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| Arsene Wenger |
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| Roger Federer |
It's near three months that the 2016/2017 English football topflight season came to an end. With Chelsea romping to the Premier League title after a dominant campaign. They were only prevented from doing the double after they lost 2-1 to Arsenal in the FA Cup final in May. The Gunners third FA Cup win in four years.
Both teams meet again in the curtain raiser to the English season when they contest the Community Shield at Wembley on 6 August.
After that attention shifts firmly to the start of the Premier league season when Arsenal open yet another campaign with Arsene Wenger in charge when they lock horns with Leicester City in the opening match on 11 August at the Emirates.
The campaign would mark Arsene Wenger's 21st season in charge of the club. And it now 13 years since the club last won the league title.
Arsenal's current situation under Wenger mirrors the situation Roger Federer was in going into the current Lawn Tennis season in January. Prior to the Australian Open in Melbourne, the Swiss maestro had gone five years without a Grand Slam title. With four Grand Slam titles up for grabs each year, it almost reminiscent of Arsenal's 13 year title drought.
Added to that, Roger Federer being 35, an old player in tennis terms, he wasn't considered as one of the favourites going into the 2017 season. Like Wenger, who at 67 is considered as an old horse in a football landscape now dominated by younger managers.
However, Roger Federer succeeded in confounding doubters, as well as himself as he never believed he could achieve the same fest he has so far attained this year.
How it all began?
Roger Federer was out for six months with a knee injury, which has added to his remarkable feat this year. Looking at his six months out, it denied him the opportunity of being in familiar surroundings in the tennis court. Just like Arsenal would have to spend a season without Champions League football. After spending upwards of 20 consecutive seasons in the UEFA's premier club competition, they would have to negotiate the lesser Europa League this season. Like Federer, Arsenal would be in unfamiliar terrain. Just like the Swiss who hadn't tasted being out that long out of the game.
Also, in beating Rafa Nadal in January's Australian Open, Roger Federer did what he had not done for a long time. He had lost in six Grand Slam titles to the Spaniard, losing the last four in a row. But he pulled off a remarkable first title since 2012 by beating his fiercest rival in the court. Like Arsenal, Arsene Wenger would have to overcome key rivals to win another Premier league title. In his first decade as manager at Arsenal, he mostly had to deal with Manchester United, before a change in the financial landscape made other clubs contenders. A bit like how it was just Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal dominating the tennis scene until Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray finally broke the duopoly.
Wenger would have to overcome several rivals to land Arsenal another title they have craved since the move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006.
Roger Federer made a tactical decision to skip the clay court season to rest his knee as he claimed. But many might describe that decision to rest differently, but the end was that he landed him the Wimbledon title for a record eight time.
In the same vain, Arsene Wenger would have to find tune a rotation mechanism that would suit his squad for the season ahead as they negotiate the tough terrain of the Europa league. The decision by the Swiss to skip the clay court season landed him a record 8th title at the All England Club.
Arsene Wenger would have to use his squad the way he has never done to achieve the club's goal for the season, one of which inevitably includes a quick return to the Champions League. This is necessary as the Frenchman isn't adept at rotating his squad something he seem to loathe. But with the Europa league on Thursday nights before negotiating a league fixture on Sunday, especially when it involves traveling away to far places in Eastern Europe, he has no option than to manage his squad through rotation.
The decision to manage his body wisely by opting to miss the clay court season paid off for Federer. Wenger's decision in how he manages his squad would go a long way in that regard.
The Swiss legend wasn't given much of a chance going into 2017 season, he was largely written off. His injury lay off made it easier for the pundits to make a decision. Some had written his tennis epitaph prior to that, declaring that he was an old war horse who was apparently struggling to reprise past heights.
The same can be said of Arsene Wenger, the Frenchman has been long in the Premier league scene. He has been continually derided in some quarters as lacking what it takes to recapture his glory years when he won the Premier League title three times in eight years during his first decade as Arsenal manager. Just like Federer did while in his twenties.
Like Federer who still won other ATP titles during his Grand Slam drought, Arsene Wenger has led Arsenal to three FA Cups in four years, but the league title has proven difficult in the Emirates era. That could be about to change?
Going into the Australian Open in January, Roger Federer was seeded 17th. But that wasn't an impediment in winning what was his 18th Grand Slam title.
Now, going into this new season on the horizon, some pundits are already marking Arsenal down as potentially finishing in sixth position in the league. But prediction and reality are two different things just as Leicester City showed in 2016.
Whether Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal team can defy the odds and to a Roger Federer, is in the realm of time.
