Wenger to rely on 'gut feeling' when deciding Arsenal future
For some Arsenal fans, Arsene Wenger's Gunners reign of over 20 years is over.
The club appears to be en route to a 13th-straight year without finishing atop English football, and, with Bayern Munich looming in the Champions League Round of 16, progression beyond that stage could again be a pipe dream.
But, if the season does end a damp squib under the Frenchman's management, it doesn't necessarily mean he'll be off when his contract expires in the summer.
"It's not all quantifiable," Wenger said Friday when asked how he would assess his performance this term, as quoted by ESPN FC's Mattias Karen. "It's linked with your gut feeling as well."
A lack of progression in the last decade or so under his wing could become apparent Saturday, when league-leading Chelsea hosts Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Blues boss Antonio Conte has proven himself to be a reactive overseer - reverting to his familiar 3-4-3 when humbled by the Gunners with a 3-0 loss in September - while Wenger, regularly branded as stubborn by British media, sticks to a 4-2-3-1 and his policy of regular squad rotation, seemingly regardless of form.
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In Tuesday's shock 2-1 home defeat to Watford, Theo Walcott, who'd scored a hat trick three days earlier against Southampton, and arguably the division's best right-back, Hector Bellerin, were benched for the occasion.
Increasingly, as the media furor surrounding the Premier League has intensified, Wenger has become guarded in front of the media - and especially in regards to ending his Arsenal stay.
"My future has always been certain. I focus 100 percent until the last day of my contract," he said. "That's the only way you can guarantee the future."
He added on the social media outrage and calls of "Wenger out" after the Watford result: "We live in a society that is like that, I cannot change the society. I focus on what I can influence. And I live with the response of the society. Because everybody can express his frustration straight away in the fraction of a second. And there's no time to take a distance with what happened."
Considering the changes in personnel for the Watford embarrassment, and the casual displays by some of Arsenal's ranks, Wenger was refreshingly honest in conceding half an eye may have been on Saturday's Chelsea test.
"The players prepared properly," he insisted. "What we were not ready (to do) was to win the challenges. We were dominated in the duels. Did the weight of the Chelsea game after come in? Maybe, in the subconscious mind."
Arsenal begins Saturday nine points adrift of first-placed Chelsea, and without a victory in SW6 since an enthralling 5-3 triumph in October 2011.