Another start to a season and another opening day loss, this time, it could have been much worse than the loss against West Ham United in the 2015/16 season. Liverpool came, saw and conquered Arsenal at the Emirates, this was their first win in almost 20 games while facing Arsenal away and right after the final whistle, a few boos could be heard.
Even when the side were 4-3 down, the fans at the Emirates weren’t all there. Many of them had left when the team was 4-1 down and that certainly would not have been a good omen for Arsenal as a club and Arsene Wenger’s future in the side.
While no one is thinking about removing him right after this one game, it certainly puts a lot of pressure on him for the rest of the season. Arsene Wenger just has not learned from all his years in management, especially when it comes to building a team to win the Premier League and that was all in evidence today.
The Gunners certainly did not start as favourites in the game against Liverpool but looking at the team sheet with no proper centre forward and two youngsters in the heart of the defence should have given Liverpool a lot of confidence going into the 90 minutes.
The Reds were actually on the back foot for most of the first half till a special Philippe Coutinho goal and then it all went bad for the Gunners. Nothing that Arsene Wenger or Arsenal did work, until the appearance of a certain Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, changed the complexion of the game.
The big issues still remain with Wenger, he is simply too arrogant to change things around at the club when it needs to be done. The fans and the pundits have been begging for a world class central defender to come into the side and help Laurent Koscielny out but he goes out and buys a player who isn’t even featuring in the top division.
The same can be said about his decision to sign Takuma Asano rather than trying to go and get someone who will get him 20 goals in the league easily. These have been frustrations of the fans for a long time and Wenger still isn’t close to understanding or dealing with them.
Another big issue which Wenger has not dealt with is learning to nullify the opposition. He still goes ahead thinking that his side has more quality and will win the game with their plan but Liverpool today and countless other teams have proved him wrong.
Wenger has to adapt to survive in the Premier League and that does not translate all too well in his team. He needs to work on his team sometimes in relation to the opposition but he has not done that, even Jose Mourinho often matches the opposition in hopes of nullifying them but Arsene is not going to.
The French manager might be one of the best managers to have ever graced the game but his time is coming to an end and he is not learning one bit from his losses. Arsenal fans seem to have had enough of him and it should only be a matter of time a replacement is announced for the Arsenal legend.