Monday’s silence from Arsenal was deafening.
Would Arsene Wenger talk on Tuesday? What would he say? Would he apologise? Would he accuse and moan?
He is Arsenal’s greatest manager and he is a duke of diplomacy, a nabob of news management.He will speak today and it will be interesting to see what he says.
Remember when Arsenal’s played Spurs at Highbury on April 22 and Arsene Wenger went eyeball-to-eyeball with Martin Jol ? He refused to shake hands after that one.
That was a high-pressure game because Arsenal were competing with Spurs for fourth place. He thought Carrick should have put the ball out of play when Gilberto was on the ground injured, but Jol told Carrick to play on and then denied doing that. And Wenger allegedly called Jol a liar.
Now, in November, after a 1-1 against Everton at the Emirates, and a 0-0 against CSKA Moscow ,where Wenger said it was their best-ever Champions League performance, he went to West Ham needing three points to move into the top three with a game in hand.
After 88 minutes it is 0-0 and that means Arsenal have only scored one goal in three games, a free-kick by Robin van Persie against Everton.
At Upton Park, he has watched his team tire in the last half hour, with Hleb and Rosicky losing sharpness as they fatigue, and he’s seen his subs have no effect.
Arsenal looked lightweight, a team of nice guys and pretty footballers. Lehmann, again, made a blinding save from Harewood to keep them in the game, as he did from Wagner Love.
When the goal comes it’s a massive moment for both managers.
Konchesky slides the ball down the left side to Etherington,who tangles with Flamini, who has just come on and gets in the wrong position to stop the winger, who beats him and cruises down the line, plays it inside to Sheringham, who gives him a perfectly weighted return pass, and Etherington measures his low cross behind Clichy, and Marlon Harewood smashes it in from seven yards off Lehmann’s arm. Harewood rips off his shirt, throws it on the ground. He knows he shouldn’t celebrate like that and but it’s a moment of ecstasy, the crowd are going bananas, the noise is deafening, his teammates are jumping on him, and the game is won.
The Hammers players have been having a very, very hard time, with one win in nine games, and the new consortium will sack Pardew as soon as they can, if they take over, so it’s been a three-month nightmare for Pardew. But today he’s beaten Arsenal and it’s a colossal moment of vindication for him.
Harewood has done what no other player has been able to do – he’s scored a goal. Alan Pardew hugs his coaches, clenches his fist, gets too close to Wenger, says something, and Wenger is furious, shoves him, they exchange abuse, fourth official Andy D’Urso forcibly separates them.
In the past, Wenger has at times refused to shake the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson and Martin Jol, and who can blame him for that? He reserves the right not to shake hands. He doesn’t see the point of shaking hands if you don’t mean it. If I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t shake hands either.
Pardew is out of order but he didn’t surprise Wenger because he was only doing what Pardew always does when his team score, but more emphatically. He later apologises on camera. People who disagree with what Pardew did might, nevertheless, agree with what he said.
Wenger says nothing and none of the Arsenal party talk to TV or newspaper reporters.
In that moment, I think Arsene Wenger was furious beyond the events of Sunday’s game, even though the two managers had been having tiffs all through the game and it was an extremely tense contest.
It was more than Pardew’s antics. Yes, his rage came after Harewood’s goal and Pardew’s celebration of that goal. But I think he had been angry all afternoon as he began to see that Arsenal would not win the game.
Failure always triggers doubt, always make you ask questions. Was the Professor asking himself : have I blown it? My subs had no effect on this game and Sheringham and Harewood have won it. It’s my squad and my team and my training and my choices and my decisions but soon Champions League qualification could be hanging by a thread and we’re 10 points behind Manchester United with a game in hand. But how are we gonna win our game in hand playing like this ? How are we gonna beat Liverpool playing like this? If United falter, Chelsea will win the league again, so the title has gone after 9 games. We play 38 games, it’s November the 5th, it’s Bonfire Night, and my title hopes have gone up in smoke with 29 games left to play ! How catastrophic is that? We have to fill 60,000 seats for the next six months. How am I gonna get back on track? It’s a game of sequences and we needed to beat West Ham in order to beat Liverpool. How are we gonna beat Liverpool playing like this? Eighteen Premiership managers are watching this and they’ve seen how West Ham have hustled Fabregas and broken up our rhythms.
Who will turn this round for me? Who will score the goals to turn it round? I need to shake it up.I have to shake it up. I need a shouter in there and I could bring Senderos back. I need Diaby but he’s not fit, I need Baptista but he’s not fit, Cesc is knackered, Robin’s out of position on the left, Thierry’s isn’t scoring, I’m missing the goals of Freddie and Robert.What can I do? How do I shake it up when I have no experienced players to bring in?