I was speaking with an old Manchester United player on Sunday. We were discussing the merits of Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 win over Manchester City.
“It’s the Champions League next week,” the United legend said. “Teams do this all the time. City left out Kompany and Hart. Pellegrini has to go for the Champions League this season.”
You know something? He’s right. City are going all out for the Champions League and they need to make sure that they avoid any more slip-ups – as in the 2-1 opening-game defeat at home to Juventus.
Applying that same logic to Arsenal, I hit upon an interesting argument. Arsene Wenger is actually operating in reverse to City.
Spurred on by Chelsea’s awful start to the campaign – and that City are, indeed, chasing bigger fish and nobody seems to think that Manchester United’s chances of regaining the Premier League crown are genuine – I believe that Wenger has set his stall out.
The Champions League can wait, after successive defeats, and the Gunners will go all out for the Premier League. And I believe that decision was taken before last night’s 3-2 home defeat against Olympiacos.
As it stands, Arsenal are three points off the Premier League summit after seven games.
One thing that may stop Arsenal is Wenger himself. He is clearly becoming more aggravated with the media and the media, seeing that, are ramping up the pressure.
He’s already had several run-ins during his press conferences this season and his post-match musings in the wake of last night’s defeat were again tinged with exasperation at having to be answerable to those who know less about the game than he does.
“I do not have to sit here and give you any explanation about every decision I make,” Wenger said. “You are capable to judge what I do and I leave you to that.
“Cech had a slight [fitness] alert before the game at Leicester [on Saturday]. I didn’t want to take a gamble but it’s not because of that we lost the game. It’s a farce [to suggest that].”
Wenger is right in that goalkeeper David Ospina wasn’t to blame for Arsenal’s defeat. They simply weren’t good enough, even though they had a strong team out.
“Look who played in midfield,” Wenger said, “Cazorla, Coquelin, Ozil. They played together since six months. On the right, Oxlade-Chamberlain; on the left, Sanchez; and Walcott up front. That’s the team, basically, who plays always.”
And yet Arsenal lost without playing well. Why? For the same reason that City lost against Spur and rotated their goalkeeper, too.
City are going for the Champions League and Arsenal are going for the Premier League
It’s horses for courses. City are going for the Champions League and Arsenal are going for the Premier League.
For all Wenger’s frustration with the media and as far as my hunch goes, it always pays to ask somebody close to the situation. And I did on Monday morning.
I called a scout at the club and made my case. “You can’t say that,” he said. “Well, you can but you can’t, if you know what I mean?”
I know exactly what he means. He means that, officially, nobody connected with the club can ever be seen to suggest that Arsenal aren’t taking the Champions League as seriously as the Premier League.
Yet, unofficially, Wenger has taken a look at the situation and drawn the conclusion that Arsenal have a wonderful chance of recapturing the title that they last held in 2004.
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That rumour gathered further momentum last night when, despite their Greek tragedy, Arsenal’s Premier League title odds were slashed to 3-1 second favourites behind Manchester City, even though they currently lie in fourth position.
And what of City? After all, the whole argument might fall apart if they lose away to Borussia Monchengladbach this evening.
I called up a friend who works for City behind the scenes. You might remember him as the man who came up with the idea for the “Welcome to Manchester” billboard when City signed Carlos Tevez from Manchester United.
“Of course we’re going for the Champions League,” he said, “but we’re going for the Premier League, too.”
I went on to make the point that City’s trophy aims this term, more than any other, are directly influenced by the fact that manager Manuel Pellegrini will be out of a job next summer if he doesn’t considerably improve the club’s Champions League record this season.
“I’m not letting you put me in that position,” came the reply, muffled by laughter, I might add.
I’ll take that as a “yes”, then, while throwing my money on Arsenal to win the Premier League title.
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