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Arsenal's loss to Manchester City an example of how Arsene Wenger allowed his side to slip into a state of mediocrity

The same players who have failed to adapt over the last three years are now being asked to drag Arsenal out of the mire

Jonathan Liew
Chief Sports Writer
Monday 06 November 2017 07:58 GMT
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Wenger comments after loss at Man City

Few Arsenal triumphs in recent years have felt as seminal as the 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium in January 2015. It was a win so unexpected, so momentous, that somebody was moved to make a YouTube compilation of Francis Coquelin’s performance in central midfield that day. And it was seemingly a fleeting reminder that Arsene Wenger, once the most exciting and innovative coach in European football, was still capable of learning a new trick or two.

With the benefit of three years’ hindsight, it is possible now to see that game as a sort of chimera, perhaps even a cruel joke on Arsenal fans, a prank Valentine’s Day card. Arsenal were not especially bad against Manchester City on Sunday, and yet were still outplayed. Wenger muttered about offside on the third goal, about Raheem Sterling’s diving skills on the second. But equally, City’s three goals could easily have been more.

It was tempting to wonder, then, how exactly these two clubs have allowed such a yawning gulf to appear between them. Finances have played their part, of course. And yet perhaps a more telling point of comparison is the fact that 10 of the Arsenal 11 that started at the Etihad in 2015 are still at the club, as opposed to just four for City.

Such is the relentless churn and innovation of modern football that clubs need to maintain a state of almost permanent revolution. Most of the jetsam of the Pellegrini era has been shifted out of the club, replaced with younger, hungrier faces. The process has not always been harmonious. Occasionally, it has been ruthless. Yet it appears to have had the desired effect of driving up minimum standards. Under Pep Guardiola, unless you are injured, you improve or you leave. There is very little middle ground.

Arsenal’s squad, meanwhile, seems to consist of very little else. There is very little to suggest that, say, Hector Bellerin or Aaron Ramsey or Alexis Sanchez or Theo Walcott or Coquelin are radically better players than they were two or three years ago. Yet they remain: the players responsible for Arsenal’s most recent era of middling mediocrity are, curiously, the same players who are now being asked to drag them out of it.

You can reinvent a club without changing the manager: Sir Alex Ferguson broke up and remade at least half a dozen champion teams during his time at Manchester United. What matters is the ceaseless thirst for new frontiers, for risk-taking, for upheaval. Compare the 2009 and 2011 Barcelona sides that Guardiola led to Champions League glory. The midfield trios are the same, but virtually everything else has changed, from the back four to the position of Lionel Messi to the way they seek to build attacks.

While manager's like Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola adapt, Wenger hasn't been able to

It took Guardiola two years to essentially dismantle and rebuild a Champions League-winning team. It has taken Wenger three to find a replacement for Francis Coquelin. Arsenal, the world’s seventh-richest club, certainly have the resources to keep up with football’s rapid pace of change. Whether there is the will, of course, is another matter entirely.

A year ago, when Wenger was celebrating his 20th anniversary of taking over at Arsenal, Guardiola was asked whether he could ever see himself staying at one club for that length of time. Guardiola met the question with a slow, incredulous shake of the head. “I like to move,” he said. “I like to leave, to see new things. Everyone is everyone. But twenty years? No way.”

Have players like Hector Bellering improved over the last three years?

For Guardiola has always understood that football clubs, like football managers, need to adapt to thrive. Under Wenger, Arsenal have failed to adapt, which may explain why they are no longer thriving.

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