Oh, Arsenal. So good, so quick, so dominant; so frail, so brittle, so limp. At times in this rather surreal Champions League Group D match Arsenal resembled not so much a lopsided work-in-progress as a mismatched pantomime horse of a team. From 3-0 up after 60 minutes to 3-3 on 90 – spooked by an offside goal – this was a horrible defensive performance at the end, made all the more painful by the cloudless hour that preceded it.
The good news for Arsène Wenger is that the attack appears to be fixed. The bad news: well, all the other things that were broken – undermanned defence, lack of basic spleen and spine and muscle (and brain) when it comes to keeping the opposition at bay – appear to be just about clinging on behind.
This was a strange night all round, one that seems to raise all sorts of questions about the basic point of all this. Despite their horrible half-hour here, Arsenal are still very likely to qualify once again as one of Europe’s top-16 teams, a fine achievement in isolation. There is, though, no suggestion that they are any better equipped to progress beyond that stage. It all seems at times a slightly pointless exercise, a business of simply existing lucratively within the final stages of Europe’s premier competition without ever threatening to press for more. Most bafflingly, the obvious areas of weakness – lack of defensive personnel, lack of at least one high-class defensive midfielder – are hardly insurmountable.
First, though, that attack. With a little fortune and a happy shuffling of the injury pack Wenger has effectively re-geared the front end of his team, which, in the opening hour, looked in vibrant good health. Speed, or rather a lack of speed, has been an issue recently and whatever the problems elsewhere decisive steps have been taken to rectify that omission.
There has already been a degree of salivating over the prospect of a thrillingly pacy front three complementing the fine-point passing of Mesut Özil. Here, though, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain switching from right to left and Alexis Sánchez buzzing behind Danny Welbeck, one thing was clear from the start: this is Sánchez’s attack right now, a front four who revolve around his relentless, high pressure take on the trequartista role, so different in texture and tempo to the Özil-centred machine of early season.
It was a deceptively slow start at the Emirates, but the aubergine shirts of Anderlecht broke well in the opening minutes, providing an ominous glimpse of what would arrive in a second half. The first rev of the Arsenal throttle came after a quarter of an hour when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain found a little space in the purple crush only for Arsenal to suddenly come over all Arsenal, pinging the ball around the area until Aaron Ramsey’s shot was deflected over.
If Oxlade-Chamberlain has a concussive, rugby league player’s kind of speed, all barrel-chested pace and explosive lateral movements, Sánchez is a blur of quick feet, often taking three steps in the time it takes a defender to adjust his feet. This he did in Arsenal’s best moment of the opening quarter, taking a pass from Ramsey, feinting to shoot on the head of a pin and then skimming a post.
And moments later Arsenal went ahead. Sánchez picked up Ramsey’s pass 40 yards from goal and played a lovely pass to Welbeck gliding in behind Chancel Mbemba, who barged him to the ground. Mikel Arteta dinked home the penalty. Moments later Sánchez’s running – and supreme ball-striking technique – created the second. First he was pulled down on the edge of the box.
A disappointing free-kick hit the wall, but Sánchez’s follow-up was sublime, snapping his feet into place like a shiny little ballroom dancer and spanking the ball on the volley low and into the corner. Then, with an hour gone, Oxlade-Chamberlain sprang forward and slotted a superb third goal as he cut in from the left wing.
At which point, exit Arsenal’s attack. Enter, tripping up over their own feet, Arsenal’s defence as Anderlecht began to probe, gaining confidence as they found little resistance in that familiar flapping saloon-door of a central midfield. Arsenal simply crumpled as Anthony Vanden Borre scored twice, the second from the penalty spot, and the Serbian substitute Aleksandr Mitrovic got the third with a fine header. It was that kind of night. Perhaps it will be that kind of season until a genuine base for that expensively reinforced attack can be found.
Wenger said he felt Arsenal defended poorly and that his team were under pressure even at 3-0 up. He was right, too: the most alarming thing about that last half-hour was that nothing in it really came as a surprise. Arsenal have collapsed against good teams in the past. They collapsed against a good team here. They will do so again in the future. The front end may look in thrumming good health but the faults behind remain, and Wenger was not alone in being able to see the collapse coming.
