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da poker： Saturday’s performance against Blackburn was an embodiment of just how disappointing Arsenal’s start to the season has been with losses to Liverpool, Manchester United and now a 4-3 defeat to the bottom club in the Premier League. The match demonstrated the worrying defensive problems that Arsenal have with poor teamwork at the back especially during set pieces and throughout the game the Gunners struggled to cope with Blackburn effective counter-attacking football.
There were moments in the game which appeared to show how ittle it meant to the players, when conceding goals they walked back to the centre circle and just shrugged their shoulders. During a pivotal moment in the game, as Walcott was brought down by Robinson, there were surprisingly little sign of protest or complaint from any of the Arsenal players.
Only five members of the team who played in the horrendous defeat at Old Trafford started on Saturday but little had changed, the team still lacked leadership and again failed to defend simple set pieces. The shaky foundations are built in attack and not in defence where the team is as vulnerable as before leaving themselves far too open for Blackburn to take advantage.
There was no leader, Van Persie is probably the side’s best player and I have no doubt he is a capable captain who leads by example off the pitch but you can question whether he is the leader in personality who the side desperately need?
There has not been a real leadership figure in the ranks at Arsenal for many years and it showed last year with the collapse of their season after the Carling Cup Final defeat. Would a team with a true leader have thrown away a 4-0 lead at Newcastle or conceded a penalty in the last minute against Liverpool when the game was won? These were crucial points that mean the title went to Old Trafford and while Fabregas was a fantastic player, he was not a natural leader and he was often found wanting.
Upon his arrival in England, Wenger inherited a tremendous captain in Tony Adams, whose passion and determination inspired the Gunners to domestic Doubles in 1998 and 2002. His successor, Patrick Vieira, was also a great man to lead the side and since he left in 2005 Arsenal have won nothing.
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You often find that the best leaders work from the back or from midfield where they have a good view of everything going on in front of them; it is therefore difficult for Van Persie to work out where it is going wrong in defence from the other end of the pitch. The club need players who are going to step up and take responsibility which is essential particularly when they are going through a bad patch. A captain on the pitch is different to leader and that is what Arsenal lack, someone who is going to take a game by the scuff of the neck and take his team to victory. There was hope among Arsenal fans that deadline day signing Per Mertesacker would be the answer to their leadership concerns but his first few games have shown little to demonstrate this.
Many have cited a lack of leadership as the primary factor behind the north London club’s failure to secure silverware over the last five seasons, and the last season’s events only added more credibility to that theory. Wenger’s side looked rudderless while going out of the three cup competitions in quick succession. Former club captain Cesc Fabregas appeared in just one of those defeats, the 3-1 loss in Barcelona, with Robin van Persie taking the armband in the Carling Cup final against Birmingham and again at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.
Wenger has recently argued that the responsibility of leading a team can be shared by several players just as effectively which is true but not if the team actually lacks any real leaders on the pitch. This problem has been exacerbated for this new season as the side appear to lack any character. Last season Arsenal went from the verge of greatness to one who emerged with nothing because they had no-one who could galvanise the team and drag the rest of them out of the mire. Wenger may have brought a new-look team over the summer but he has once again failed to address this fundamental issue.
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