ARSENAL’S next five games will shape this season and next season.
2005-2006 is not a write-off yet, but it soon could be.
After the West Ham fiasco, that’s my first conclusion.
My second is this : If Sol Campbell wants to retire from football, fine.
He has been carried by Kolo Toure for months. He is not worth his place in the side, so why pay him £60,000 a week till 2008 ?
It’s an opportunity to be seized. It’s an opportunity to pay that £60,000 a week to a world class defender.
Arsene is building a new team and Sol is an injury-prone giant who has lost his hunger. Why employ a crock ?
THE NEXT FIVE GAMES are Birmingham on Saturday, a six-pointer against bogey team Bolton at Highbury, Blackburn and David Bentley away, Liverpool at Anfield and Real Madrid in Madrid.
Those five games could be a nightmare.
Birmingham are the weakest of these opponents. But shaky Arsenal now look made-to-measure for tricky winger Pennant and Heskey, a bruising monster. Chris Sutton is the greatest master of argy-bargy in British football today. Nobody backs into defenders as relentlessly, as craftily, as Sutton.
SOL CAMPBELL has been directly responsible for four goals in the last four games. He was to blame for the James Beattie goal, the Jason Roberts goal in the 119th minute of the Carling Cup semi-final second leg, and the Reo-Coker and Zamora goals on Wednesday night.
That does not include the Stelios goal, where Nolan ran in front of him as Diaby didn’t cover Nolan’s run. And, luckily for Sol, it doesn’t include the hip-throw on Jason Roberts when the ball was seven feet away and referee Phil Dowd did not give the penalty
He is an England international with 66 caps, a senior pro at Arsenal, but what he did in the 25th minute was beyond belief. It was probably beyond his own understanding. He might have wondered, as I have done since the Wigan game : Is this a mental thing or a physical thing?
He waved a leg at Nigel Reo-Coker as he spurted towards him. He should have cleared the ball and Reo-Coker as well, if necessary. That’s what centrebacks do.That is what centrebacks have always done,
On the second goal, Campbell passed the ball straight to Konchevsky, who did not have an Arsenal player within ten yards of him. Konchevsky brought the ball forward and measured his long pass onto into the run of Bobby Zamora, who chested it forward nicely. Campbell should have forced him wide or cleared the ball into touch. But he got bounced on his arse while Zamora did a Robin van Persie. He stopped, teed the ball up, then curled a left-foot shot into the far corner. Lehmann had no chance.
So Sol Campbell had lost the West Ham game in 32 minutes.
Henry got a goal back and it was 2-1 at half time and Wenger took the distraught Campbell off and put Larsson on at left back for his Premiership debut and Arsenal dominated the second half.
On the third goal in 80 minutes, Senderos put Larsson in trouble by overplaying. The Swiss boy has a bad habit that he must eradicate from his game. Against Ajax he passed the ball back into his own six-yard box, giving 30,000 fans a heart attack.
Here he played a risky five-yard pass in the back third. You don’t do that. You don’t do that when you are losing 2-1 and you don’t put a raw midfielder in trouble. Kick it out ! When in doubt, put it out ! Don’t try to be Beckenbauer round your own box ! Put it in Row Z ! Then defend the throw.
Shaun Newton took the ball off Larsson and picked out Etherington, whose shot deflected in off Flamini.
In 89, Bergkamp volleyed Gilberto’s pass against keeper Shaka Hislop and Pires knocked in the rebound with typical skill as the ball flew at him on the half-volley. Pires hit the ball so early and so accurately that Hislop did not have time to recover his position.
ANY GOOD NEWS? Yes.
Johan Djourou could become Arsenal’s Ledley King. He is playing well.
Diaby is a bold warrior willing to shoot with either foot. He blasts the ball with his left as well as his right. But Diaby is 19 and Fabregas is 18.
Thierry Henry looked fresh, sharp and inventive.
But when the final whistle went Henry started a fast jog towards the tunnel and was first off the field. He did not salute the crowd or shake the hand of friend or foe. Where is the sportsmanship? TH14 is the captain of Arsenal and 28 years old and should know better.
ALL OF ARSENAL’S PROBLEMS stem from defence and from a manager who refuses to teach defence and refuses to sign experience.
Arsene Wenger is a workaholic and a control-freak and a guy with huge stamina and vast knowledge.
Unfortunately, he has a stubborn streak wider than Seven Sisters Road.
He has been digging a hole for himself for a long time. He signs African players and pays them to be in Egypt. He signs kids and teaches them his way of training, playing and living, but that does not include the ABC of defending. Arsene has made his choices and after ten years we know him well enough to realise that he will never change his ways. His success comes from his stubbornness and his originality.
CAN ARSENE CLIMB out of this hole in the next five games?
Nobody knows if he can do it. Nobody knows how he can do it.
But he will rebuild his Arsenal team. This season is a one-off. The long-term future is bright.
Will Sol Campbell play in the Emirates Stadium?
I doubt it. In his own mind, he has gone. Heavyweight boxers and defenders and goalkeepers go overnight. Quite simply, Sol Campbell is not physically or mentally able to perform at the required level.
It was all there in that Reo-Coker moment, that ball he missed, that goal he conceded, that split-second when his whole life flashed in front of him : youngest of 12 in Newham, Lilleshall, Spurs, Venables, Hoddle, Keegan, Sven, Arsene, Inter Milan, the death of his father, dropped for the FA Cup Final, all his injuries, all his thrilling successes and all his sickening failures, Sol saw them all in that moment.
As Reo-Coker left him for dead, Campbell might have thought : That was me once ! I was young and fast and hungry as a wolf and captain of my club and very proud. Nigel is young. Nigel is hot. Nigel is full of it. He is what I was a long time ago. At 21, Nigel Reo-Coker is the future. At 31, I’m history.