By Richard Buxton
STOKE, ENGLAND – Should this ultimately prove to be Arsene Wenger’s endgame, he can at least bow out with one demon finally and truly exorcised.
Isolated in its appearance and increasingly hostile to the Arsenal manager, the Bet365 Stadium has seen the very worst of his continuing fall from grace. Stoke City’s home was never a place for the faint-hearted even before the hosts’ running battles with the Gunners made this one of the Premier League’s thoroughly modern feuds. It was also here, last January, that Wenger’s previously unassailable title assault begun its derailment.
With a 4-1 win on Saturday finally scratching a seven-year itch, however, he may actually begin to enjoy the remainder of this prospective swansong.
A comprehensive humbling by Crystal Palace had left the writing on the wall for Wenger last month, but he has managed to pull a seemingly lost cause back from the brink once more. It finally appears that he is embracing the traits that allowed Sir Alex Ferguson, formerly his longest-standing nemesis, to stay ahead of the curve. Manchester United’s most successful manager prided himself on a willingness to both take risks and continually adapt in a sport that threatened to condemn him to a significantly reduced shelf life.
Whether through naivety or sheer stubbornness, Wenger followed the singular, belligerent trait of Ferguson’s seven-point plan to successful management in never ceding control. It exposed him as a coach who remained shackled to the ideals of a distant past and unwilling to embrace innovations.
But it is never too late to change the future, as he has belatedly shown. Shifting to a three-man defence for the first time in a two-decade spell as Arsenal’s previously all-knowing and all-powerful boss saw his current track record extended to five wins from the previous six games. Granted, it is still a system susceptible to flaws, with Tottenham’s triumph in the north London derby a fortnight ago exposing a discombobulated backline wrestling with its current revolution after years attuned to a time-honoured structure.
Signs of unease appeared here, too, as Petr Cech was besieged during the latter half of his 400th Premier League appearance. A free header from namesake Peter Crouch handed a lifeline to Stoke that, until that point, was never truly in danger of troubling Arsenal. Mark Hughes issued a warning that his side would not be “kicking back and easing into the break.” But since the gulf between themselves and the relegation zone became far less precarious, the Potters have been guilty of their minds potentially drifting to more exotic surroundings. Now winning just once of the previous 10 league matches, a largely unbreakable home form has been reduced to a standing not too dissimilar to their current mid-table occupation.
“We needed to be on the front foot,” conceded Hughes.
“In terms of when they were trying to be incisive with the pass, we were trying to be more aggressive in those moments, break off them and play a counter-attack.
“It didn’t really come to pass, to be perfect honest. We were a little bit too passive albeit I don’t think they really created too much of note.
“Everything was in front of us apart from obviously the goal they scored and one header at the back post, which they could have done better with just before half time. Obviously that was a blow to us.”
Much of Arsenal’s continued evolution, irrespective of Wenger’s continued stay, will rest on the fate of Alexis Sanchez. The more despondent among the Londoners’ fan base were resigned to the Chilean’s departure even before his side’s trip north. A social media post that declared “if you want to know your future, look what you need to do now to achieve everything you want” pointed to a seemingly philosophical Sanchez already reaching a possible decision over his long-term future – one which lies away from the English capital.
Such trepidation is understandable when he was the visitors’ stand-out performer by a considerable distance. Olivier Giroud may have taken the headlines, slotting his 11th and 12th league goals of the campaign but it was Sanchez who stole the show as a grand conductor. Pulling the strings in their attacking play and setting up Mesut Ozil for the visitors’ second, his last act of the evening was to stroke a sublime effort past Jack Butland to put the game beyond doubt. Also set to enter the final 12 months of his contract this summer, fears over Ozil similarly walking away were amplified by the Germany international’s exquisite finish from a similarly sublime delivery from Sanchez.
Not everyone sees that current break from tradition in such a positive light; a banner declaring ‘Wenger Out’ was still prominently displayed from the away section before kick-off and another in the skies, declaring ‘Wenger – out means out!’, highlighted that the recent upturn in fortunes is still struggling to find favour with some at the Emirates Stadium.
“I’m not influenced by that at all – all I can do is give my best,” insisted Wenger.
“We have 69 points today so let’s make it 72 on Tuesday (against Sunderland). After that, I will give my best as long as I am here for the values for this club and the club of course.
“I want to focus on football. All the rest is, for me, less important. I’m not in politics; I am in sport, I love sport. I give my 24 hours a day for what I love and all the rest.
“I’m as well in a public job. Some agree with me and some not, but I have no special opinion on that.”
Though this may be an unbecoming end to a lengthy farewell procession perennially underpinned by conservatism, a happy ending might still persevere for Arsenal. Should they overcome Sunderland and Everton in their remaining Premier League games, Champions League qualification would remain attainable. Liverpool’s mental fortitude, or lack of it, is the only factor that could externally help define that barometer between success and failure. Unseating Chelsea’s ambitions of a league and FA Cup double in a latter competition that their opposite number has made synonymous would provide an additional silver lining for Wenger.
Formerly dubbed “Le Professeur,” he has behaved more akin to a supply teacher; desperately experimenting with the current popular trends in a final attempt to again pique the interests of his increasingly disenfranchised students.
If they can defy the odds and secure a top four finish, he might just get away with it, too.
Richard Buxton is a UK-based writer and special correspondent for Sportsnet. He filed this report from Stoke’s bet365 Stadium.
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