Arsene Wenger's stubbornness - The true reason behind Arsenal not winning titles

Arsene Wenger and his stubbornness a big reason for Arsenal’s failure to win titles?

Arsene Wenger played it well. He always does play it well. Amid some of the most insulting defeats against the top 4 clubs in the away matches of the English Premier League, Arsene Wenger once again, politically correct as always – very beautifully shoved away the blame by giving excuses like financial fair-play, refereeing errors and injuries.

“When we came out of Christmas, we were in a strong position and what you want then is to have your strong players available in March and April, but we had too many injuries”, said the Frenchman as he looked up at the reporter with his blunt smile as usual depicting the expressions that are never expected and giving answers that are always unprecedented.

Giving excuses is what a manager is good at, but with Arsene Wenger it has become a tradition. At a club as big as Arsenal that ranks 5th in the world in terms of value, money is really not as big a problem as it has been portrayed to be. The frugal nature and economic spending that has been attached to the club is really not as much as Arsenal’s as it is Arsene’s. Getting the club to a decent position without spending much is what Arsene Wenger is good at, but the word ‘decent’ in Arsenal’s dictionary has been deteriorating year by year.

“If we don’t win it (Premier League title) I will take full responsibility.

These words were said by Arsene Wenger in February 2014 and they still reverberate in the minds of passionate Gooners as they look up at the Premier League standings which in the span of a month saw Arsenal sliding down to 5th which was never even thought of, before recovering to finish 4th. And at the end of the season, all the manager has said is that there are ‘injuries and injuries’.

So now let’s dig deeper into the scenario. Would Arsenal have won the Premier League title if all the players had been fit?The answer is as simple as it can be. No.

Arsenal’s major problem this season like every other season has been a face-off against big teams. In the first few months of the season, Arsenal defeated teams like Liverpool and Tottenham, making people think that this might just be what Arsenal needed.

But in the next few matches Arsenal revealed their Achilles heel. The problem was the attack. All the teams could potentially judge the fact that Arsenal’s attack is just not good enough even with the help of world-class play makers such as Cazorla, Ozil and the rest of the army. Even a layman could understand that Olivier Giroud could not be effective in all the games against the big teams, and his predictability was a major reason why Arsenal were far from good in those games.

The team at full strength were defeated by Manchester United who were playing their worst in the past 20 years and soon after that a shameful 6-3 defeat at Etihad made the situation worse. In all these matches, players like Ramsey and Walcott did not prove to be the differentiating factor. The reason being that these players are still in the process of becoming world class but they still lack the killer instinct sometimes in big games. It was clear that Arsenal needed a steady defensive midfielder and a prolific striker who could convert the brilliant passes of their midfield and offer a threat due to his speed.

Olivier Giroud – too predictable to be a consistent threat

Would you think that a match against Manchester City in which Arsenal conceded 6 goals ever looked one which was even? Clearly the team was not under-performing; it looked incapable of matching the strength of Manchester City even at full strength. Still, somehow other big teams stumbled and Arsenal managed to remain on top till January.

But these rankings were deceptive and sadly Arsene Wenger couldn’t foresee the real picture. While he was not ready to admit it, the bigger picture could be seen by many. Football pundits and Arsenal fans were pretty sure that Arsenal needed a top-quality striker but the professor was too stubborn to look beyond the standings. He was actually quite satisfied with the performances of the team even though most of the matches Arsenal won were against weaker teams.

We were lucky during Christmas as we didn’t drop many points. We could and should have bought a forward in the summer or even in January, but did not. The 40+1 million pounds bid for Suarez was more of a joke that an actual bid. It confirmed the suspicion that a lot of fans have had i.e. Arsene Wenger is always looking to save money more than buy quality players.

Teams like Manchester City and Chelsea ranked below Arsenal only because they stumbled in matches against weaker teams and they obviously had the potential to come back strong against these teams. On the other hand Arsenal lost to the stronger teams showing their lack of potential, rather than a lack of form. There was a combination of a lack of quality in the team and a stream of unforced errors. This clearly portrayed that Arsenal is a weaker team than the other top 4 teams. This clearly meant that even though Arsenal might have been ranked ahead of the others, they needed reinforcements more than them.

Why then did Arsene Wenger not get another striker to give him options? Only Wenger knows.

The result of not buying a striker was disappointing - The humiliation started in the match against Liverpool in which Arsenal lost 5-1. And how can we forget the match which Wenger himself can never forget – his 1000^th against Chelsea, we all know what happened there and I wouldn’t want to repeat it. The point to be noted here is that through out these matches, the Arsenal attack looked weak. Of course, the defense has to be blamed but Olivier Giroud has never looked impressive against strong teams.

Arsene Wenger too needs to take more of the blame . The problem is more the attitude than the result. The man is too stubborn to accept his mistakes. The ‘You cannot buy class’ thing has gone a little too far with Arsenal. On the other hand, Manchester City, inspite of losing their main striker Kun Aguero are managing to win the title because their group of forwards are clearly better than Arsenal’s main man upfront.

Moving on, the FA cup might be a trophy in itself but it can never be redemption of the insults that Arsenal have endured in the Premier League. And what’s even more disheartening is the latest statement by Arsene Wenger in which he claims to wanting to buy a forward but openly states that it would not be a replacement for Olivier Giroud.

In short – he sort of assured everyone that the main striker will still be Giroud. And the next season if the same thing repeats itself– the answer will also remain the same – ‘Injuries’.