Arsenal succumbed to another away defeat in the Premier League as their top 4 aspirations took another blow. The Gunners failed to capitalize on their rivals’ slip-up, and were punished by a ferocious Wolves outfit that was playing with all the fury of a herd of marauding werewolves on a full-moon night.

Not only did they score 3 quick-fire goals in the first half, putting the hapless Gunners to sword, but it appeared as if they were the side challenging for Champions League places, making the Arsenal look like a team much lesser than the sum of its parts, one unsure of its identity or what it was supposed to do. Gone is the strength and prowess of Wenger’s early teams, or the technical prowess of the mid-Wenger years, when Project Youth was on display, or the mental fortitude which got the monkey off their backs and got them a 3-2 victory – and their first victory in almost a decade – when they won the FA Cup at the end of the big man’s regime. This is a purely Emery side, one which walks in the shadow of a legend, but never measuring up to the standards of yore. Sure, there have been a few false dawns against top 4 opponents wherein the team has improved, but when they play against lower league opposition where they should be taking the initiative, taking the game to them and outplaying them, they seem to be out of ideas. Indeed, it appears as if the team is stuck in a paradox of sorts, where they play counter-attacking football against stronger opponents who dominate possession, but are unable to stomp themselves on the game when bottom-of-the-table teams use their own tactics against the Gunners.

A lack of spine, no strong characters, and heads easily going down in vociferous stadiums have become the theme of the season. And if the management doesn’t pump in money to stop the rot and bring in the right characters, then this could be the beginning of the end the once-mighty Gunners.