The manager gets his tactics right and the players rediscover their fighting spirit to see off Manchester City at Wembley to secure a place in the FA Cup finalJust for a moment, unfettered by the constricting context of this turbulent season and the grisly dance around the topic of that contract, the sun broke through. Arsène Wenger stood in his technical area and the body language all around him was positive. Gabriel Paulista – a player apparently reborn during the course of the match – won another battle of wills with the threatening Leroy Sané. Mesut Özil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain shared a boosting handshake as they passed each other on the pitch. The German juggled the ball casually as he...
The Arsenal manager received support from one of his former players following the 3-0 loss at Crystal Palace but so bad was his team’s display and so vitriolic the abuse from away fans that he is now surely done at the clubMathieu Flamini was doing his best to say the right things, to see a broader picture and to tip-toe around the subject that has come to hold Arsenal, his former club, in its grip. It was a little after 10.30pm on Monday night and the Crystal Palace midfielder, who had come on as a late substitute in his team’s 3-0 thumping of Arsenal, was talking in the Selhurst Park mixed zone. Related: Arsène Wenger left wincing after Arsenal wave...
Frenchman’s side lose vital ground in battle for fourth on a night when they showed little appetite for the fight against opponents who scented bloodWhen Arsène Wenger drove into the Arsenal training ground last Tuesday he was greeted by a sight that spoke loudly on several levels: a grown man had put on the full Arsenal kit and was holding aloft a mock “fourth-place trophy”. It was yet another protest against Wenger’s regime.Never mind the ridicule, Wenger would gladly sign up for another fourth-place finish after what has been an impossibly stressful campaign. But the chances of that happening look increasingly slim. It was not only the scale of this defeat by Sam Allardyce’s resurgent Crystal Palace that sucked the...
Bournemouth may struggle to hold on to Joshua King, Leicester got no help from the broadcasters but Daniel Levy deserves his due for Spurs’ fine season • The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photosOnce the fight for Premier League survival is over, Bournemouth might have another battle on their hands: retaining the services of Joshua King. The striker, signed by Eddie Howe for a snip at £1m from Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2015, scored his 13th goal of the season against Chelsea on Saturday evening. Despite winning several admirers since gaining passage to the top flight, Bournemouth are yet to be scavenged for players by bigger clubs. Matt Ritchie was sold to Newcastle United last year but...
Arsenal’s manager may be admitting in the most roundabout of ways that his side will have a better excuse for falling short this season than most yearsArsène Wenger has just reached the doublethink stage. His pronouncements have been becoming more and more gnomic. He said we would know about his future “very soon”, for instance, yet we are still guessing more than a fortnight and an international break later, but his latest takes us into the verbal equivalent of a hall of mirrors.“It is a good challenge [to achieve a top-four finish] but I think it is perfectly possible,” the Arsenal manager said. “I have done it for 20 years and it looked always like nothing. Suddenly it becomes important,...