With the pressure relieved by the win, I think Wagner has earned more time. Barnes is near fitness again, Hwang is looking more settled in the side and Idah was excellent when he came on. Either could be more potent with Barnes playing behind them and pulling the strings. With Hanley picking up a new hamstring injury though, it looks like Duffy and Batth in defence until Gibson returns. The defence and defending in general still worries me. Pèlach was brought in to coach the defence but there hasn't been much improvement, if any. Batth had a solid game but Placheta looked out of his depth at LB yesterday. The stats make good reading though.
I remember towards the end of Wenger's reign at Arsenal, when leaking goals was a problem, Steve Bould was brought in as assistant coach (the position which, for a long time, was held by Pat Rice). Everyone had high hopes, thinking he would definitely improve them defensively. Not so, they continued to leak goals in the same old way. Some years later Bould was interviewed and asked "Why so?" He replied that there was only so much he could do, given Wenger's unshakeable commitment to playing in a certain way.
Makes you wonder about the hiring interview. It's like bringing someone in and saying "This is how we do things. Fix it, but don't change anything."
Bould was an Arsenal stalwart, a member of "the famous four" back line under George Graham. He later became a coach in the Arsenal academy, so his appointment as assistant to Wenger was an internal one. I guess he well knew the lie of the land already.
Perhaps his directive was to make the players better at defending but not to have any involvement in the system, which must have been the bigger issue
