Manager departing after 22 years leaves a legacy of dispirited Arsenal fans yet his wide-ranging human qualities see even harshest critics expressing affectionIt is a story that Arsène Wenger has told on more than one occasion in different company over dinner and it always has the desired effect. The Arsenal manager talks of a book he has read in which an assassin is able to stop his heart when he kills and then restart it. “I’m looking for a striker like that,” he says. Related: Arsène Wenger changed the face of English football. It was all him | Lee Dixon (September 22, 1996) Related: Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's departing general, deserves a fitting farewell | Barney Ronay Continue reading...
Arsène Wenger’s lively forwards were undermined by shoddy defending on a day when Newcastle all but secured safetyThe quest for meaning, the need to form the unbearably random constituents of our existence into some kind of order, to create a narrative or a value-system, to believe it all somehow matters – it seems integral to humanity. But sometimes a late-season game between two sides with nothing much to play for is just a late-season game between two sides with nothing much to play for. Related: Arsenal slump to another defeat as Matt Ritchie hits Newcastle winner Continue reading...
Spirited Brighton throw visitors’ lack of personality into a stark light to leave their season hanging on a daunting trip to MilanIt was the body language that damned Arsenal most of all. The hunching of the shoulders and shuffled attempts to retreat into position, internationals of considerable repute with their heads down, trudging around the pitch as if wading through treacle. Arsène Wenger described them as “passive”. About as animated as they became during a dreadful opening half-hour was when Mesut Özil flung his gloves to the turf in frustration, even if that was all for show. The same could be said for the anguished glances to the heavens at each misplaced pass or the yellow cards collected as if...
Wenger’s side used to bounce back from bad results but at the Emirates they showed frailties evident in Carabao Cup finalContrary to recent evidence though it may seem, this was the most un-Arsenal of outcomes. The bigger disappointments of the past decade have generally been followed by flickerings of life, results pulled out of the fire in the nick of time, signs of enough incipient quality to maintain the illusion that it is darkest before the dawn.But Arsenal do not even have that to lean on any more. Arsène Wenger sent his team out with good intentions, a top-heavy starting XI designed to trade blows. But for the second time in five days they crumbled at the first sign of...
Despite the latest inevitable Wengerian response, there is also a recklessness in his dotage, as though the slide from the top four has liberated himThere comes perhaps a point in the lives of men at which the usual considerations no longer seem to apply. Hang around long enough and you’re allowed a certain licence. The foul-smelling tobacco becomes an amusing quirk, the brash waistcoat evidence of individuality, the brusque repartee a life-affirming sign of energy. He’s packing the team with inconsistent creators and failing to address the concerns at the back of midfield? That’s just Arsène Wenger, dear: you won’t change him now.A rare mood of optimism seems to have settled over the Emirates Stadium, although there have been plenty...