We seem to be in the midst of that fortnight we have every season where Arsenal’s hopes of trophies evaporate in a series of damaging defeats. The fans aren’t happy, but it’s not medals and pots that motivate the club’s board.

Overview

There we would sit in The West End, where the landlord would hand the Sky remote to us as we walked in at 11am, and talk about the failings of QPR, Ipswich and West Ham the previous day against such illustrious and talented opposition as Oldham Athletic, Barnsley and Millwall, watching the beer and student loans drain away and feeling our livers harden. Dave, meanwhile, who still has a season ticket at Arsenal and writes the Gunners copy for LFW whenever this fixture comes around, would stress himself into a frenzy as his team steam rollered whoever the chosen victim was for that particular Super Sunday. I remember one particular afternoon when Edwin van der Sar decided he was going to have the game of his life for Fulham at Highbury and Arsenal only, only, got a 0-0 draw as a result. Dave looked like he’d just heard his family had been wiped out in a fiery car accident. “How terrible for you,” we mocked.

But as he would say then, and remains true today, it’s about expectation levels. If it wasn’t, then the entire Football League would just be jolly happy with whatever position they’re currently in because they’re grateful they’re not Telford, who currently prop up the Conference. And Telford would be happy because they’re not Hyde, who are bottom of Conference North. Nobody would ever strive to improve, nobody would ever sign or sell anybody, no managers would ever move about, the whole thing would grind to a rather pointless halt where teams achieved nothing every season and acted like they were thrilled to death about it.

Which brings us neatly back to present day Arsenal.

Lifting the FA Cup last May, after trailing Hull City 2-0 in the final and requiring penalties to beat Championship side Wigan in the semi, did at least end a silverware drought that had stretched beyond eight years — right back to those heady university days in the West End. Those two performances at Wembley strongly suggested that lack of trophies was weighing heavy on the players’ minds — a catastrophic error in the last minute of the 2011 League Cup final had seen them beaten by Birmingham and there were traumatic exits at the hands of Blackburn and Bradford in other seasons.

It was supposed to rid them of the monkey from their backs and enable them to kick on and start picking up pots regularly once again. That’s certainly the expectation of the supporters, who pay more than any other in the league to watch their team - £1,000 season tickets are standard fare — and think a club of Arsenal’s size, with Arsenal’s facilities, Arsenal’s youth set up, Arsenal’s income, Arsenal’s bank balance and Arsenal’s players should be aspiring to the occasional winners medal or three. Not unreasonably.

Financial Fair Play was also supposed to herald a new dawn in Islington. Arsenal had steadfastly stuck to their prudent spending strategy - paying for the new stadium at Ashburton Grove themselves, buying young players and selling them on for profit, not being afraid to let their best player leave (or unable to persuade him stay) when a massive offer came in — while Man City and Chelsea were throwing the stuff around like Monopoly money. They were waiting to pounce, we were told. When the rules arrived and City, Chelsea and United were forced into fire sales and wholesale team and wage-bill rebuilding Arsenal would be sitting pretty with a squad carefully, and affordably, cultivated over many years. That would be their time.

And yet here we are, monkey gone and Financial Fair Play rules in force, and Arsenal are much where they have been for the last ten years — out of title contention before the turn of the year, out of the League Cup, highly likely to shortly go out of the FA Cup, 3-1 down going into an away leg in the Champions League, but almost certainly set to finish fourth again in the Premier League.

Arsene Wenger, 16 years at the helm, is now criticised like never before. People say he’s stubborn, and his insistence that a clutch of tiny, skilful midgets trying to construct the perfect goal around the edge of the penalty area is still the way to play even though the Spanish national team — masters of that art — have been found out and soundly beaten trying the same thing for the last two years certainly suggests so. I’ve always found it odd, given how big, quick and physical Arsenal’s wonderful sides were a decade ago, that Wenger hasn’t returned to that now big, quick and physical is exactly what wins Premier League matches once again. People say he doesn’t pay enough attention to the styles of the teams he’s facing, in stark contrast to Jose Mourinho, and the way they were picked apart by a limited Monaco side a week ago supports that. People say he’s too nice to his players.

But the Arsenal board show absolutely no signs of agreeing, or making a change. And this could well come back to expectation levels again. While supporters want to see money spent, titles competed for, and cups lifted, the Arsenal board want to see Champions League qualification and little more. It’s now almost at the ridiculous point where Arsenal bow out of the Champions League at the round of the last 16 in order to concentrate fully on the important business of qualifying for next year’s Champions League. The money comes in whether they win it or not.

It’s one of the many problems of modern football that such mediocrity — and finishing fourth with the sort of players Arsenal have and can attract is certainly mediocre — is rewarded so handsomely. Tottenham try to break through into the top four while also reaching the League Cup final and rattling through the Europa League and their reward is an unmanageable fixture list which ultimately means they end up with nothing. Arsenal trundle along, bullying the likes of Burnley and Newcastle at home while playing like tarts at Stoke, win nothing and finish fourth each year and coin it in. Arsene Wenger says fourth placed teams should be given a trophy for their achievements. Fourth. It’s like a New Labour school sports day philosophy.

But it’s hard to see how anything here is going to change, because the board are happy to have a solid bank balance and regular Champions League football. I’d say the fans could stop turning up, but Arsenal announce full-house attendances at Ashburton Grove regardless of how many people are actually in the stadium on a matchday.

It’s a modern-day football fairy tale if ever there was one.

Scout Report

The shape is consistently 4-2-3-1, which often morphs into 4-1-4-1 with Olivier Giroud almost always the lone striker and four of the tippy-tappy talented midgets behind him. Against Monaco it was Alexis Sanchez right and Danny Welbeck left with Mesut Ozil through the middle. Welbeck was criticised for cutting in field to his natural striker position, narrowing Arsenal’s attack and destroying the shape, and he was left out against Everton in favour of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

But Arsenal do not play with natural width whether they’re doing their jobs correctly or not. Their attacks almost always consist of a lot of short passes played intricately around the edge of the area. Monaco and Everton both tried the same thing to combat this — quickly dropping into a tight, narrow, deep two banks of four to smother that area of the field. The French team brought a nimble counter attack game to the table as well, which Everton lacked, and the Toffees conceded a soft first goal from a quickly taken corner which changed the complexion of the game, but overall that strategy stifled Arsenal and made for long, tedious passages of play that went nowhere. QPR can certainly pack the edge of their area, it’s whether they have the pace in their side to spring the other way when the tippy-tappy breaks down that’s the question.

Arsenal have been short of a ball-busting defensive central midfield player for some time. The emergence of Francis Coquelin from a loan spell at Charlton has helped with this, but Wenger played with Santi Cazorla alongside him against Monaco and that isn’t his natural game at all. Monaco were able to get players running clear on a totally exposed back four as a result, and any sort of pace brings out the worst in Per Mertesacker who was abysmal in that game and dropped against Everton. Monaco did nothing complicated — a basic 4-4-2, tight and narrow without the ball, quick on the counter, with a standard flat front two, but it was enough to win 3-1.

Against Everton it was noticeable that Arsenal wanted to make a fast start, with a high tempo, and quick pressing of Everton players in possession. They’d become known for explosive starts to Premier League games prior to that lacklustre Champions League showing. QPR must cope with that if it comes again, defend tight and narrow and crowd the edge of the box where possible, and also look to attack with whatever speed they can find when Arsenal are committed forward and only Coquelin is back to protect the defence.

Links >>> Official Website >>> Same old, same old — interview >>> Arse Blog >>> Arsenal Mania Forum >>> Gooners World Forum >>> Online Arsenal Forum >>> Gunning Hawk Blog >>> Arsenal Land Blog

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TacticalR added 23:11 - Mar 2 Thanks for your oppo profile. Hard to think of anything to say about Arsenal that hasn't been said already - groundhog day on the pitch leads to groundhog day off the pitch. Having said that it's actually a different groundhog day as Wenger's youth project has long since been abandoned and Arsenal's annual exit from the Champions League is now achieved with a much more expensively assembled squad. Unfortunately for us, despite having their limitations exposed by European opposition, Arsenal have recently got much better at dealing with clubs lower down the league in the Premiership.

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