This was finally supposed to be the year. The year that Arsenal Football Club ended their five-year trophy drought and finally mature into winners. Two weeks ago many were convinced it was going to happen. But two weeks in football is a very long time.
Arsenal went into the Carling Cup Final against Birmingham City at Wembley convinced that this would be the first of several trophies for them this season. They were strong favourites against the Midlands side and nobody had expected anything other than a comfortable Arsenal win, other than Birmingham fans of course.
But The Gunners conspired to lose with a horrendous mix-up between defender Laurent Koscielny and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and at that very moment the wheels began to come off on Arsenal’s season.
With a huge Champions League 2nd leg match against Barcelona on the horizon, Arsenal warmed up with a poor 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland. Inevitbaly they were then knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona. The FA Cup match at Old trafford against Manchester United soon followed and Arsenal feared the worst.
A 2-0 win for United culminated in Arsenal dropping out of three competitions in the space of just over two weeks and it leaves the Premier League as their only hope of silverware, but that looks doomed for failure at this moment in time.
So questions must be asked of long serving manager Arsene Wenger. Radio phone-ins this week were inundated with a section of Arsenal fans calling for the end of Wenger’s reign. A failure to win the league title would make it six trophy-less years for the North London side, which for a big club is disappointing to say the least.
Many Arsenal fans wouldn’t dream of calling for Wenger’s head and will never doubt his management and rightfully so as he has worked wonders for the football club in his time in charge. But something needs to change at Arsenal because clearly the current squad lacks something.
Many football pundits, including former Arsenal players Charlie Nicholas and Paul Merson, over recent weeks have talked about Arsenal’s lack of a leader on the pitch as being the main problem. Others have spoken about the lack of an English presence in the side as being the reason for the failings.
But whatever the problems may be it is clear Arsenal Football Club are not far away from becoming a truly great team capable of winning trophies on all fronts. They play breathtaking football at times and are always a joy to watch, but something needs to change.
Do Arsenal need a new manager with new ideas and a new direction for the team? Has Wenger run out of ideas? Or is it just simply a case of spending more money and bringing in a number of top class players in certain positions? If Arsenal fail to win the Premier League this season, these are the questions the board must surely ask themselves.
Tariq Saleh
Twitter – @TariqSaleh21