Arsenal are a team of passengers – lacking identity and drifting nowhere

A ball flashes in front of goal. A presentable chance is missed. A player foolishly shoots from distance. A refereeing decision angers the home support. All four – and many more moments like them – come and go, leaving only frustration that boils over into anger. At the end of it all, with Arsenal left contemplating another season outside the top four, optimists might claim misfortune. Realists are on the same page as pessimists.

Arsenal had this in their hands and let it slip through their fingers. After beating Newcastle United 2-0 on 1 April, they were third in the Premier League and above Tottenham.. One win in six league games since and an entire campaign has been drained of all goodwill. After the final home game of the season, a parade to give thanks. But who should be showing who their appreciation? And how few were actually there to witness it?

One of the reasons that Arsenal home games become so soporific is because Unai Emery’s team have no distinct style that they can truly call theirs. In a climate of dogmatic high-profile managers, it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what Emery’s Arsenal are. Watch Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Tottenham with the kits and faces greyed out, and you would back yourself to guess correctly. Is the same true of Arsenal?

Made to look like fools

It sounds deeply uncharitable, but there’s a general feeling that things just happen to Arsenal rather than them creating their own fate. Against opponents such as Brighton, workmanlike but ultimately less skilled than Arsenal, they just about have enough. Against opponents who are either organised or proficient, like Wolves, they can be made to look like fools.

In some part, this is a question of intensity. Do just about anything with vibrancy and intent and it will stand out as memorable. Arsenal are the opposite. They allow two, five, 10 and 15-minute spells of matches pass by in a series of slow passing moves and safety-first attacks, and allow weeks to pass in the same manner. Walking pace becomes the default until circumstance demands full pelt. It’s damn hard to move quickly up the gears.

There are honourable exceptions. Alexandre Lacazette was awarded Arsenal’s Player of the Year award before the game, and became a one-man band to break Brighton’s resolve. But the players who rise to meet every challenge head on remain the exception rather than rule at the Emirates. Emery’s task is to rid the club of passengers.

As with Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea, you can’t really fault the raw figures: a top-four finish still somehow mathematically possible and potential Europa League glory on the line heading into mid-May, all achieved after a muted summer of spending and a new manager tasked with changing the water damage of the previous regime. In a habitat containing more apex predators than Champions League places, six into four doesn’t go.

Rotten standard

As with Sarri at Chelsea, those raw figures don’t quite tell the whole story. The general standard of the clubs between third and sixth has been rotten over the last three months, and Arsenal (vs Watford) and Chelsea (vs Cardiff) have maintained the veil of competence with undeserved away wins. It would have, could have, should have been worse.

Arsenal could not have selected a better Premier League opponent. Brighton had confirmed their Premier League status for next season without kicking a ball, grateful that Cardiff had not been able to take advantage of their dismal run. Chris Hughtons’s team had taken two points from a possible 24, and conceded the opening goal after a luxuriously soft penalty decision.

But then that’s another symptom of the same disease. Goals are football’s most valuable currency but should also provide emotional succor. All manner of foibles have been covered up by the sweet relief of an early goal that gives a confidence boost like no other.

At Arsenal, goals tend to happen by chance in the general tapestry but leave no obvious lasting glow. Having scored an early penalty and looked bright, they merely fell back into their general mediocrity. At some point they will learn that doing so gives an opposition team heart. If Emery hasn’t realised that Arsenal aren’t good enough to stoutly defend leads yet, he never will.