As you may have heard, Arsenal went spluttering to their fourth consecutive defeat (and sixth in eight matches) as Brighton struck early to secure a 2-1 win over Arsene Wenger’s anemic side at the AMEX on Sunday afternoon.
Unsurprisingly, the fallout has been ugly, with increasing numbers of Gooners reaching the end of their respective tethers regarding the waning performances, paper-thin resolve and half-arsed application on show from their team week after week after week.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Wenger attempted to placate the creeping disquiet by making a series of excuses for his players: they’ve played a lot of matches recently, they’re pooped, Brighton’s physical approach (Brighton were not overly physical in the slightest) made them lose confidence, the Carabao Cup final loss created “negative waves” in the terraces, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Wenger also attempted to proffer a philosophical take on the dismal result with a truly mind-bending analogy about trousers (quotes via Football London):.
When you have just the trousers on it’s easy to take them trousers off as well.
When you’re naked completely you have to find a shirt and try to put it on again and then you’re dressed normally again.
Which, of course, is nothing but a smokescreen of utter tosh.
Meanwhile, Arsenal are currently closer to Brighton (11 points) than they are to fourth-placed Tottenham (13 points) in the Premier League standings.
They are also now a whopping 33 points behind Man City. To put that in perspective, the furthest Arsenal have ever been behind the top flight league leaders in their entire history is 35 points.
It’s bloody depressing, but it looks like we’re now witnessing the sad death rattle of the once-great Wenger dynasty.