I blame Wenger for the loss against Southampton

First of all I want to make it perfectly clear that I like Arsene Wenger and I think he is the right man to take us forward. Having said that, watching the game against Southampton as an Arsenal fan, all I could feel was frustration.

Frustration not only due to our sterile attack and unbelievably useless defensive performance but more because of watching the same old failings that have plagued the team season after season. I said at the beginning that I trust Wenger’s judgment. He chooses the team on the field and the players in the transfer window. I don’t always agree with his choices in terms of personnel on the field, always making wrong substitutions (although in this case against Southampton he was spot on), and transfer decisions but I appreciate the fact that he always takes responsibility for every decision he makes.

However there are two reasons why I blame Arsene Wenger for this loss. First of all, I do not appreciate his defence of players who fail to perform even after extremely inept performances. I can understand he wants to protect them from the media but they continue to make the same mistakes game in game out. Take the case of Szczesny…I wrote an article about his limited talent and mistakes that always seem to cost us in crucial games and he goes and he proves my point against Southampton.

Granted, Arsene Wenger has finally dropped Szczesny for the game against Hull City but at what cost? We are only three points from fourth place but with teams around us picking points, we have made it quite a battle for fourth place instead of potentially gaining ground on Chelsea and Manchester United who dropped points who lost and drew respectively. For the first time, I have seen Wenger really angry and refusing to defend a player in the media but he needs to do that more often to get desired results and achieve more consistency.

The second reason I blame Wenger is when I see players talk about how disappointed they are after a bad result in the media especially after they are directly responsible for the loss. How is Mertesacker allowed to talk when he showed how immobile he honestly is when defending Southampton’s first goal and producing a really bad performance. Keep quiet and go to the next game and prove you are not that bad. So long as players have a bad performance and know all they have to say is they are disappointed to avoid been dropped, I guarantee Arsenal will continue to have inconsistency in its results.