On the opening day of the Premier League season, when Arsenal required a stoppage-time goal to turn an afternoon of angst into the release of a late win against Crystal Palace, Arsène Wenger took it all in his phlegmatic stride. “Our fluency we can do better. That will come,” he said back in August.
A couple of months and seven Premier League matches later, another late rescue mission – this time to draw against a purposeful Hull City – was not enough to prevent the home support from wondering why that fluency still has not come with any consistency. There was an all too familiar feel to Arsenal’s travails against Steve Bruce’s well-organised side. On the one hand, too many attacking players worked on individual instincts, which made it hard to flow, on the other, defensive lapses were costly.
Trying to analyse the state of affairs afterwards, Wenger acknowledged that the campaign to date has been far more challenging than he anticipated. “Yes, much more,” he mused. “It’s difficult to say why because there’s not just one reason. It’s a post-World Cup year. It’s as well because we had to play Besiktas to qualify for the Champions League without having everybody ready. We have missed many players.
“But what is most frustrating is that we never come out of games feeling that we have been dominated. We always feel there was room to win the game and that was not always the case last season but our defensive efficiency is not there at the moment. You cannot survive at the top level by conceding always two goals. It’s impossible. It’s an urgency not to give easy goals away like we did.”
How can that be fixed in a hurry? “It’s a bit linked with confidence and concentration and we have to adjust that,” said Wenger. Easier said than done, especially as Arsenal are painfully short of defensive know-how, with Mathieu Debuchy out for several months, Laurent Koscielny struggling with his achilles and little in the way of experienced backup – the teenager Héctor Bellerín did put in a creditable performance at right-back though.
Ahead of the back line, the lack of a dominating defensive midfielder does not help when it comes to protection and disrupting potential problems at source. When questioned about such matters post-match, Wenger was touchy enough to suggest a raw nerve had been struck.
Arsenal go to Anderlecht in the Champions League on Wednesday still stretched at the back and with the likelihood of the third-choice goalkeeper, Damián Martínez, starting because David Ospina is another on the injury list, while Wojciech Szczesny is suspended.
Hull came believing they could achieve a positive result. They had to improvise and reorganise themselves as they lost Nikica Jelavic just before kick-off and Steve Harper before half-time. A low-key start and going behind to an expertly crafted Alexis Sánchez goal did not auger well – but the response was excellent.
Bruce was particularly pleased with the two goalscorers, who had been “halfway around the world” on international duty. “You just have to go on a long-haul holiday yourself. You come back on a plane, you’re physically knackered. You can’t sleep, you can’t do this. To expect to come and play a game of football?”
Mohamed Diamé equalised after a powerful run – assisted by some refereeing leniency when the midfielder pawed at Mathieu Flamini’s neck – and went in front when Abel Hernández capitalised on the defensive passivity that left Wenger so exasperated. Sánchez was the inspiration to save Arsenal late on as his spark provided the chance for Danny Welbeck to clip in for 2-2.
“For goodness sake, we’re disappointed we didn’t win at the Emirates,” exclaimed Bruce. “That wouldn’t have been possible two years ago. No disrespect to the players we had then but the players we’ve got now are in a different league. We’ve got an unbelievably good squad. I didn’t think we could be attracting people like Hernández and Ramírez, and Livermore and Huddlestone, and Dawson and Davies. It’s endless. From the outside, people can see that we’re progressing very well. It’s important that we keep progressing, though. We’ve got to keep moving because every other team does. We’ve set ourselves some really, really high standards.”
Staying in the Premier League remains the priority. “Well, we’ve got to stay in,” added Bruce. “The club announced its figures this week. As an old-fashioned manager, you look to make sure that they’re good and you try and look after your housekeeping. But you see a difference from a turnover of £11m to £83m. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to find out where we need to be.”
Hull keep looking up. Arsenal remain frustrated by themselves.
Man of the match Eldin Jakupovic (Hull)