Arsenal FC: 6 Reasons Why Arsene Wenger and the Gunners Have Fallen

Though they have come close many times, Arsenal are a team that has been unable to cross the finish line in several of the more recent campaigns.

As a die-hard Arsenal fan myself, it is unsettling to watch a team I so fondly feel for go from the great times of the "Invincibles'" campaign to falling to defeat at the hands of a soon-to-be-relegated Birmingham City side in the Carling Cup final.

One can only hope for better seas ahead for a once-so-great side. 

Emirates Stadium

As the new venue of Arsenal's home games, it has been a fantastic upgrade for the team. Holding a massive 60,355 spectators, it holds a lot more of the Arsenal faithful than their previous stadium, Highbury.  It just lacks that one thing that made their old home truly a home: heart. 

There is none of that real togetherness between the foaming-at-the-mouth Gunners in the seats and the hard-at-work players on the field. The seats are too far away from the pitch, and the lack of a trophy in the past six years has really put a damper on the mood around Arsenal home games.  

Peter Hill-Wood

Peter Hill-Wood, the chairman of the Arsenal board room, is the man with the last word on who Arsenal signs and who they don't.

Arsene Wenger can have the most amazing players scouted and ready to sign, but without the board's approval, all wheeling and dealing is put to a halt. With Wenger's degree in economics and the board's frugal mindset, the Emirates Stadium is due to be paid off soon, which is great for the club and its finances, but it has come at the cost of bringing in truly great talent. 

Arsenal has been one of the few teams not to be in debt come time to calculate end-of-the-year finances, but this has been due in large part to Hill-Wood's unwillingness to let Wenger sign who he needs in his team. That has led to the decline of the team. 

A True Leader

With the vacation of the captaincy post after Arsenal's last trophy, Patrick Vieira seems to have left a position in serious need.

Though Thierry Henry stands up as Arsenal's most prolific scorer, he was no true captain. Neither was Kolo Toure, William Gallas nor Cesc Fabregas. Arsenal are now under the reign of captain Robin Van Persie, and he is not the answer. He lacks the natural leadership needed to lead a high-caliber team and holds little weight of his own on the field, let alone with the rest of the team as a so-called "leader."

What Arsenal need is a Patrick Vieira reincarnation. Someone who controls the middle of the pitch, transitions play from defense to offense, and inspires the other 10 players on his side to step their game up and play at the expected level they are supposed to play at, if not higher. 

Arsene Wenger

Ah, yes. The most successful manager in the history of Arsenal FC.

Arsene Wenger single-handedly revolutionized Arsenal from "Boring Arsenal" to the exciting side that has gone on to win three English Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and four FA Community Shields, but he has done little since that heroic comeback over Manchester United in 2005. 

Though he has stuck to his principles of flowing, free-passing football, he has brought in talent that was unproven and not ready for the high demands of Premiership soccer. He has engineered a team that is almost afraid to shoot unless it's inside the 18-yard box.

Without shots from far out and drastic, fast-moving counterattacks that Arsenal, as a whole, used to be known for, he has basically rendered this squad toothless in the past six campaigns.  

Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas was brought in from the Barcelona youth program as the supposed "future" of Arsenal. Now, let me not undercut what he brought and say he didn't do a good job. He did. He came with his flaws though, some of them vastly damaging for Arsenal. 

Arsenal became dependent on him in the past two or three seasons. He was almost always out with injury or carrying an injury. As great of a player as he was, he brought to much distraction to the team, especially post-2010 World Cup, when his Spanish teammates put even more pressure on him to return to Barcelona and come home, thus adding to a saga already two seasons long.

His dedication to Arsenal finally broke, as he finally signed to the Catalan side, thus paving the way from stock and standard players such as Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue to bail from the sinking ship that was Arsenal.

Injuries

When Bacary Sagna went down against Tottenham with what was later found out to be a broken ankle, one could only shake their head as he was stretchered from the field of play. This has been Arsenal's biggest stumbling block: their inability to keep players fit. 

Whether you want to blame fixture congestion and international responsibilities or the medical staff of Arsenal, it has been the biggest contributing factor to their demise.

With Henry in early in the 2005-06 campaign going down with an Achilles' problem, to various nasty injuries like those sustained by Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal have always had to deal with a less-than-fully-fit side having to go out and sustain a title challenge, week in and week out. 

In Conclusion...

Though Arsenal used to dominate the domestic and European scenes, they have truly fallen far as a team, a club, and a side that this writer feels so fondly for.

The fall from grace as unbeaten champions of the Premiership in the 2003-04 campaign to falling at the hands of defeat to a soon-to-be-relegated Birmingham City side in the Carling Cup final this past February has been truly something to behold. 

As a die-hard Arsenal fan, one can only hope for calmer seas and brighter days ahead for the North London side. Only time can tell, at this point.