Arsene Wenger's choice of statistics highlights Arsenal's consistency but masks their European flaws

The big gun: Arsene Wenger watches Petr Cech in training
(Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
James Olley20 October 2015

Arsene Wenger has increasingly used statistics with unusual parameters to highlight Arsenal’s progress but tonight they simply have to prove capable of delivering when it matters most.

They have the taken more Premier League points than any other team in 2015. They have the best defensive record in the top flight during the same period. Only Real Madrid can boast a longer sequence than Arsenal’s 18 consecutive appearances in the Champions League proper.

Yet in the two competitions that matter most, that consistency has not translated into trophies.

On the eve of tonight’s fixture against Bayern Munich, Wenger sought to defend his European record with the same rhetoric he employed at last week’s turbulent Annual General Meeting: a pointed reference to longevity.

“If you look at our record in the Champions League over 160 games nobody has a better percentage of winning than us, or at least not many,” he said.

Previous Meetings: Arsenal vs Bayern Munich

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That is true but plenty of teams have won more of the games that define a season. Although Arsenal’s consistency should not be dismissed, there will be few supporters sufficiently consoled by a healthy long-term win-percentage should Bayern heap further Group F misery on their team.

Arsenal may be the team of the calendar year, in England at least. They may have ensured a consistent presence at Europe’s top table for so long their permanency has become the envy of so many rivals.

But Arsenal have to prove themselves the team for the big moments, when the pressure is at its most acute and their season is on the line.

It is their inconsistency in these moments that prompts so much criticism of Wenger, especially when they are able to produce mesmeric performances in less-exacting circumstances.

Victory over Manchester United offered genuine encouragement. Louis van Gaal’s side were enablers but Arsenal took full advantage, dismantling them with ruthless efficiency.

They will need that and more against a Bayern side that have won their last 12 games in all competitions, spearheaded by Robert Lewandowski, a striker in the form of his life; he has scored 15 goals in seven games for Bayern and Poland.

Arsenal need to shed the inferiority complex that has inhibited them in moments such as this, usually in the knockout rounds but then the draw has rarely thrown up a group-stage game as high-profile as this one.

Anything other than a win and they face the real prospect of a failure to qualify for the last 16 — a damning statistic many would use to prove the Gunners are going backwards under Wenger.

Bayern are without Mario Gotze, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben due to injury but they remain formidable opponents. Victories in their previous two visits here were enough to seal Arsenal’s fate in the first knockout round twice in the last three seasons. The latter occasion began promising, with Bayern on the rack as Arsenal flew out of the traps, earning an eighth-minute penalty.

Mesut Ozil missed and his team-mates never recovered. Self-belief seemingly dissolved in one weak swing of the German’s left boot — it is a familiar fragility that has so often proved their undoing.

Bayern’s pedigree is well established but that should be used as motivation to excel rather than fear to fail.

“You have to respect Bayern,” said Wenger. “Historically they have won the European Cup how many times? Five? And Arsenal zero.

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 29: Per Mertesacker of Arsenal reacts after the third Olympiacos goal during the UEFA Champions League Group F match between Arsenal FC and Olympiacos FC at the Emirates Stadium on September 29, 2015 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

“So you cannot say that historically we are at the same level as Bayern. They have done it in the past and they have the history and the knowledge. What we want is to get there.”

Help is unlikely to come from UEFA even though Dinamo Zagreb fielded Arijan Ademi against the Gunners but is now provisionally suspended after failing a doping test after matchday one in the Croatian capital.

Wenger hinted at his frustration — “when I saw the players of Zagreb were doped... when you don’t play at your best and your opponent is doped, it is difficult” — but the regulations dictate two players from the same team must be found guilty in the same competition before a team sanction is imposed.

Arsenal cannot expect any favours. They must avoid the complacency Wenger hinted at yesterday which contributed to defeats against Dinamo and Olympiakos.

“We have the needed belief and confidence that we are doing something right so that helps,” said Wenger. “We maybe could be a little suspected of not taking the opponent seriously enough [in the first two games]. This time this is not the threat so let’s take the positives of our Premier League form and as well get the right focus that you get when you play a big opponent.”

It is overdue.

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