Arsenal's familiar failings mean title challenge is over already

Arsene Wenger has come under fire after losing his cool with journalists after his side's lame 2-2 draw with Hull on Saturday afternoon.

After watching his side fall behind in the second half and only salvage a point against the visitors with an injury-time goal from Danny Welbeck, the Gunners boss was in a touchy mood as he addressed reporters.

Asked by Jacqui Oatley of the BBC about the fact that Arsenal had only managed two wins in the first eight games of the Premier League season Wenger asked why the media were always trying to "blame" people, and also upbraided her for failing to "listen really well" to his answers.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It prompted Match of the Day presenter Gary Linker, who was not anchoring the show this week, to tweet his displeasure along with others.

But it was not just Wenger who would have been annoyed on Saturday.

It was "just another day of disgruntlement at Arsenal," says Jonathan Liew in the Daily Telegraph. "Another day of angst on the pitch, rage in the terraces, Piers Morgan mouthing off on Twitter, Wenger evading questions."

"This is the spiral of disenchantment that Arsenal fans have lived week-on-week, year-on-year... dissatisfaction is the default temper at Arsenal these days, and performances like this scarcely help

The trickery of Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck up front was offset by the failures in Arsenal's threadbare defence and the draw leaves the Gunners 11 points behind Chelsea after just eight games. The Blues have mustered twice as many points as Arsenal so far this term.

"You might say that it's still early in the season, and yes there is time for them to recover and put some points on the board, but it's over of a fifth of the way through the entire season and it doesn't look great," says the Telegraph's Project Babb blog.

Even some Arsenal icons believe that the title is already slipping away. Robert Pires, a member of the Invincibles of 2003/4 season, said it looked "very difficult" for the Gunners to win the Premier League, reports the Daily Mail.

It's all too predictable says Jonathan Liew. "You could probably map out the next weeks in advance: the 'morale-boosting' win over Anderlecht on Wednesday, the heartening run of results in late autumn, the stutter in January, the total collapse in February, the late rally to secure fourth place, the glut of ambitious summer transfer targets to accompany a small rise in 2015/16 season ticket prices."