Why Arsene Wenger Is Under Most Pressure for Arsenal Following Loss to Swansea

It happened again—twice in one week. Arsenal fans are used to the tragicomedy by now.

The Gunners earned a 3-0 lead against Anderlecht in midweek and proceeded to stunningly throw it away. At least there were plausible excuses, though: The first goal was clearly offside, for example.

There can be no such soothing words after this latest collapse. Arsenal, who should be good enough to make Swansea look like an inferior side, allowed their opponents so much joy throughout the game that it is little surprise that they scored twice to snatch all three points.

The team looks entirely shorn of confidence at the moment—except for Alexis Sanchez, who scored the Gunners' only goal and is the only player on the team who can be proud of himself this season. Arsenal scrambled to cope with Swansea's relentless pressing and quick movement, and they always looked defensively vulnerable.

That is ultimately down to the players on the pitch. But a disproportionate amount of the blame undoubtedly lies at the feet of Arsene Wenger, who still has not found a way to hoist Arsenal out of the rut they have been in all season.

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The team has the staid look that accompanies a lack of ideas, innovation and confidence. And why should they have any? Arsenal have used more or less the same tactical approach all season and achieved the same result: Mediocrity and fragility.

The defense was easily sliced open time and again by Swansea's quick flicks and intelligent movement. Why does a team that has only been in the Premier League for a few years, operates on a shoestring budget, plays in a stadium with a third of the Emirates Stadium's capacity and is managed by a 35-year-old look obviously better than Arsenal?

We just need to look at Wenger to find the answer.

Arsenal's defense was made the plaything of Jefferson Montero, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Co. Montero practically vivisected Calum Chambers, who had his worst day in an Arsenal shirt, and a back four with one center-back is obviously unstable.

Why didn't Arsenal buy a center-back during the summer, knowing that, of the two available options within the team, one had tendonitis in both Achilles tendons? Only Wenger knows.

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Why didn't Arsenal acquire a defensive midfielder, since Mikel Arteta has had his problems and Mathieu Flamini is a grossly inadequate backup? Again, direct your inquiries solely to Mr. Wenger.

Lack of transfer-market activity is only part of the problem, though. Arsenal possess a wealth of attacking talent despite their many injuries, and yet they can hardly produce anything that does not go through Alexis Sanchez.

One might wonder about what state the Gunners would be in if Alexis had not injected his aggression and technical brilliance into so many of Arsenal's games. That is beside the point, though; even with him, Arsenal just keep trying the same things and repeatedly failing.

It's the footballing equivalent of banging your head against a wall ad infinitum to knock it down. Arsenal cannot manage to pass themselves out of impossibly tight spaces, for example, but just will not stop attempting to tiki-taka their way through.

And yet Wenger has set the team up in more or less the same way all season: One defensive midfielder, two roaming central midfielders, one traditional winger, one roaming winger and one striker.

Moreover, he is shockingly reluctant to change the balance of the side. He made two substitutions immediately after Arsenal had imploded and conceded two goals, but of course none before then.

Conclusion: He is merely reactive, not proactive. Is that the benefit of having a manager with 18 years of experience with the same team?

Everyone could see that Calum Chambers was having an absolutely torrid time on the right, and that Nacho Monreal was not doing much better in the middle. Yet Wenger compounded his failure to start the former at center-back and Hector Bellerin at right-back by leaving Chambers on for far longer than he should have.

Unsurprisingly, Swansea's winner came from a cross from the right wing.

Wenger needs to feel the pressure to dictate a more aggressive and proactive approach to his team. How much more evidence does he need that the status quo has totally failed?

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