When Arsène Wenger lived in Japan as manager of Grampus 8 in the 1990s he watched sumo, and the experience taught him a few things he feels can benefit the tinderbox atmosphere of elite football. “When the winner doesn’t show any emotion out of respect for the loser, that is something that surprises all of us,” Arsenal’s manager said.
Sumo proved an interesting topic of conversation in a week when overspilling passion was on football’s agenda, and Wenger found it particularly fascinating that manners play a crucial role in results. “Every day for 15 days you have a fight and the guy who wins the most fights is the winner of the tournament,” he said. “To become yokozuna – that means the top of the top – you have to win at least two tournaments out of the six, and what is very interesting is you go in front of a committee to have an ethical judgment as well. If you did not behave well, even if you won the tournament, you cannot become the yokozuna, the master of masters.
“It is one of the few sports in the world that has not changed since the middle ages [or] since the 1600s. The rules, the way they are dressed, the [way] referees are dressed, is the same. In fact I would like to see our referees in this dress.”
Wenger has said his time in Japan influenced him to try to be more reserved than the more hot-headed manager he was in his younger days in France.
Not that a taste for zen always works – he cast his mind back to a match at Upton Park in 2006, won by a feverishly celebrated, late Marlon Harewood goal, which prompted a touchline tussle with West Ham’s manager, Alan Pardew. Wenger took exception to Pardew’s fist-pumping celebration, which appeared to be aimed squarely at him. Provocative? Maybe. Looking back, Wenger reflected on the incident with laughter. “We had a lack of respect there,” he said.
That was the last time West Ham beat Arsenal at home, more than a decade ago. Wenger’s team may not be on a particularly productive sequence away from home but this particular fixture tends to be generous for them. “I have no rational explanation. I just treat every game as an individual part you want to prepare well for and win.”
Arsenal are likely to return to a back four after several months with Wenger setting up with a three. As well as needing to sharpen up defensively, the need for greater attacking ruthlessness is also on the manager’s mind. He thinks football is going through a trend of a high number of Premier League teams trying to build on a platform of limited possession. “At the moment you would say the big teams face the problem of more density in the final third,” he said. “We have to find a solution to get around that. “Maybe because there is more separation today mentally between the top teams and the other teams. They attempt to win the game but they do it in a different way, in a structured, well-prepared game.
“You have half of the teams in the Premier League who think, ‘We don’t want to go down’, and for these kind of teams, against teams that expect to play at the top, the best way to get some points is defend as much as we can and try to get the best out of the moments when we have the ball.”
West Ham recently gave Manchester City a scare and beat Chelsea. Wenger will not take this one lightly.
