da bwin： There’s no substitute for experience. Especially when it comes to managers and the media. After 20 years as Arsenal manager, it would be surprising if Arsene Wenger hadn’t picked up a trick or two.
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The game, and especially its relationship with the media, has changed enormously since Wenger took over at Arsenal. Manager quotes have always been grist to the mill of journalists and news outlets, but there does seem to be an unprecedented amount of interest in reading into what’s been said in a press conference. Reading between the lines has become a fetish.
On the whole, though, that’s probably a good thing. That football fans and journalists think about the game in a deeper and more analytical way is a good thing; that we want to know more about a manager’s plan is a good thing. But it makes managers careful.
So when Arsene Wenger was interviewed after the 3-3 draw with Bournemouth on Tuesday night, his response was reasonably careful, too.
‘I think it’s too uneven to play one team with 48 hours’ (rest) and one team over three days,’ he told the BBC after the game. ‘It was a mental test, but we succeeded.’
Wenger knows that a draw isn’t a great result away to Bournemouth, but he also knows that his players were tired. What’s more important, though, is how you spin those two factors. That the players were physically tired is acceptable, that they were mentally tired is not.
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There’s a huge difference between admitting physical failings at the most physically taxing time of a footballer’s year and admitting mentality deficiencies. Failings in mentality aren’t just a worrying thought, they are fatal to any title challenger. Teams that are fit enough to cope with the punishing fixture list at this time of the year are one thing, but it doesn’t really matter how fit you are if you don’t have the proverbial ‘bottle’.
Arsenal looked tired in defeat to Manchester City before the Christmas period, and you have to wonder how much the thought of a hectic schedule over Christmas played on Arsenal’s minds.
If it did, they still managed to overcome Crystal Palace and West Brom reasonably well, and you don’t need too much spin to portray 3-3 as a decent result given they were 3-0 down away from home with only 30 minutes to go. But to say that they were physically drained yet mentally strong in their comeback perhaps stretching the spin too far.
And there’s a good reason for that: Arsenal’s comeback against Bournemouth was Arsenal doing what Arsenal do best. At 3-0 down, with their failings exposed in embarrassing circumstance, they’d ruined the game for themselves. Yet Arsenal rallied in the sort of way we see them rally every year in April – after ruining their season in February and March. Ultimately, they came up short, but there was enough in their performance to spin a positive story.
Arsene Wenger knows how to shed the right kind of light on the negative performance. They were tired, but the mentality was strong. But they’ll rally again when the pressure is off to do just enough to get by, before ultimately failing in the greater goal. New year, same Arsenal.
Coming back from 3-0 down against Bournemouth was perhaps the worst thing that could have happened to Arsenal, because they can spin it as a good thing. In reality they messed it up, but if they keep thinking that’s alright, then they’ll never win the title again.
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