Arsène Wenger chose to play down his disappointment after
Manchester United had moved five points clear at the top of the table
but the
Arsenal
manager's magnificent obsession with the aesthetic aspects of football
has left him with a blind spot when it comes to the basics of defending,
and the lack of a reliable goalkeeper and effective centre-halves will
almost certainly leave an otherwise admirable team empty-handed for the
sixth season in succession.
Wojciech Szczesny's blunder in goal
condemned them to defeat by Birmingham in the Carling Cup final and now
Manuel Almunia's senseless charge out of his penalty area at The
Hawthorns cost two points which could prove decisive as the title race
enters its final furlong. Wenger would neither confirm or deny it but
Jens Lehmann, persuaded out of retirement at 41, is in line for early
promotion from the bench when the
Premier League resumes after the international break.
It
should never have come to this. For years now pundits and punters alike
have been saying Arsenal need a top keeper and rock solid central
defenders in the Adams-Bould-Keown tradition but Wenger, perversely,
will not have it and continues to make do with inadequates, his
persistence smacking of obstinacy.
Almunia, Laurent Koscielny and
Sebastien Squillaci effectively handed Albion a 2-0 lead, necessitating a
frantic fightback against modest opponents still threatened with
relegation. Roy Hodgson's canny management has kept his new team
unbeaten for five matches but he could hardly claim credit for either
of their goals here.
The first, after only three minutes, saw
Koscielny and Squillaci carelessly concede possession and a corner, then
go missing in the goalmouth as Steven Reid scored with a powerful
header. As comparatively new foreign imports, neither centre-half seems
attuned to the intensity of the English game and Wenger should have
recruited an alternative with suitable experience during the January
transfer window. West Bromwich's second goal was a horror show, Almunia
vacating his area to meet a hopeful punt from Youssouf Mulumbu and
getting in an embarrassing tangle with Squillaci which left Peter
Odemwingie to roll the ball into the unguarded net.
In extremis
Wenger sent on Marouane Chamakh, then Nicklas Bendtner, and the switch
to 4-4-2 had the desired effect, restoring equality through Andrey
Arshavin's excellent finish and a close‑range nudge from Robin
van Persie. It was, however, very much a case of two points dropped and
yet another setback for Arsenal after their Carling Cup defeat and
elimination from the FA Cup and Champions League. Wenger thought those
demoralising results preyed on his players' minds.
"We had four
targets and suddenly we have only one‚" he said. "You cannot go out of
the Champions League like we did and be left with no doubts. After that
we were a bit nervous at the start of this game." Of his team's
elementary defensive errors he said: "We will be dealing with that. Our
marking was not good for the first goal. I think we were a bit tentative
at the start." Would he play Lehmann against Blackburn on 2 April? "I'm
not going to get into that now. We have two weeks to decide. He has not
been involved for a long time but he has kept fit. He needs to sharpen
his decision making, and a bit more practice."
Hodgson,
justifiably, was pleased with Albion's progress. They were good value
for their point, consolidating the ground gained with that 3-1 win at
Birmingham City, but their programme gets no easier. Their next four
games are at home to Liverpool and Chelsea and away to Sunderland and
Tottenham Hotspur.
Hodgson said: "The good thing about the league
is that the teams at the top have got so much to play for that they
aren't going to give anything away. If Arsenal had been sixth or seventh
in the table, with nothing to play for, maybe they'd have been a bit
less aggressive to get back in the game but they are playing for the
title. Hopefully it will be the same for the other teams in our position
when they meet the teams at the top."