Arsenal are on the verge of a humiliating Champions League exit after losing at the hands of Olympiacos on Tuesday night - the first time the Greek champions had avoided defeat following 12 successive reversals on English soil.
With back-to-back games against the mighty Bayern Munich on the horizon it is a particularly grim picture for Arsenal fans who should be asking the following questions of their manager and demanding answers.
WHY DIDN'T PETR CECH PLAY?
A penny for the thoughts of Arsenal’s solitary summer signing. The former Chelsea goalkeeper, the only shred of optimism salvaged from a summer of total negligence in the transfer market, could only watch on from the bench as his understudy played the role of pantomime villain against Olympiacos
Arsene Wenger was only too quick to point out that David Ospina kept 14 clean sheets in 19 games last season as he attempted to justify selecting the Colombia international in a game he himself described as a “must-win”.
Had Ospina shown anything like the level of command and authority required to be regarded as a full-time No.1 for a club of Arsenal’s supposed stature, however, Wenger would not have moved for Cech in the summer.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea have all rotated their goalkeepers in the past with varying degrees of success. It hardly needs mentioning, but Arsenal cannot rival any of those heavyweights in terms of the depth of their squad, especially not in the goalkeeping department.
Rumours of Cech suffering from a slight calf injury surfaced after the game, but if he was fit enough for a place on the bench, surely he was in good enough condition to play. In any case, a slight muscle strain would not have prevented him from collecting a routine corner and needlessly flapping the ball into his own net.
WAS FRANCIS COQUELIN FULLY FIT?
Fielding a goalkeeper with a minor injury is one thing, selecting your primary defensive midfielder so soon after recovering from a knee injury that forced him to miss the last two-and-a-half games is another entirely.
Only Wenger will know just how fit Coquelin was but the statistics from last night’s match suggest he was hardly in peak condition. The Frenchman was successful with just two of the six tackles he attempted, made just two interceptions, won none of his aerial duels and committed just a solitary foul. Simply, he never adjusted to the pace of the game and it was a performance completely out of character with his most recent displays.
Wenger will point to the fact that he was backed into corner by the injuries, entirely predictable ones at that, suffered by the ageing and frankly sub-standard Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta. But that is a problem entirely of his own making and one that is likely to surface time and again this season, starting with Sunday’s pivotal meeting with Manchester United.
DO ARSENAL SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THEY CAN COMPETE IN EUROPE?
The overriding emotion at the Emirates Stadium last night was not one of anger or even frustration but one of ambivalence.
For Arsenal fans, the Champions League has lost its mystique. After nearly two decades of constantly flattering to deceive in the competition, not to mention a fourth home match against the Greek champions in five years, it is little surprise attendances for home matches are dwindling whatever the official tickets sold line might be.
The ambivalence, however, does not merely stem from the fact a diet of supposed top class European action has lost its novelty.
The Groundhog Day scenario Arsenal are trapped in has become a draining experience for the club’s supporters who see yet another group of players committing the same mistakes, crying out for an extra dose of leadership and experience to guide them through the difficult periods.
Fans are emotional, at times knee-jerk and over-sensitive but following your team home and away brings an intimate knowledge of a clubs strengths and weaknesses. The overwhelming majority of Arsenal’s fanbase know their team is not equipped to compete in Europe, for their manager to claim otherwise borders on insulting.
WILL WE SEE ANYTHING DIFFERENT TACTICALLY AGAINST BAYERN?
Was there a plan against Olympiacos? It was hard to imagine that the message to the Arsenal players was anything other than “go out and play your football” in the hope that their superior talent would ultimately make the difference.
That sort of arrogance cost Arsenal a quarter-final place last season as Monaco exposed the softest of centres and the Greek champions feasted on yet more naivety. Even when Arsenal appeared to have turned the tide, their propensity to not just shoot themselves in the foot but blow their entire body to smithereens reared its head again.
Bayern have coasted to victory at the Emirates Stadium twice in recent seasons and will do so again unless Wenger can come up with an alternative to the gung-ho approach that has reaped nothing but abject failure then annihilation at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s merciless Bayern awaits.
