Arsenal 1-2 Watford
And this is why Arsenal will never win the Premier League again under Arsene Wenger.
Say what you want sports betting fans. Interpret the betting odds as you wish.
Arsenal could not win the Premier League last season, even when it was set up for them to take advantage in the most open campaign for a generation.
Arsenal will not win the Premier League this season, despite more significant investment.
And Arsenal will not win the Premier League again so long as Wenger remains at the helm.
That is not to belittle the achievements of the Frenchman who, besides inspiring many memorable moments, has ensured his place in English football’s hall of fame after guiding Arsenal to two league and cup doubles, an unbeaten league season from the side that became known as the ‘Invincibles’ and a complete sea change in style and mentality from the moment he walked through the marble halls of Highbury in 1996.
He may never have achieved back-to-back titles or a Champions League success – triumphs which are seen as the acid test – but he remains in the pantheon of ‘very good’ if not ‘great’ managers.
However, here was the latest example of why Arsenal have only limited silverware (two FA Cup wins) to their name over the past decade.
In this day and age, such a record would surely have led to the manager being dismissed at any other of the established Premier League big hitters.
For once opposing managers worked out how to stop his team at their breathtaking best, Wenger failed to adapt.
He failed to recognise that one of his major strengths is also his biggest weakness.
To realise that all great sides need a steel and a spine to win when it matters; that players who play the beautiful game also need components of the lesser arts alongside them; that failure to recognise this amounts to tactical ineptitude and inevitable failings against the top teams.
A lack of leaders of this type has contributed to Arsenal’s fall from grace.
Yes, there was a period when the club moved to the Emirates Stadium where it lacked the funds of its main rivals and Wenger’s job in securing Champions League qualification every single year deserves more respect than it receives.
Yet, all the old failings remain and this was Groundhog Day for Arsenal.
To rub salt into the wounds, a former Spurs defender, Younes Kaboul, lashed in the opener before skipper Troy Deeney doubled the lead within three minutes – all this inside the opening 13 minutes.
Alex Iwobi pulled a goal back from Alexis Sanchez’s cross – what must the world-class Chilean now be thinking – but don’t be fooled by the fact the Gunners enjoyed 74 per cent of possession in this game.
Watford, winners here in the FA Cup quarter-finals last March, had done it again.
This was typical Arsenal and their latest obituary.
This was wonderfully fitting Watford, less than 24 hours before the funeral of their greatest son, Graham Taylor.
What a send-off!
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