballer to boot, shares his manager’s love of aesthetics. “We are like 11
actors,” he said. “We have to give enjoyment to people buying a ticket. Of
course you have to work from that basic but I don’t want to change because I
really believe we can win things, big things, with this style of football. I
am sure we will not change our philosophy now.”
Even actors are measured by their Oscars, Oliviers and Baftas, however.
Arsenal could end the season with nothing but their boast about playing nice
football. “Yes, and there are a lot of teams who didn’t play so well and
didn’t win anything either,” was Van Persie’s riposte. “This is the way that
we think football has to be played and we really think we can win with this
approach to the game. It’s not happening and that’s a big blow because,
again, I expected us to go through [in the Champions League] because we are
a better team. That is a funny thing to say right now but I think we are
better than Liverpool.”
Leaving Anfield, Kolo Toure was similarly sanguine. Has Wenger promoted a
culture in which, because winning doesn’t mean everything, it doesn’t mean
enough? Van Persie denied it. “No,” he said, emphatically, when asked
whether he was happy for the team to lose as long as they played well.
It is undeniable that Arsenal have not been this season’s most fortunate team,
taking into account injuries and penalty decisions – though Liverpool’s
award was correct on Tuesday.
“We’ve missed Tomas [Rosicky] and that’s been a big blow because he’s a great
player, and we’ve been unlucky with injuries to myself and a few others,”
said Van Persie. “And of course there’s Eduardo [who had his leg broken
playing against Birmingham]. That was really hard to take because it’s just
so . . . useless . . . what happened there. So stupid. And, of course, that
was hard for every squad member.”
Arsenal were 14 minutes from being European champions two years ago and, no
matter how it ends, they have challenged harder for the English title this
season than in any campaign since 2003-04. Perhaps they deserve a little
longer to see if, like Manchester United, they can win pretty while others
do it ugly. There is no doubting that Wenger’s current creation is
inimitable.
That’s a long way from invincible, though.
How Arsenal can find United’s weakest link
United’s campaign has been built on Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic at the
heart of defence, but when one is missing, the cracks start to show. Vidic
missed last Sunday’s match at Middlesbrough and the Teessiders took full
advantage, earning a 2-2 draw. Arsenal can follow Boro’s example. While the
towering Emmanuel Adebayor keeps Ferdinand busy, Arsenal can use the pace of
Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott to exploit the space behind Ferdinand’s
partner – whether it’s Wes Brown or Gerard Pique
A word of advice
Only three managers have enjoyed league wins over United this season. Here,
two of those who pulled it off offer Arsène Wenger a few tips
Alan Curbishley (West Ham): ‘Arsenal must really go for it and it could
be crucial that they score first. That is the key’
Sven-Göran Eriksson(Man City): ‘There’s no trick to beating
United. You just have to work hard, be aggressive and keep the team compact.
That’s the secret’
Filling Vidic’s boots
Sir Alex Ferguson used Wes Brown and John O’Shea in defence against
Middlesbrough last week and United looked distinctly shaky. Gerard Pique
deputised for Vidic against Roma in midweek and looked much more
comfortable. The young Spaniard is likely to get the nod to partner
Ferdinand again today
