Two weeks ago, it seemed that — once again — Arsenal were going to be simply unstoppable this season. However, their past two Premiership outings have cast some doubt on this dominance.
First there was the defeat to Manchester United, which brought to an end a remarkable unbeaten record. After 49 games without losing in the Premiership, they visited the Red Devils at Old Trafford and, in an ill-tempered affair, lost 2-0.
Then, last weekend, it took a breathtaking last-minute equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw against struggling Southampton at Highbury. These results may be worrying for Gunners fans who are used to near-perfection, but their domestic campaign has been only slightly disrupted. Chelsea have caught up with Arsenal on points, but the champions are still on top with a superior goal difference.
There is, however, a more pressing question that every Gunners fan, and anyone interested in football, wants answered: Why are Arsenal struggling in Europe? Indeed, one may question whether Arsenal are even capable of producing the same performances and getting the same sorts of results in Europe as they do in England. Arsène Wenger and his tribe keep hoping that their football will answer that question, but so far that hasn’t been the case.
Compared with their disastrous start in last year’s Champions League — one point from their first three games — Arsenal have not gotten out of the blocks too badly this time around. But if we probe a bit deeper than just points standings, we might find a few things to worry about.
Ashley Cole — having a great season attacking down the left — popped up to score the only goal in an unconvincing 1-0 win over Dutch team PSV Eindhoven in their first game. Then came a surprising 1-1 draw away from home against Norwegian champions Rosenborg, followed by a 2-2 draw against Panathinaikos in Greece.
On Wednesday night this mediocrity continued as Arsenal laboured to a 1-1 draw with the Greeks in the return leg at Highbury. And they were lucky to get that point, too.
These are hardly the sorts of results we expect from a team that, before the trip to Old Trafford, went nearly 50 games unbeaten in the league, and have scored 31 goals in the Premiership this season in only 11 games. What might the reason be for this asymmetry in Arsenal’s performances, and can we expect them to turn on the talent sooner rather than later?
One often finds the sort of dominance that Arsenal are currently showing in England in lower, less competitive leagues, such as Scotland, for example. Celtic are very seldom bothered by the other teams in the Scottish Premiership. Yet the opposition that Arsenal come up against week in and week out are hardly frail.
Even if one ignores their title rivals, Chelsea and Manchester United, teams like Newcastle United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are classy outfits. And there’s also the fantastic form this season of teams like Everton, Middlesborough and Bolton Wanderers. Make no mistake, Arsenal are tested every week in the Premiership and, even though there have been a few hiccoughs of late, they are still passing with flying colours.
Which brings us back to their puzzling form in Europe. Celtic have had a dismal start to their Champions League campaign, losing three of their four games so far. Granted, they do share a tough group with European giants Barcelona and AC Milan. But fans can make the excuse that the step up to Champions League is just too great for a team that plays the likes of Kilmarnock and Dunfermline week in and week out.
Arsenal cannot make this excuse. For starters, three other Premiership teams, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, also compete in the Champions League. And, secondly, Arsenal were fortunate to be drawn in a relatively easy group with PSV, Panathinaikos and Rosenborg. Their game against Panathinaikos on Wednesday, especially because it was at home, should have been a walk in the park.
And traditionally, this would have been the case. But there is a revolution happening in European football, and it’s this revolution that can explain not only Arsenal’s mediocre European performances, but also the performances of most of the other European powerhouses.
Two major upsets happened in Europe this year: Porto and Monaco brushed aside all pretenders to contest the Champions League final, which Porto won, and Greece shocked the world to win Euro 2004.
But the revolution did not start there. Two years before, on the other side of the world, the likes of France, Portugal and Italy were unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup, while ‘minnows†like South Korea, Senegal and Turkey advanced to later stages. Magnificent Brazil ended up winning that tournament, but they are the exception to the new rule in world football: there are no rules; it’s all up for grabs.
The results in the World Cup 2006 qualifying games are showing this to be truer than ever. In group games thus far there have been some huge upsets. Bosnia, Macedonia and Liechtenstein have forced draws with Spain, Holland and Portugal respectively, and Slovenia shocked Italy with a 1-0 win.
There is a similar unpredictability about club football and this is making it hard for traditionally powerful teams to keep winning in European competitions. With four games been played in the group stages of the Champions League thus far there have already been a few upsets, such as Bayer Leverkusen beating Real Madrid 3-0 and Werder Bremen snatching a 2-1 win from Valencia.
Wenger knows how to play English football, and he knows it well. His players execute his plans to perfection because they’re some of the most talented footballers in the world. It is easy to see, therefore, why Arsenal do so well in the Premiership. When thrust into European competition, however, against teams from countries as diverse as Norway, Greece, Ukraine and Portugal, those plans are not as easy to forge and, more importantly, are harder to execute.
Take Arsenal’s top Gunner, Thierry Henry, for example. Henry is unquestionably the best striker in England at the moment.
Henry would be the first name on any Premiership manager’s team list. He scored more than 30 goals last season, and 11 so far this season. And, just as importantly, he creates goals for his teammates. But in the Champions League, and when playing for France, some of that magic seems to desert him. He’s not as comfortable and free-flowing as he usually is.
Perhaps this is because he is being forced to abandon the English football that he is so used to and that his manager has perfected. When Arsenal take the field in a Champions League clash, their opposition are inevitably somewhat of an unknown quantity. Because he is so good, though, Henry does, on occasion, break those European shackles, as he did against Internazionale at the San Siro in last year’s Champions League, scoring a hat-trick.
On the whole, though, it is the climate of world football that is influencing the performances of traditionally top teams. And, as can be seen from the results so far this season, it’s not only Arsenal that are struggling when they play outside of their domestic league. Results for the likes of Real Madrid, Valencia and Roma have also been unconvincing.
It’s just that Arsenal are so good in their own league that we can’t help but notice the asymmetry in performance when they’re involved in European competition. This competition, unlike the Premiership, is thankfully more even-matched and unpredictable.
Arsenal are definitely good enough to win in Europe, but they can’t rely on their Premiership-beating tactics to do so. In hatching his plans for Champions League domination, Wenger is going to be forced to incorporate the new rule of European football: there are no rules.