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15th February 2017
10:43pm GMT
Manchester United went on to win in injury-time and Ince’s manager Gerard Houllier wasn’t happy. A week later, when Ince spoke out at a meeting, Houllier brought up the game.
“When my team are 1-0 up at Old Trafford in a cup tie, I don’t expect my captain to limp off with an injury. If he has to come off, I expect it to be on a stretcher.”
Arsene Wenger would never make such an unreasonable a demand on his players, but when his captain Laurent Koscielny went off four minutes into the second half, Arsenal may have craved a bit of unreasonableness.
Koscielny appeared to be suffering with a hamstring problem but when he departed, Arsenal lost the only player who could keep the side together.
Without him, Arsenal caved in. Within 15 minutes, they were 4-1 down and going through a second half they could perform with their eyes closed, they have experienced it so many times.
An Arsenal goal would have kept the tie alive, but that would be to expect Arsenal to be something other than Arsenal, and if this side was determined to prove anything against Bayern Munich, it was to demonstrate that they are steeped in Arsenal as we have come to understand the club.
This was a performance which showed that Arsenal will struggle to limp to the end of the season when they can allow Wenger to leave with some dignity.
But that is all they can hope for from the season at this stage. Of course, there is a chance they could turn it around in the second leg, just as there was a chance when they were 4-1 down if they got the next goal, but then Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain messed around outside his box and Bayern had a fifth.
https://twitter.com/FP__Media/status/831983469811073024?s=08They may perform a good impression of an heroic fightback at the Emirates in a few weeks, but it will be an impression, not the real thing, and one which will be hard to believe.
They may not even be up to that. Arsenal appeared to be a side fracturing in Munich, stunned by their own ineptitude which seemed to have taken them by surprise even as they kept on making the same mistakes.
They had gone through the motions at Chelsea ten days ago and now they would conform to type in the Champions League.
Alexis Sanchez may earn some praise for his attitude or, at least, the overt demonstration of his attitude which his evening of arm waving was intended to convey.
Sanchez did score from a rebound after Manuel Neuer saved his penalty at a stage when Arsenal had hope or, as they know it, false hope.
But that evaporated in the second half. Even as the mob of angry fans gather, the instinct of most people who understand what Wenger has done for the club and what he has done for football will be to reject their arguments and the manner of them.
But if Wenger is the all powerful figure he is supposed to be at Arsenal, then this performance showed he has lost all power.
Instead Arsenal saw out the game as a collection of individuals who bickered and gesticulated their way to the final whistle, looking like contestants in some cheap reality programme who have quickly become irritated with each other.
There was no conviction in their tantrums, just further evidence of all the things they lack, of the absence of leaders and the lack of unreasonableness.
When Barcelona lost on Tuesday, many wondered if it was a result which suggested the great team are at an end. This Arsenal side was never great, but the manager was once. On Wednesday, it became clear it's over.
Arsenal are having the same season again. There is only one way to break the cycle and it requires Wenger to realise that this is what the end looks like.
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