Change Is Coming at Arsenal, but Is It Enough to Make the Difference?

Five teams at the top of the Premier League, divided by a single point. Even their goal-difference differs by only two. And yet it’s impossible not to view all five teams differently, in part because of the fixture list and in part because past performance inevitably affects how we view the present.

That’s why, while Arsenal have played some undeniably brilliant football this season, most notably in the 3-0 Premier League win over Chelsea and in the 6-0 Champions League victory over Ludogorets Razgrad, it probably doesn’t pay to get too carried away. After seven straight wins, the draw against Middlesbrough last Saturday, when a win would have taken Arsenal top, was an all-too-familiar intrusion of reality.

Looked at in its bleakest light, this is the Arsenal story in microcosm. They play some searing football, they crush a moderate side in the Champions League, and then they come up against a doughty northern opponent who blunts their edge by defending in pragmatic numbers and threatens on the break essentially by looking quicker, sharper and stronger than the Gunners. In their complex psychological tapestry, the tendency to complacency is perhaps the least forgivable strand.

But maybe that’s overly harsh. As manager Arsene Wenger noted last week as he contemplated his 67th birthday, winning football matches isn’t as easy as it looks—and Arsenal at least had the wherewithal not to lose after the game had begun to turn against them. And there have been a number of positive signs this season.

One of the most striking came in that Ludogorets game. The Bulgarian champions had a number of chances before half-time, so much so that Theo Walcott’s 25-yard strike, Arsenal’s second, not merely came against the run of play but as a relief.

Even by the end of the match, by which time they had racked up six, each goal shimmering with aesthetic quality, Arsenal had had less possession. A year or two ago, that would have been highly unusual. The one constant in Arsenal’s fragility was their domination of possession. Their method was to control the ball, always looking to pass teams to death.

When it worked, it could be stunningly beautiful. But the problem was when it didn’t …

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