The Circus We Call Arsenal FC

One more try and one more failure for Arsenal FC.

It really is a bad time to be a Gooner. After what could only be termed as a dream start, all of the club's expectations have been washed away.

The fortunes of Manchester United and Arsenal have been like two ends of a see-saw, when one is up the other is down. At the start of the season, it looked like the young Gunners would run away with the title after both United and Chelsea had distinctly bad starts to the season.

When United picked up their first win after five games or so, there was high drama at Stamford Bridge as Jose "The Special One" Mourinho quit.

On the other hand, things couldn't have been better for Arsenal, with the confidence at an all time high and Adebayor scoring for fun, surely Arsenal would win the title.

Arsene Wenger was in great mood and experts were predicting that it would be only the second time after 1994 that a team full of "kids" would win the BPL.

The going was great and by Christmas Arsenal were eight points ahead of second place United who had huffed and puffed their way to second place. Deja vu perhaps??

Remember 2002/03?

Arsene Wenger resisted the temptation of dipping in the transfer market saying that "he had the resources to cope up with the demands of the league" in January.

This decision of his would in the end, shatter his dreams of success. The Arsenal faithful were sure that a quadruple was on their way.

And then began the big fall, their first competition exit was at the hands of neighbours Tottenham Hotspur in humiliating fashion. 5-1 it read. Juande Ramos was praised as a cup specialist, Wenger however assured that nothing would deter them from a treble.

At the same point of time Manchester United started to find form and Ronaldo was hammering in goals for fun. It seemed that United would not give up without a fight.

Then came the two most important matches of the season. Arsenal vs Birmingham City and Manchester United vs Manchester City.

In the first fixture Arsenal's striker Eduardo, who was in hot form all through Christmas, broke his ankle and United lost the commemorative Manchester derby in convincing fashion.

While the Arsenal players were seemingly "disturbed," United's loss to their city rivals seemed to have instilled a new sense of purpose in their players.

And from then on, Arsenal drew games they should have won and United won games they should have drawn, slowly but steadily United were catching up, Arsenal were not running away with the trophy after all.

Then like every year, the FA Cup gave us a match to remember, one that would mentally ruin Arsenal, at the hands of a determined United side, Arsenal lost 4-0,and then began the great slide.

The match not only knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup but also shattered their morale. The effects of which Wenger still feels. Now, United were on top, at least mentally. All this while, Grant's unfancied Chelsea were catching up quietly.

In the following weeks, Arsenal drew consistently and United won the same way. It wasn't long before United were in familiar territory, the top of the table. Arsenal were still in the hunt, they needed to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a daunting task for any team.

And once again in "squeaky bum time" Arsenal fell from grace. A late surge from the Blues (read Drogba) saw Arsenal slip to third in the table. Once again Wenger's policies came under criticism. Experience had won over youth.

Then in Europe they suffered a similar fate. After being denied a clear penalty at the Emirates they were knocked out in the last five minutes at Anfield by a confident Liverpool. Hard luck some said, others blamed Arsenal for lack of character especially William Gallas whose stint as captain was disastrous.

On the other hand, in the north west of England, United lost sadly to Portsmouth as lady luck deserted them at Old Trafford. However they notched up wins against Roma both home and away to progress to the semi finals of the Champions League.

Confidence was running high and United were rolling.

And last weekend we saw the battle of the two at Old Trafford. Arsenal had to win to stay in the hunt, whereas United had to win to keep Chelsea at arms length. Once again, the men from London outplayed United the entire first half and also got a goal through United's error.

But then we saw United's true character, one that champions are made of. And it is the same character that Arsenal have lost since Christmas. The game ended 2-1 to United. Courtesy of Ronaldo (who else?) and a brilliant free kick by Hargreaves. Once again, Gallas proved to be Arsenal's undoing as he had conceded a soft penalty.

Arsenal's season, that held such promise till Christmas has ended in disaster. From dreaming of a quadruple they are fighting for second place with late comers Chelsea.

And I believe it has been Arsene Wenger's biggest mistake of not buying players in the transfer season that has cost them success. His persistence with youth has left the club in the dark.

If you look back to the last successful Arsenal side, we see that they had a lot of experienced players such as Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira and Pires.

Today's Arsenal is not even a fraction as good as they were, they crumble under pressure too easily and are slow to recover from losses.

In the end it seems that Arsenal is run like a circus with people such as Gallas becoming captain and Adebayor losing their temper (vs Chelsea last season). The likes of Senderos have done nothing to help Arsenal's cause and I fail to understand as to why Wenger persists with him.

In the end it is safe to say that Arsenal have shot themselves in the foot whereas United have shown what it takes to be champions.

Once again Wenger has got it all wrong... and Ferguson has hit the right notes.

The question however is... is Wenger indispensable?