Arsène Wenger is calling for Arsenal to come out feeling lucid rage against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. The German side won handsomely in the first leg and bring a 5-1 lead to London.
Lucid rage, for Wenger, equates to a mixture of clear thinking and controlled anger about their predicament. What he is looking for is “total commitment – but not a silly one because you always have to make intelligent decisions. For that you need a good combination of commitment and to keep your vision as well.”
Given Arsenal’s propensity to make mistakes and a feeling of not being ready for big games their own players have referenced, a surge of desire and concentration would require sudden improvement.
Arsenal will be without Mesut Özil while the position of Alexis Sánchez – a frenzied topic since he was omitted from the starting lineup at Liverpool – remains tantalisingly loose before another major assignment. Wenger is expected to return him to the frontline but remained coy as he tried to play down reports of arguments and explosive behaviour at the training ground. He describes his relationship with Arsenal’s star performer as “honest and normal, like with every single player”.
He did acknowledge the striker’s body language has been excessive at times, particularly recently as his frustrations have manifested themselves in disgruntled gestures. “Excessive commitment is maybe sometimes when he shows [Wenger threw his arms up in the air to demonstrate] on the pitch. It’s always interpreted that he’s not happy but it could be interpreted that he wants everyone to be with him. When it doesn’t go well these things are interpreted negatively.”
Sánchez had his own say of sorts with a cryptic Instagram post. “The true warrior fights not because he hates the ones in front of him, but because he loves them behind him. Let’s go Gunners. The only failure is not trying.” Sánchez’s post is based on a quote from GK Chesterton.
Wenger shook hands with all his players, including Sánchez, before Monday morning’s training session and the overall feeling Arsenal tried to put across is the show goes on. “Nothing happened. Nothing at all,” Wenger said, attempting to divert attention away from an individual and on to the team and that lucid rage he is after.
Is he expecting enough of it to make a difference? “You hope always for the best before the game and what I expect from the team is just honour, respect the competition because we fight hard to be there, respect who we are playing for, and go out with that.”