Arsene Wenger was ratty and dismissive, Brendan Rodgers apologetic yet defensive. Both had their reasons to be so. Arsenal and Liverpool had made injury-time escapes at the weekend, and neither manager was willing to explain why their teams had got themselves into such messes.
A year ago this week, Arsenal topped the Premier League and Liverpool were just behind in third, before the collapse of a thrilling late-season run left them just short of champions Manchester City.
This season, for both, has been a juddering grind, with Arsenal and Liverpool struggling to replicate their successes; both sit outside the top four. Eleven points clear of Arsenal, Chelsea have escaped over the horizon, with City capable of doing the same.
A battle for Champions League qualification, perhaps between the pair, already looks the limit of Premier League ambitions for Arsenal and Liverpool.
Arsenal drew 2-2 with Hull on Saturday yet Wenger’s demeanour was that of a demoralised, defeated man. Liverpool were victorious 2-3 at QPR but Steven Gerrard freely admitted “we’ve been very lucky” and that “all round it needs improving.”
“Why do you always want to blame people?” carped Wenger at BBC interviewer Jacqui Oatley. “Look, you were at the game today. I don’t know why you come up with such questions.”
Oatley was perfectly within her rights to ask why Arsenal had played so poorly. Wenger was obstructive and evasive, maintaining the aggression he had taken out on Jose Mourinho a fortnight ago. The source of his irritation was not Oatley but a rapid thinning of ambitions that owes plenty to his own decision-making.
“I honestly didn’t see that coming,” Hull manager Steve Bruce said of a Danny Welbeck equaliser created by Alexis Sanchez’s brilliance. “We were comfortable.”
Bruce was by no means outlandish in his assessment. Without Welbeck and Sanchez, Wenger’s mood might be even darker. Both players are evidence that the manager can still make decent decisions in the transfer market. Damningly for Wenger, a caution close to neglect elsewhere in the team has been key to Arsenal winning just two Premier League matches from eight.
Injuries have been a factor, but Wenger had already left himself a hostage to fortune. Two centre-halves by trade in Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker is what Wenger entered September with. Both Chelsea and City have at least four options in that position.
And on Saturday, with Koscielny and Mathieu Debuchy injured, left-back Nacho Monreal played at centre-back, while admittedly promising teenager Hector Bellerin filled in at full-back. Monreal looked about as comfortable as you could expect, making a non-tackle before Mo Diame scored a disputed equaliser. It was enough for Gunners fans to take an envious look toward West Ham and on-loan Carl Jenkinson.
So why must Wenger maintain the pretence that he was correct not to buy another defender in the summer? Calum Chambers, suspended on Saturday, carries an inordinate burden when his 20th birthday is not until January.
Considering Arsenal’s injury record of recent years (that’s another story, and perhaps an indictment of Wenger’s training methods) and the departures of Thomas Vermaelen and Bacary Sagna in the transfer window, Wenger’s lack of defensive signings border on self-destruction.
“A lot of the Arsenal supporters are looking at the fact there wasn’t another centre-half or a defensive central midfielder signed in the summer, can you understand why they say that?” asked Oatley.
“I can understand everything,” was Wenger’s petulant reply. “Other teams have bought many defenders and concede goals as well,” he continued, employing childish and diversionary logic.
Rodgers’ disposition was not quite so negative. Coming off best after eight minutes of late chaos had insulated him as did escaping a first half in which any team other than woebegone QPR might have led Liverpool by two goals at the very least. However, Real Madrid scouts looking on ahead of their Champions League clash on Wednesday will have found little to be concerned about.
Like Wenger, Rodgers finds himself having to explain summer transfer business, with Mario Balotelli, as ever, leading the list. “The guy is doing his best and working really hard,” said Liverpool’s manager, defying credulity and offering an opinion perhaps not shared by all of his players.
At one point at Loftus Road, Jose Enrique could be seen and heard demanding far more movement up front. It was hardly difficult to work out which individual his ire was aimed at.
Each week sees Rodgers attempt a different kind of disassociation from Balotelli’s signing. Before the international break, he had suggested that his 16-million-pound purchase had merely been the best Liverpool could find as the transfer window closed. “Luis [Suarez] is irreplaceable,” was Rodgers’ latest twirling. “A real world-class talent and that is not what is being asked of Mario.”
Balotelli was damned by the highest of praise for his predecessor. Rodgers actually wanted Sanchez, whose Suarez-esque Saturday showing for Arsenal did little to ease disappointment in failing to lure the Chilean to Anfield.
Rodgers is at least offered one positive by Balotelli; the Italian’s magnetism diverts from the struggles of other new arrivals. In midfield at QPR, Emre Can and Adam Lallana were part of a unit frequently bullied by Rangers, previously the division’s soft touch, while Dejan Lovren was positively pummelled by Bobby Zamora.
Similar goes for Wenger and Arsenal. Fatigue and injuries are contributory factors but both clubs have suffered most from an inadequacy of recruitment. Glaring mistakes in the transfer market leave their seasons in pressing danger of failure.
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