Arsene Wenger: Arsenal boss has run out of ideas with predicable style and is too scared to sub lazy Mesut Ozil
Gunners were incredibly tame as they slipped to second consecutive league defeat and Wenger must show new side
AS Arsenal struggled to resist Manchester City on Sunday, Arsene Wenger’s reply was as predictable as it was inevitable.
Sixty-five minutes gone, send on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Alex Iwobi. Swap one winger for another and hope that will somehow stem the tide.
If that does not work, there is always Plan B. Stick Olivier Giroud up front for the last 15 minutes and lump it long to the big fella.
Wenger’s lack of imagination really is astonishing for a man regarded as one of football’s deepest thinkers.
The same formation every week. Play to your strengths, never make allowances for the opposition.
Unlike all of his title rivals, the Gunners boss is essentially reactive rather than proactive.
Pep Guardiola, Antonio Conte, Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho have all shown themselves ready to make bold tactical adjustments to change a game, at half-time if necessary, sometimes even earlier.
But Wenger is seemingly incapable of making the big calls, a forlorn figure fiddling with his zip or complaining to the referee and his assistants.
His lack of in-match advice or guidance to players is in stark contrast to the new breed of super coaches, who spend the entire 90 minutes barking orders from the sidelines.
Wenger does not get his players going and does not get the crowd going either.
In fact, assistant manager Steve Bould never even leaves his seat in the dugout.
It is easy to argue that top-class professionals should not need someone to harangue them to provoke a response.
But everybody needs a boot up the backside every now and then — particularly when they are failing as regularly as Arsenal in recent years.
In fact, they are the only team in the top ten with FEWER points than at this stage last season.
No one can doubt Mesut Ozil’s outstanding ability and contribution to the club.
But when Arsenal have their backs to the wall, as they had at the Etihad on Sunday, they are effectively playing with ten men when the German midfielder is on the pitch.
In fact, they might actually be better off being a man light.
That they discovered at Everton last week when Ozil not only failed to mark Ashley Williams at a late corner but actually ducked out of the way of the delivery, leading to the Welshman scoring the winner.
Yet Wenger will never substitute his superstar unless it is the final minutes of a game that is already won.
It is far easier for him to hook Iwobi, Oxlade-Chamberlain or Theo Walcott, who are all less likely to kick up a stink.
And Wenger will do anything to avoid a confrontation.