The Bolton Wanderers' finishing blow sent Arsenal completely into the abyss!
Wenger left the Reebok Stadium with an ashen face. He took the initiative to take responsibility for the loss after the game.
Wenger looked gloomy at the post-match press conference. He finally admitted that the team's situation was very worrying.
"Indeed, the chances of winning the title in March were very slim for us. However, we still tried our best, but reality hit us hard. We slipped from the ranks of the championship to the situation of holding on to the qualification for the Champions League. This is not the position Arsenal should be in, but reality is cruel. We lost too many points, which made us frustrated. We should have gotten six points this week (Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers), but we didn't get a single point. This season is really full of stories! "
Wenger said indignantly, "Our players have shown a positive attitude this season. Our players are beyond reproach. If you really want to pick out a culprit, then that person is me. I'm the one leading this team."
"We created a lot of chances in this game, but we still couldn't score as many goals as possible, which made me very dissatisfied. Our team is still immature. Sometimes experience and mentality are very important. "Wenger finally said.
This was the hard problem of a young team, experience and mentality! It could be said that it was a cliché when it came to Arsenal.
The situation in the standings had changed dramatically.
Liverpool's points had reached 84 points and they had won the title ahead of time.
Manchester United's points had reached 70 points and they were basically locked in the runner-up position in the league.
Chelsea was in third place. After winning this round, they established an advantage to retain their Champions League spot, with 65 points.
Manchester City was in fourth place in the round thanks to Dzeko's goal. They were one point ahead of Arsenal with 63 points!
Arsenal's two consecutive defeats caused them to slip from the standings to fifth place, still with only 62 points.
There were only four rounds left in the league. No one could say for sure whether Arsenal could escape and return to the Champions League.
The pressure on Wenger was so great that it was unimaginable.
Fleet Street also began to bombard Wenger's coaching policy!
The Times published a major feature, predicting that Arsenal would not be able to play in the Champions League next season!
"A total of 19 shots were far more than the opponent's 12 shots. Their possession rate of 67.2% was more than double that of the home team, Bolton Wanderers. However, in such a suppressive and suppressed game, the loser was Arsenal, who theoretically had the absolute advantage!
What was even more humiliating was that the opponent had scored the final goal in the 90th minute of the match.
Of course, Arsenal's players were already used to this kind of "humiliation". From Sunderland at the beginning of the season, to Newcastle United's equalizer when they were leading by four goals, to today's match against Bolton Wanderers, the Gunners were used to conceding goals towards the end of the match, until it was a nightmare for them to fall out of the Champions League!
After losing to Bolton Wanderers, Arsenal, led by Wenger, only had an embarrassing record of one win, four draws, and two losses in the last seven rounds of the league tournament. Their position in the standings was also overtaken by Manchester City!
The nightmare of not winning the championship in five years had become a reality. Arsenal's biggest crisis was not that the team would not be able to win the championship trophy, but that they were likely to be absent from the Champions League next season!
Looking at the analysis of the players' performance, looking at Djourou's "suicidal" poor performance at the Reebok Stadium tonight, and then looking at the godly performance of the man who missed out in the winter, Gary Cahill, it was a stark contrast between a god and a ghost. How would Wenger feel on the sidelines? How could Arsenal, with such a broken lineup and a porous rear defensive line, compete with teams like Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea?
This could be seen in a newly published list of Premier League managers' transfer expenditure and money burning. On this list, Mark Hughes, then the manager of Manchester City, was ranked at the top with an average of £146 million per season. There was no lack of famous managers like Mourinho, Benítez, Ancelotti, and Mancini in the top ten. The "money burning" of these famous managers also objectively reflected the investment, expenditure, and expenditure of teams like Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool. It was a symbol of the money burning of powerhouses.
However, it was difficult to find the shadow of Arsenal's professor, Wenger, in the top 15 of this list. Looking carefully, the Frenchman was ranked 18th on the "money burning" list, along with managers like Sunderland's McCarthy and Brosnan.
Of course, there were even more unsightly figures. In the 15 seasons that Wenger had coached Arsenal, the average investment per season was only £1.68 million! This was almost one-ninth of the investment of Manchester City under Mark Hughes!
Close to one percent of the investment! A hundred times!
With such a low investment and such a disparity, it was no wonder that Arsenal had encountered the embarrassment of not winning any championships in five years.
After all, Wenger was not a god. How could he compete with the powerhouses of the Premier League just by relying on his "midas touch"?
Indeed, in today's world of football, throwing money might not bring about heavy trophies one after another. But on the other hand, if money was not thrown, then it could be said that it was impossible to win a championship.
For example, Barcelona, which had a strong youth training system and the ability to "produce new blood," still had a large investment every year. They bought Villa last summer and brought in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Zigerinski the year before.
Liverpool had brought in Qin Xiong, Suárez, Meireles, Johnson, Baines, and other big names in the past two years. They had spent more than £100 million and had already won three heavyweight championship trophies.
Chelsea spent £75 million during the winter transfer window and finally rebounded strongly in the middle and later stages of the league …
There was no need to say more about the rise of Manchester City.
So, why was Arsenal the only one who did not make a move?
Was it really because of the financial constraints of building the Emirates Stadium a few years ago?
"The only thing I can say is that the club is in a healthy financial situation. If needed, we have the ability to spend a lot of money to buy people. But the average age of our team is 23 years old. Why do we have to make a big change and buy people after the season? " Wenger's words could be said to have chilled the hearts of Arsenal fans. Since the finances were healthy and they did not want to buy people to strengthen their strength, would the Gunners' road to no championships continue like this?
Manchester City had already threatened Arsenal's qualification for the Champions League. If Arsenal did not adjust the team building strategy, then next season, and the season after that, if Arsenal still did not have the chance to play in the Champions League, how could Arsenal's competitiveness improve?
Would star players like Fàbregas and Robin van Persie still stay in the team? "
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