Arsenal 0-3 Aston Villa – Didn’t Happen Under Wenger by Dan Smith
On Sunday Arsenal had their joint heaviest League defeat at the Emirates. Another stat to add along with last season’s worst finish in 25 years to remind us of our decline.
Yet reading subsequent articles since, I have seen Arsene Wenger’s name pop up more than, say, Aubameyang’s. Some wanted to remind people this was the old regime’s dross.
That we shouldn’t overreact because this kind of thing was happening in Mr Wenger’s final few years anyway. Has anyone else noticed that these players are never Wenger’s dross when we win?
Now, I get it. Some gooners will never admit we have gone backwards since the Frenchmen left. To do that would be admitting you were wrong to hound out the greatest boss in our history.
Maybe you think it would impact on your views if you acknowledged the grass hasn’t been proven greener? It’s not a debate, it’s a fact. Pick any criteria used to measure a team, we have gone backwards. League position, creativity, style of play, our home record, not scoring in games, shots on targets, etc, backwards!
What inspired this piece is kind of twofold.
I notice some gooners are being misleading on certain facts. Either they are too young to remember or are lying for their own agenda.
Either way it’s not fair for the next generation of Arsenal fans to be taught that losing 3-0 to Aston Villa at home is the norm.
Arteta said himself in first press conference, this club has values and standards that should be matched at all times. Our manager’s own words were that he wouldn’t tolerate those standards not being met.
Whether it’s the players, owner, coaching staff, us fans – we have to say losing 3-0 at home to a side who last campaign finished 17th is simply unacceptable. Take away the scoreline, the performance cannot be tolerated. It’s one of those results where you say, ‘that can’t happen again’.
We are Arsenal, one of the biggest clubs in the world.
You can’t one minute predict a title challenge then shrug your shoulders and say ‘oh well, this happened under Wenger’ just to make yourself feel better. First of all its false, but secondary where’s your standards. That result is unacceptable, almost like our rock bottom.
To put into context how unprecedented this weekend result was; In the Emirates stadium’s 14-year existence, that was only the 5th time in the League we lost by a 3-goal margin (our heaviest).
The other 4 was twice to Man City and Chelsea (one of which was under Freddie).
So anyone who suggests under Wenger, we were being humiliated at home to sides outside the top 4, it’s a complete fabrication.
This weekend of course was our 2nd home defeat in 4 League defeats. So let’s now challenge the notion that this was happening under Mr Wenger. Arteta has already lost the same amount of League games at home than we did in Wenger’s final two years.
In fact in the EPL’s 14 years history only one season did we lose more than 3 League games (4).
So losing 3-0 at home to Aston Villa,
Finishing 8th,
Finishing in our worst position in 25 years,
None of that is acceptable.
We have gone backwards since Mr Wenger left. Only when we start accepting the problem will we find a solution.
Be Kind In The Comments…
Dan Smith