Arsenal: 5 Questions For Arsene Wenger Following PSG Draw
Arsenal scraped out a draw that they should be proud of, but the questions are abounding. Here are five things we’d love to ask Arsene Wenger.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Arsenal went down incredibly quickly against PSG, forcing all the optimism to get sucked out of the Gunners minds incredibly quickly. 44 seconds in and already down one goal? That did not pair well with all of the questions that supporters had regarding Arsene Wenger and his squad choices.
Related: 5 Things We Learned Against PSG
Still, we should be happy with the draw. Thrilled even, given how the game went, but that doesn’t exempt Wenger from some serious questioning.
So we’ve piled up five questions we would love to ask Wenger following the Paris excursion. We start at No. 5.
5. What did you expect them to do?
It’s hard to make a team look bad in less than a minute. Yet PSG managed to accomplish that feat against Arsenal. From the moment the whistle blew until the 45th second, PSG made Arsenal look like middle-schoolers. The Gunners were clearly not prepared for what was coming at them and it continued for most of the match.
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My question for Wenger is what exactly he expected? Unai Emery is a proven magician in European competitions and PSG were obviously going to be a bit tightly wound from their recent struggles. Did Wenger actually expect them to play it cool and chill with the ball?
There is no way he could have expected that, especially with how slow Arsenal are out of the box historically. The Gunners never seem to come to life until they’ve had a metaphorical slap to the face and even this one against PSG didn’t fully wake them up.
It’s like Wenger expected PSG to be nervous and tense against ‘big bad Arsenal’ but nothing could be further from what happened. So, follow-up question, will Wenger learn?
On to No. 4.
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4. Why Francis Coquelin?
Francis Coquelin has his uses. He is a defensive midfielder that has no fears. He can tackle with the best of them, rough up the opposition and get in their heads. He is simply not to be trifled with. Come into his zone and you are going to feel his studs in your leg.
But this game was not made for that. It’s clear, with the attack that Wenger put out there, that he intended to lean heavily on the counter attack. There is no other logical explanation for starting Alexis Sanchez up top.
So how then does Coquelin fit into the picture? Coquelin is not a passer and he is certainly not an attacker, yet it looked like he was being used as a box-to-box midfielder.
Wouldn’t Granit Xhaka have made far more sense here? What is the Swiss being saved for? His passing ability would have been most welcomed, yet instead he was given an extended break, leaving many to wonder if Wenger even wanted to win the game.
Moving on, speaking of questionable starts.
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3. Do you really think Alexis can be a stirker?
I get it, Wenger thinks that Alexis is Luis Suarez. But that simply isn’t the case and the only proof we will ever need to prove that is in this match against PSG. The Chilean was absolutely suffocated early on against the PSG defense. He had to come out to midfield to even get a touch of the ball. As such, his back was frequently to the goal and that isn’t what you want from him.
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He was negated, yet he was one of Arsenal’s only valuable attackers on the pitch.
Then, suddenly, when Giroud was brought on, everything changed. Alexis went wide left and he looked completely different. Danny Higginbotham said it perfectly when he said that bringing on Giroud was like getting two new players – Giroud up front and Alexis where he should be.
The change was instantaneous. Arsenal controlled the game from there on out.
So Arsene, were you watching? Have you finally learned that Alexis is wasted at the top of the formation? If you want to go for two strikers, that’d be neat to try, but by himself, it just doesn’t work.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
2. What’s up with Giroud?
Giroud has yet to start and it’s mid-September. The big man has become such a fixture up front for Arsenal and depriving the team of him thus far has proven how valuable he actually is. All that space that he creates with his presence is simply missing and the team has been unable to cope without.
Yet Giroud continues to sit. 67 minutes he has now played for Arsenal in three substitute appearances. What is he being saved for? He was ready against PSG, he was ready against Southampton, yet he keeps being shunned and that has to be eating at him.
If you want to bench him because he’s not effective, that’s fine. But when it’s so obvious that he is being missed, you have to put him in the game and let him do his thing. Otherwise there is no excuse as to why he isn’t being used.
Unless Wenger is just doing this to improve fickle supporters opinion of Giroud. If so, then way to go, Arsene, but you’ve proved your point. Play the man!
(Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
1. Do you want to win the Champions League?
I actually agree with Wenger when he said that this Arsenal team is better equipped than they have been in quite some time. With the depth that they have, the Champions League could be realistically won by them so long as injuries don’t come around.
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That being the case, what were Giroud and Xhaka doing on the bench? I get that you need to rest players and get different guys playing time, but resting this early in the season when those two had already been rested against Southampton is befuddling.
Rest them too much more and they will start to gather rust.
The lineup made no sense. It gave us no hope for a win and we would have lost if changes had not been made. It was simply inexplicable and Wenger needs to reevaluate how much he wants the Champions League because throwing this same lineup out there is asking for another major let down.
Let’s be happy with the draw. We went into Paris and scraped a point. But let’s also be wary that a lot of things went terribly wrong.
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