Arsène Wenger’s powers may have dwindled in recent years but at least his last match at Arsenal ended in the same way as his first one in 1996, his team taking three points. Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang, the Frenchman’s last major signing at the club, made sure of that detail by stabbing into the net in the 38th minute.
The result may have been incidental to both teams but this was no non-event. It was most definitely a happening, a festival within a football fixture.
Nearly 22 years ago Wenger arrived at Arsenal as a French revolutionary and here he sent out his troops for the final time before his status at the club changed to head off an ancien régime. Given the dietary advances that Wenger introduced to English football, there was an amusing irony to the fact that Arsenal were being hosted by a team whose preparations had involved going on the lash in London.
Huddersfield fought hard all season for their right to party after Wednesday’s draw at Chelsea, the result that confirmed they will be in the Premier League next season. That is a resounding success for the Yorkshire club in view of how far they have travelled in a short time. So everyone, home and away fans alike, was in the mood to celebrate here. And everyone, home and away fans alike, stood to cheer and applaud Wenger as he walked across the pitch before kick-off to salute the travelling fans one last time. The atmosphere was mainly joyful but there was a touch of poignancy at that moment and, with the sun glowing and the sky nearly cloudless, no one could claim water in their eyes was rain. It was not even crocodile tears, mostly.
“It was spontaneous,” the manager said of his pre-match greeting. “They had disagreements with me that I can accept but we had one thing in common: we loved Arsenal football club and I just wanted to share that with them.”
The noise from the crowd never abated, the entire match subsequently played out to a soundtrack of singing and clapping. David Wagner, the 14th full-time manager Huddersfield have employed since the beginning of Wenger’s reign, has awoken hopes of a glorious new era at the Yorkshire club, who have thrice in their history been English champions. That is the same number of league titles Wenger delivered to Arsenal so, when Huddersfield players gave him a guard of honour before this match, they did so as representatives of a club who know the value of his achievements.
The reason Wenger has been ushered towards stepping down, of course, is that those feats started to seem almost as distant as Huddersfield’s titles. His team pitched up here on the back of a dismal sequence of away performances. Could they rouse themselves to give their departing manager his first away league point of 2018?
It seemed not at first. Huddersfield, liberated from the threat of relegation, played with adventure and forced Arsenal back early on. They almost scored in the second minute when Florent Hadergjonaj crossed from the right and Steve Mounié leapt high to send a downward header towards goal. David Ospina needed two tries to hold it.
Mounié was given a better chance in the 11th minute, this time Alex Pritchard supplying the pass, but the striker slashed over the bar from eight yards. It took Arsenal half an hour to come to grips with the pace Huddersfield had set. Once they did so, they began to take over.
Their goal unfolded like a tribute to Wenger, Aubameyang scoring after the sort of cutting one-touch move that the manager has always espoused. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexandre Lacazette combined slickly to feed Aaron Ramsey, who passed across the face of goal for Aubameyang to convert.
That was his 10th in 13 matches since joining halfway through a season of upheaval. Signed by a manager on the way out, the Gabonese striker is central to Arsenal’s future.
The hosts scavenged for chances on the break. They nearly found what they sought on the hour but Ospina dived low to the left to tip away a fierce shot from the edge of the area by Tom Ince.
As the intensity drained from the game Lacazette was presented with an opportunity to make matters even more comfortable for his team in the 79th minute. But Jonas Lössl read his mind and blocked his attempted dink. Two minutes later Arsenal missed another one-on-one chance, Lössl thwarting Danny Welbeck. Then came another farewell, as Dean Whitehead was given one last appearance before he retires and joins Huddersfield’s coaching staff. He could have claimed his entry inspired an equaliser if Aaron Mooy’s shot from 12 yards had found the net rather than crossbar. But Wenger was not denied one more win for the road.
Comments
Post a Comment