, Arsenal and Manchester United drew 1-1 on Sunday and while the match was lively enough, something was missing.This wasn’t the Battle of Old Trafford, or the Battle of the Buffet, or even a battle for a top-two spot in the table. When the final whistle blew, the Red Devils were happy to be back in the Champions League playoffs. Arsenal, meanwhile, all but guaranteed it won’t finish fourth for the seventh time in 10 seasons.
This is what it’s come to for the English giants. You don’t have the teams throwing pizza at each other in the tunnel. You don’t have Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger locked in a war of words. You don’t have the entire Arsenal defense crowding and
shoving Ruud van Nistelrooy for a missed penalty and other perceived transgressions.
You simply have two clubs who have fallen well below their own expectations. Or worse yet, you simply have two clubs who have met expectations as presently constituted.
The most glaring change is the departure of Ferguson. He spent 27 years at Old Trafford developing talent, spending judiciously, managing and motivating egos, and raking in trophies to become arguably the greatest manager in the history of the sport.
The tenure of his hand-picked successor, David Moyes, was a complete disaster by United standards. Despite returning virtually the same team that had won the Premier League in 2012-13, Moyes saw fit to put a leash on the attack and play a more simplistic, conservative brand of soccer. What worked at a less ambitious club like Everton felt like an affront to Manchester United, and Moyes was sacked with four matches left in the season.
The Red Devils finished with 12 losses, their most for 24 years, and failed to make the Champions League for the first time in 21 seasons. To right the ship, the hierarchy tabbed the successful but transient Louis Van Gaal, fresh off a third-place finish at the World Cup with the Netherlands.
Van Gaal immediately reshaped the team, especially the stalwart but aged defense. Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidić walked away for free, while Patrice Evra was sold for a paltry £1.2 million. (He’ll likely start for Juventus in the Champions League final next month, so he’s doing just fine, thanks.) One of the more curious moves Van Gaal made in the transfer market was selling Manchester United lifer Danny Welbeck to Arsenal, which came back to haunt him when Welbeck knocked United out of the FA Cup in March.
In came Ángel Di María, Radamel Falcao, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind as part of a £150 million spending spree. When the business was done, Van Gaal had the components to play the 3-5-2 formation that had led to such success in Brazil.
Only it didn’t quite work that way. Van Gaal’s tactics drew the ire of former United stars, and players like Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata — acquired during the dreaded Moyes era — have looked sharper and more vital than Van Gaal’s summer crop. While some results have been commendable (4-2 vs. Manchester City, 2-1 at Arsenal, an aggregate 5-1 double over Liverpool), the Red Devils will have to win their final fixture just to equal the same number of points fifth-place Everton accumulated last term.
Arsenal doesn’t have quite as much, but that’s been the case for awhile now. And it might be more troubling.
Hamstrung by debts accrued from the construction of Emirates Stadium, Arsenal has only recently begun to compete for top targets on the transfer market. After a remarkable run around the turn of the century, culminating in the “Invincibles” season of 2003-04, Arsenal began scrapping for Champions League spots rather than league titles and went nine years between trophies before winning the FA Cup last May.
The signings themselves have been a mixed bag. Alexis Sanchez, bought from Barcelona last summer for around £30 million, deserves a first-team spot on any club in the Premier League. Mesut Özil, meanwhile, has been enigmatic since the Gunners splashed £42 million to pry him from Real Madrid in September 2013.
Still, the addition of Özil has signaled renewed aspirations at Arsenal. Wenger has always done well developing players, and his work in the transfer market over the past year — fortifying the defense with Calum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy and Gabriel Paulista, while adding Welbeck and hyped Polish youngster Krystian Bielik to the attack and finding a new first-choice goalkeeper in David Ospina — has been nothing short of commendable.
The question is, will it lead Arsenal anywhere significant? The Gunners are likely still going to finish outside the top two. They still exited the Champions League in the Round of 16. The word “progress” has been tossed around the club all season, but if they win the FA Cup again and finish third (with less points than last season), how much progress has there been?
The problem may lie with Wenger. He’s one of the most successful managers in the history of the English top flight, but only recently has he shown a willingness to adapt tactically and grind out the kind of ugly results that punctuate championship seasons. Moreover, the squad has only recently developed the kind of depth it takes to handle the wear and tear of the Premier League, and Wenger’s faith in players that simply couldn’t cut it at a top club has been part of the problem.
And so, we wait. We wait to see if Wenger and Arsenal have learned from the ups and downs of previous seasons, and if they can truly take the next step forward.
We wait to see if Van Gaal and Manchester United can get back to ticking trophies off the list rather than ticking off fans.
We wait to see if these two giants can finally compete with the big boys again.
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