‘There is no reason to panic’ is what the Arsenal boss said in his comments after watching the Gunners pegged back to a 2-2 draw in the crucial Champions League home tie against PSG last night. Well I am sorry Mister Wenger but I have to disagree with your words reported by Arsenal.com and not because the result means that we are almost certainly going to be in the runners up pot for the 7th year in a row when the knockout draw is made.
He said, “We have not lost, but we have lost a winning momentum a little bit, yes. But we played against a good team tonight as well.
“I believe that I have to be careful about the choice of my words because when I say ‘stuttering’ it comes back in the next press conference. Look, I think there is a special spirit in the squad and the consistency of the results… we are unbeaten for 18 games. Sometimes you go through a spell, when you have such a long momentum, where we win a bit less. It’s down to us to continue without losing a game but as well to transform the draws now into wins. But there is no reason to panic.”
The problem for me is not that we let a lead slip against the French champions, even though it was a very soft goal that you could say was a bit unlucky. The fact is that Arsenal were lucky to be in the lead in the first place as PSG were the better team and if anyone deserved to win it was them.
If it had not been for the wastefulness of their centre forward Edinson Cavani yet again we would have got what our poor performance deserved and it is the nature of our recent games that has me more worried than the six points dropped in the last three games.
What happened to the swashbuckling Arsenal who swept Chelsea aside? We are not so much playing with the handbrake on but with a dirty great anchor strapped to our back and it is beginning to look like the same old Arsenal no matter how many times the manager talks about a special spirit. Panic? A little bit yes, because poor performances and draws do not win you a Premier League title.
D.N.