As the recriminations continue into Arsenal’s insipid performances and substantial losses, one man has taken all the blame. That man is Arsene Wenger but surely his assistant, former Arsenal defender, Steve Bould, should shoulder some responsibility.
You can argue that Bould has been saddled with a misfit defence which has exhausted all the variables and combinations between them but isn’t it his job to solve that particular riddle?
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear or so they say, but Arsenal’s defensive failures appear to be basic, such as positional errors, failure to track back, work as a cohesive unit and follow instructions to make the zonal marking system work effectively.
That’s his area of expertise, isn’t it? One, he himself performed weekly from 1980 to 2000, in a career that saw him end up with a total of 9 major honours. With that in mind surely he could use that level of experience and knowledge to fashion a side that can cope with 90 minutes of sustained attack without being constantly embarrassed and overwhelmed.
The figures make uncomfortable and ugly reading. The North London club have won 13 of their 29 Premier League games, clocking up a paltry 45 points in the process. Arsenal’s win percentage in the Premier League is the lowest of Wenger’s career, which equates to 44.8 percent. Under Wenger and since his debut season in 1996-97, the Gunners have never failed to win at least half their league games.
Yet it gets worse, they have conceded 41 goals to date which is unbelievable. The worst in Wenger’s reign was 49, in the season 2011-12. Yet it looks like that dubious record is about to be broken and fuel the ammunition being fired at the Frenchman. Who knows what the final tally will be with the defence conceding like a leaky raincoat.
They’ve lost four games in a row and have gone 11 games without a clean sheet, which leaves Petr Cech stuck on 199. That’s just one short of a record but with the way he is palming and flapping, it may even take until next season before that record is established, not that anyone cares at this precise moment in time.
In an 11 year career at Chelsea, Cech conceded 189 goals, in his 3 years at Arsenal the net has bulged a staggering 174 times, evidence if it were needed, that Mourinho knew something Wenger didn’t when he sold him on to Arsenal.
Surely Bould must have noted last summer that additions were needed in defence. Surely he made recommendations and analysed the weakness of his defence and alerted Wenger that it wasn’t up to the rigours of the Premiership.
Wenger already knew and was probably reluctant to ship out members of his playing staff whom he embraces like Family and that is one of the biggest problems and why he is in such an insufferable position. He continues to take the flack but we are now looking more intently at those around him, wondering why no one was prepared to act
