Wenger Misses a Chance to Send a Message

It has always irked me somewhat that whenever we seem to have an 'accident' there seems to be little desire to change personnel. Mainly because there has always been a lack of:

ACCOUNTABILITY

the state of being accountable, liable, or unanswerable.

Now when we lose a game 6-0 I expect a few home truths to be told and players to be dropped. I want players made an example of. I want them to live with the fear that sub-standard performances aren't good enough and it means that you'll be adopting the Alex Song position (on the bench). The lack of accountability has always annoyed me, sometimes it offers an insight into where you went wrong and who the manager holds responsible for poor performances. Think of some of the worst Arsenal performances (not including last Saturday), got one? Good. I'm selecting Newcastle away. The line-up that dark day in 2011:

Szczesny
Sagna
Koscielny
Djourou
Clichy
Diaby
Fabregas
Walcott
Wilshere
Arshavin
Van Persie

Well all know the situation right? So fast forward one week later and we play Wolves at The Emirates. The line-up:

Szczesny
Sagna

Djourou 

Koscielny

Clichy

Wilshere 

Song 

Fabregas 

Walcott

Arshavin

Van Persie

So only the one change and that was enforced, as About Diaby was sent off at St James' Park. Now what sort of message does that send out? If harsh words are had is the meaning lost? It appears Wenger may pander to his players too much. Yet last season when Szczesny was dropped he came back a new player. Dropping players does work. Who'd have thought it. Interestingly I read an article pointed out to me by @durhamgooner that Lee Dixon did with Amy Lawrence for the Guardian and he said

"I like Arsène a lot. He's got a really cool sense of humour, he can be really funny, he laughs at himself. He can be difficult at times – he is not very good at confrontation which you would expect him to be. He finds it very difficult to front you up and tell you why he's dropped you because he cares about you, so it is very difficult for him to look you in the eye."

Now forgive me questioning a manager that doesn't like confrontation. But what is that all about? A startling revelation from one of our former legends. You could speculate as a result of this apparent weakness that it's a reason why we struggle when the chips are down. His philosophy will work brilliantly when everything is going to plan but when your ship sails off track you need to take action and if that means dropping players, then so be it. 

So we fast forward to the comparison between Chelsea and Swansea line ups.

Szczesny>Szczesny

Sagna>Sagna

Gibbs>Gibbs

Mertesacker>Mertesacker

Koscielny>Vermaelen

Arteta>Arteta

Ox>Ox

Rosicky>Rosicky

Podolski>Flamini

Giroud>Giroud

Cazorla>Caozrla

So much like at St James' Park we had one enforced change, the other was to offer another DM against Swansea at home. So are we saying here that Podolski was the scapegoat for Saturday? Surely not. First of all, the bloke got subbed 23 minutes. His inclusion away from The Emirates is always risky but you know that level of inconsistentcy is always possible with the PR wonder machine. There's no need to speculate that Arsenal went into media lock down on Sunday but far what purpose did it serve. I agreed entirely with Wenger that his time was definitely best spent with his team but what can he say to a side that probably has 6/7 undroppable players. Is he still afraid to have that difficult conversation? Despite his faith there was obviously a lack of confidence. So if you play players after a mauling they suffer a lack of confidence. If you drop them, the sulk but are then motivated when they are introduced back in to the side. Sadly we don't have the squad to drop them all. 

Going into last night I would have dropped 4/5 players with the view to reintroducing them on Saturday. Why isn't Gnabry considered a variable option? It was only in January that Wenger spoke about Gnabry's chances of going to the World Cup, he said 

"There is more than a small chance. There's a big chance. We are looking at a guy who has good individual talent, he can go past people, is a good finisher and has a very good football brain with good vision."

Maybe Wenger has forgotten these words of praise but Gnabry has fallen off the proverbial cliff in terms of game time. We also had TWO right backs (by trade) on the bench, couldn't one of them play instead of Sagna? How is Sanogo good enough for Bayern and Liverpool but not Swansea. At least three players in addition to Flamini could and should have played. 

I just cannot fathom how we make the same mistakes every single season and maybe this is something that contributes towards our own downfall. This is one of a cluster of reasons why I think a new manager would improve our side. Wenger is not getting the best out of them and we carry passengers for far too long and then they get injured.

Maybe at the grand old age of 32 I'm a bit old fashioned but surely dropping players and making them accountable for their actions means that they will take more responsibility on a football field or is it just wishful thinking? Or am I just being naive?