Post Watford, Post this Season.

So it seems like the tide has finally turned and we've finally lost patience with Arsene Wenger.  The Watford defeat when the FA Cup seemingly opened up for us to make it 3-in-a-row was the final nail in the coffin for those fans who were not on the fence as to the manager's position.

In the immediate aftermath of the game, I was pretty much ready for him to go, but now I'm thinking about it, and I think he should get one more season.  

Cast your mind back to May 30, 2015.  We absolutely obliterated Aston Villa in the FA Cup final. In the run up to that cup final, we played some great stuff, including a measure of revenge (4-1) for the 5-1 defeat against Liverpool the previous season.  Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla and the other players had shown that they were capable of great things.  They were fit, they were confident.  We had seemingly found a formation and lineup and found a useful gem behind the sofa (Coquelin) that really gave us defensive stability without taking away from our attack.  We should remember that Walcott for instance, was injured for most of this but came back with a bang with the west brom hat trick.  He then scored the first goal in the final and generally looked decent leading the line. 

We could have done with with a few quality additions in the summer, including cover for Coquelin and a world class striker but let's look at Wenger's thought process for a second.  His first team looked great in pre-season, and had looked great for much of 2015 so maybe he didn't think he needed wholesale changes.  

He didn't think Sanchez's form would drop off a cliff, or Walcott would suddenly forget how to play football and in the end, that is what is killing us.  It's probably a bit unfair for me to call out those two when the whole squad including senior players have been underperforming.  Mertesacker has been at times awful, Koscielny alternates between 11/10 and negative performances.  Coquelin is still raw and looks less assured and a top class DM when the sample size of performances is increased.  Campbell has been this years Coquelin but he's only ok, and it's only because the likes of the Ox and Walcott have been utter crap that he's looked competent. 

Walcott for instance as the central striker looked great against Spurs in 2014 before he got injured, and also looked good against Villa in the cup final.  Wenger probably felt he deserved more of a chance to show what he could do up there.  

He trusted in his squad too much.  They let him down.  It's time for him to be ruthless.  If he's willing to get rid of the under performers and recruit sensibly, to perhaps show he's willing to make different inputs to hopefully get different outputs, then he should get that last chance to go out on a high.  

All our big rivals will be going through some form of upheaval next season.  This will be out third chance to take advantage.  2013/14 saw United, Chelsea and City all change their managers.  We failed.  2015/16 saw United, Chelsea and Liverpool all implode.  City are clearly playing with a lame duck manager and also maybe just trying to win the CL.  We look like failing again.  

In 2016/17, United, Chelsea and City will all have new managers.  Leicester will probably be gutted.  Liverpool will really rejig their squad with a few ins and outs. Spurs could lose Pochettino.   We are not as far behind as it looks, and if we get rid of the worst under performers or at the very least get ourselves out of the situation where we are relying on them then we could at least have a bit of a head start.  

There needs to be a serious and possibly difficult discussion at the end of the season and both sides need to exhibit previously unseen bravery.  The board have to possibly be ready to face up to a brave new world without Wenger, and Wenger has to maybe admit that he's made some mistakes.