Arrogance, Complacency and Koscielny: Dissecting Arsenal's Problems This Season

At the time of writing, Arsenal sit third in the Premier League, two points behind 18-time champions Manchester United and current champions Chelsea, who looked invincible at the start of the season. Arsenal have also come away from the City of Manchester Stadium, Goodison Park, Ewood Park, Anfield and Stamford Bridge with a total of 10 points, four more than the corresponding fixtures last season and a record Barcelona would be proud of, attaining the most fearsome away record in the league. In addition to that they are the top scorers in European competition and joint favourites for the Carling Cup. 

Having said that, the most avid of gooners, such as me, would describe this season as 'topsy-turvy'. Why? Because in spite of Arsenal's good work, they have lost at home two newly-promoted sides as well as throwing away a two goal lead against their sworn nemesis on Saturday. Had these matches been won, Arsenal would have a convincing seven point lead at the top of the table, and would be top even if these matches had been drawn.

So why is it that Arsenal are losing these matches? I believe the answer is simple: arrogance.

To start with, let's go through Arsenal's best performances this season: 4-1 Bolton (Home), 5-1 Shaktar Donetsk (H), 2-1 Everton (Away), 2-1 Blackburn (A), 6-0 Blackpool (H), 6-0 Braga (H), 3-0 Man City (A). In all of these matches, Arsenal respected their opposition and their attitude was that it would be a difficult match, whether it was due to the match being played in an hostile away environment, the match being a Champions League match, or, in Blackpool's case, Arsene Wenger vehemently emphasising in his press conferences that the match was not as easy as it seemed. 

Even in Arsenal's 2-0 away loss to Chelsea, the team performed admirably and if the match was played 100 times, Arsenal would hve won about 50 of them - only a freak goal from Didier Drogba and a rocket from Alex separated the two, as opposed to last season when there was a visible gulf in class.

Meanwhile, let's go through Arsenal's worst results so far: 2-3 West Brom (H), 0-1 Newcastle (H), 1-2 Shaktar Donetsk (A), 2-3 Tottenham (H). In the cases of the Newcastle and West Brom games, it could easily be argued that Arsenal never assumed they needed to get out of first gear, and that the games were won when the fixture list was announced, especially after seeing West Brom's pathetic outing against Chelsea. The Shaktar Donetsk game was by no means an easy game, but Arsenal already knew that they would qualify from the group regardless, and appeared not to try once Shaktar went ahead. And I believe that the biggest indictment of Arsenal's attitude came this weekend; in the first half against Spurs, when they knew that they were up against a good team they played like the 1970 Brazil team and made amateurs of the team that had dismantled the European Champions with disturbing ease. And as soon as they were 2-0 up, the arrogance and assumption that the game was won kicked in: all of a sudden there was no closing down Bale and van der Vaart, no speed to their game, and Marouane Chamakh wasted two one-on-ones without even looking perturbed, as if he shouldn't worry because the three points were in the bag and it would only be a few minutes until he was presented with another chance to double his tally.

Finally, Arsenal have arguably the best squad in the Premier league in terms of blending the quality of Chelsea and Manchester United with the depth of Tottenham and Manchester City, and are capable of winning the kind of tough away games they would have lost in the past thanks to the added toughness of Song, Sagna, Chamakh and Djourou, yet are bizarrely being let down by their complacency against smaller teams like Tottenham. If this is rectified then Arsenal can sweep all before them, but can concentration be instilled in the players before it's too late? Is this even the problem? Please comment.

WHAT IS KOSCIELNY DOING IN THIS TEAM

When Arsene Wenger bought Lauren Koscielny for £8.5m last summer, most Arsenal fans were hoping he had pulled off another masterstroke like he did the previous summer with Thomas Vermaelen, however, watching Koscielny play makes me wish we still had Senderos in the team! First, he gets sent off on his debut, during his suspension Arsenal keep a clean sheet. He comes back and gets done for pace by the 'speed demon' El-Hadj Diouf, resulting in a goal. In his next match he gave away another goal by making a weak back-pass to Almunia which was intercepted by Chung-Yong Lee (one of the most underrated players in England). He then missed a practically open goal against Chelsea which would have given Arsenal an early lead, and after an injury lay-off in which Arsenal won 3 consecutive games he came back and 'surprisingly' got sent off in a loss to Newcastle. Unsurprisingly, during his suspension Arsenal won two games on the trot, conceding only a consolation goal to Everton, before the bumbling polish/Frenchman was back to his calamitous best, inflicting a horror tackle on Gareth Bale (which deserved a third sending off of the season), which resulted in Spurs' winner, as well as missing yet another open goal. Indeed, Arsenal have only kept 1 clean sheet out of 8 in the league games he has played in - against West Ham, probably the level he should aspire to -, yet have achieved 3 in the 6 league games they have played without him! Be under no illusions, it is not like Arsenal have no alternatives, as Squillaci as eased in to the team in a slick if unspectacular manner, whilst Johan Djourou has impressed me beyond belief when given the chance: according to Wenger, only Theo Walcott runs 100m faster than him in the Arsenal squad, he is young yet capped internationally for Switzerland (one of the meanest defences in European football) and is an impressive 1.96m with the muscles of an NFL player, he is also defensively aware and was able to keep the likes of Carlos Tevez and Nikola Zigic in his pocket, so why on earth does Koscielny, who boasts neither his physical attributes nor ability, and is uncapped despite being 2 years older than him, get the nod ahead of him?