Arsenal Have Slid from Invincibles to Imponderables in 10 Years Under Wenger

Let’s get one thing straight about Arsenal’s latest crisis. It’s not happening in a vacuum. And what most recently exacerbated it was a thrilling Swansea City comeback in which two very good goals were scored.

They involved outstanding examples of the low-trajectory free-kick (by Gylfi Sigurdsson), sudden spurt, cross and unsaveable header (take further bows, Jefferson Montero and Bafetimbi Gomis).

But Arsene Wenger’s face was grim and, if despair influenced his post-match verdict that Chelsea would take the Barclays Premier League title, per the Guardian, it was understandable.

In truth, it hardly needed such a giant of the game to tell us that Jose Mourinho’s team are in a class of their own. Nor that "there doesn’t look to be anybody capable of challenging them at the moment.’’

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But on other occasions Wenger has been good at defiance. He has contrived a slight but winning smile and insisted that he has confidence in players who will fight to the last. This time he seems only to see a huge gap behind Chelsea that Arsenal should be filling.

Gone is the optimism engendered by the FA Cup triumph last spring. Although it is a little early to say that a new trophy drought has begun, the relative importance of clinging on to a place in the top four is, no doubt, already a tediously familiar subject of debate among fans.

They do, after all, have access to a league table that shows their club behind Southampton, West Ham United and Swansea as well as Chelsea and Manchester City. They know that Manchester United have the resources to qualify for the Champions League and that Liverpool should benefit from the return of Daniel Sturridge after the international break. They cannot even be sure that Newcastle United’s swift ascent will end.

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What must worry them most is the vulnerability of Wenger’s team to opponents with a spirit of enterprise. Such as Anderlecht, who closed a three-goal deficit at the Emirates, and Swansea once Garry Monk had started to use his bench (with a skill impressive in a young manager).

Troublingly for England as well as Arsenal, the most obvious defensive deficiency at present concerns right-back. Young Calum Chambers has many virtues, but pace is not one of them, and at the Liberty Stadium he was tormented by the speedy Montero. If Chambers is to stay in the side, it might be best to return him to centre-back and leave out Nacho Monreal, whose own comfort has hardly been increased by a switch from left-back.

You look at this defence and can hardly credit that it was built by the same man responsible for the structure of Arsenal’s Invincibles a decade ago. True, Laurent Koscielny is injured, but Manchester United have injuries as well as other shortcomings at the back and they are managing to stem the flow of goals against. If Louis van Gaal can do it, Wenger should be able to.

Such anger as Arsenal exuded at Swansea came from Per Mertesacker, who demanded a general tightening-up, and Alexis Sanchez, who left the field bristling—yet another goal to his credit, but no points.

To concentrate on the back four’s failings would be simplistic, because the central-midfield trio partly tasked with taking pressure off them were also poor: Gone is Aaron Ramsey’s rich form of last season, while Santi Cazorla was erratic and Mathieu Flamini mundane. Sanchez and Danny Welbeck apart, there were few performers to top-four standard.

Yet Wenger will somehow have to get them into that top four to settle his own anxieties. The international break may have come at a good time, and the picture will suddenly become brighter if United can be beaten at the Emirates on the resumption of League action.

Maybe then, too, a sudden increase in the rigour of Southampton’s fixtures will close the eight-point gap between Arsenal and the club from which they are accustomed to recruiting young players.

Maybe Liverpool will stay in the Champions League and still struggle to balance twin demands.

But their biggest doubt concerns Arsenal themselves. From the Invincibles to the Imponderables in 10 years: It’s an unexpected and unwanted twist in Wenger’s journey.

Patrick Barclay is an award-winning football journalist and best-selling author, whose portfolio includes biographies on Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson and Herbert Chapman.