Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, And The Paradox Of Playing The Right Way

By Richard Farley - Soccer Editor

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Mar 3, 2011 - We're four days removed from Arsenal's Carling Cup loss to Birmingham City, and Gooners seem to be feeling a little better. They have Chelsea to thank for that, though not losing to Leyton Orient helps. Suffice to say a Premier League title would assuage all the worries that have been boxed, labeled, and stacked-up against the walls of Gunner-loving hearts. You and I would probably throw those boxes out, but when you're emotionally invested, it's hard to throw-out the old until you have something new. Sometimes you'd rather have worries than nothing at all.

Once the luster of Chelsea's win fades into a reality still defined by missed opportunity, Arsenal supporters will resume the confused existence that's been thrust on them by their manager. That existence sees a team capable of beating Chelsea, Manchester City and Barcelona that's also lost to Ipswich Town, Sporting Braga, and in a Cup final to Brum. Not that the down points are surprising anymore. To use a term from high school economics, those are the types of dichotomous results that are externalities of Arsene Wenger's philosophy.

The Uneven Path of the Righteous

That philosophy entails playing the game The Right Way, and by doing so, you'll get results. It's a Utopian approach, with roots dating back to when the Scottish style was taken to Northern Europe. As with anything Utopian, there's a certain element of dogma in its philosophy, an element that precludes Arsenal from adopting any tactics that are inconsistent with their approach. Inflexible? Sure, but its single-mindedness that has allowed Arsenal to maintain itself as one of best teams in the world, combining their ability to acquire elite talent with a consistency that shuns the travails of adaptation. Their style is revered, and their results speak for themselves, albeit relatively.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, those results do not live up to the hype. Implicit in Wenger's decision to rebuild the last, great, Vieira/Henry-led team is the belief that the moral superiority of their approach would produce a team as competitive as the one that temporarily stepped back from its duel with Manchester United. Obviously that success has yet to transpire, and as the obstacles near the end of the project become more difficult to transcend, reasons to doubt are starting to emerge.

Arsenal's current trophy drought is at six years, and when the Birmingham Citys of the world can cast doubt on the viability of the project, Wenger is forced into a paradoxical position. Normally, a manager would make adjustments when faced with a perceived pattern of losing to lesser sides (particularly in big matches). Wenger, however, may not be able to do that without undermining his whole approach, particularly when opponents like Brum, Newcastle, and Stoke City play the verboten style of football.

A Moral Philosophy: Belief versus Doubt

Wenger's approach is predicated not only on certain brands of football being inherently better but also his players' adherence to that belief. We keep the ball on the ground. We move with and off the ball. We don't resort to playing at the edge of the rules. That's how the game is supposed to be played. We don't rely on long balls and physically overpowering players while hoping whistles aren't blown. We are part of a tradition of better voetbal, one that will be proven superior. Any variance from this could doom us to the same existence as the teams we're going to supplant. This approach, perfectly executed, wins.

In that way, last summer's World Cup serves as an allegory, one that can be told to Arsenal's kids as Wenger lays them to bed each night:

There once was a country from Northern Europe that did everything so beautifully that other countries started copying them. Fans from across the world adopted them as their second most favorite nation. But when that country couldn't win their final matches, they decided to change. The next time they got to a World Cup final, they decided to be mean and rough! But they were beaten; beaten by a team that copied their old, beautiful style.

Now, sweet dreams, Theo!

Clubs like Birmingham City embody everything Arsenal's football's against. Whereas Alex Ferguson or Carlo Ancelotti can turn to his team and demand they respect every opponent, Wenger can not do that without conceding their approaches, on some level, deserve respect. He can tell his team they should beat Ipswich Town and implore them to do so. He can hope the players will take the match seriously. But he can't tell them to take the Ipswichs of the world seriously without also engendering doubt: Is our philosophy really superior? Or is it merely one of a number of viable approaches?

Try As You Might, You Can Never Be Them

There is one club in the world that has managed to avoid this paradox, though it's possible Barcelona is merely the exception that proves the rule. Some say that Arsenal has patterned themselves after the Catalans, though it's better to say they build themselves from a similar tradition. Yet there a number of reasons why Arsenal, as currently constituted, can't be as successful in their dogmatism as their footballing cousins.

Not only is Barcelona almost incomprehensibly talented, but that talent is mostly home grown, with even Argentina international Lionel Messi coming from La Masia. Even if Barcelona's footballing morality places them on a self-constructed pedestal, the pride in club each player was instilled with during their development allows a core group of Catalan talent to cast failure in a different context - a context that carries more risk than Arsenal will ever see in the Stoke Citys of the world. Barça superiority is a source of deep-seeded, cultural pride. Arsenal's group of imported talent will never feel the same pains when the Gunners' philosophy is compromised by defeat.

Looking back at Sunday's match, it's hard to imagine Barcelona accepting that defeat with the same relative alacrity as Arsenal. Close your eyes and you can imagine a sense of frantic possessing the feet of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi, and Carles Puyol if they down one late in an important match. Actually, we don't need to imagine. We saw it last year against Inter. We saw it the year before against Chelsea. True, those are superior players battling superior opposition, but the pride each show when their club is in need transcends the efforts we see from many of their peers. When Arsenal is losing to Brum, where's the passion? Where was the pride? Where was the grasp of the occasion? Where was the fear?

An Intellectual Pursuit

Those are mental, emotional traits; traits which are normally instilled by the manager. There's no doubt that Pep Guardiola sets that tone for Barcelona, but a coach doesn't need to have Guardiola's loyalty in order to stimulate passion. The classic names - Ferguson, Mourinho - are also capable of spurring on a side. Arsène Wenger is part of that elite group of managers, yet his teams have fallen flat, and not just against competition they see as unfit for their pedestal. The second leg of last year's Barcelona tie saw a steep drop-off from the first leg's performance. The same thing happened the year before against Manchester United. Arsenal had a breakthrough against Chelsea this season but last season failed to get a point from England's two titans.

For Wenger, there isn't the same emotion. On that level, he doesn't seem as invested. For him, this is an intellectual pursuit. He's a thinker, a professor, and he goes about his work as an academic. The Arsenal project is a hypothesis he's trying to make theory, and the only way he can do so is to allow the experiments to run their course. If he changes his procedures mid-course, he's no longer trying to prove the same hypothesis.

It's a condition that defines the confused experience of a Arsenal supporter. Winning at the heights of world football is tough enough, but doing so with a mentality that ties your hands - that leaves you open to overlooking lesser competition - makes more likely you'll fail to meet your expectations, expectations inherent in the club's philosophy. There is a way to play football, and once you start moving away from it, you're no longer setting out to accomplish the same goal. That Wenger's goal is not only winning but winning in a way that's consistent with his dogma means Arsenal may be undone by paradox:

For Arsenal, trying to play The Right Way may not lead to winning. At least, it might not lead to the successes they seek, and in pursuing such altruistic motives, they may be keeping themselves from making the changes needed to turn The Right Way into winning.

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