Premier League Preview: All Eyes on Arsene Wenger for Manchester United Visit

The Man Booker Prize-winning British author and journalist Howard Jacobson said of Twitter: "Every hour we hear tweeters remonstrating with the very site they habituate. It's so brutal, they wail. You might as well climb into a boxing ring and complain you've been punched."

Which brings us neatly on to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. To watch Arsenal and lament a lack of fortitude, resilience, leadership, holding midfielders, personality, dominant centre-halves, ardour, players who don’t see defending as being less appetising than eating dinner straight out of a skip, adequate back-up goalkeepers, is akin to complaining about Twitter not being a judicious arena for debate. Social media is what it is, and so are Arsenal under Wenger.

To be surprised about the latest "mini-crisis" in north London is to walk into a butcher's shop and be stupefied by the sight of meat.

A marriage doesn't survive 19 years, encompassing 721 Premier League matches (58 per cent win rate—via the Premier League) and 177 games in the Champions League en route, without the odd foible being indulged. To put his longevity into context, Shakhtar Donetsk's Mircea Lucescu is the only other coach in Europe to have been at the same club for over a decade.

Tuesday's Champions League defeat to Olympiakos was the Gunners' second of the tournament, which threatens to derail a proud record of having advanced into the knockout phase in the previous 15 seasons in succession. Now, Wenger finds himself under the type of scrutiny endured of late by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers.

Except, as the former was at pains to point out last week, Wenger may be walking a line at present, but it's one his board will never cross. Arsenal and their manager may appear to play Russian roulette from time to time, but there's never a bullet in the chamber. Maybe that's why he’s been in situ for longer than the rest of the Premier League managers combined. The club's cash reserve of £191.3 million means Wenger can go to sleep without having to first check under the bed for Jurgen Klopp.

"In this country, only one manager is not under pressure," Mourinho said during a media briefing, standing in front of a mirror wearing just his title medals and a wearied smile. "We cannot be below par. We have to meet the objectives. I have sympathy with all of them because it's a difficult job. There's one outside that list but good for him. He can not achieve; keep his job, still be the king. I say just one."

Ahead of Manchester United's visit to the Emirates on Sunday, one of Wenger's former charges, Martin Keown, echoed Mourinho's assessment of the situation.

"I think we’re all wasting energy discussing it," he said in his Daily Mail column, as if he'd been asked to debate the infinite monkey theorem. As opposed to whether a manager who notoriously demonstrates chronic indecisiveness in the transfer market, is seemingly tactically naive and an overseer of a squad that is mentally as brittle as a Daim Bar (see Roy Keane tweet below), could ever be under real pressure.

"He's the manager for the next two seasons, and I fully expect him to see it through. He'll obviously have to assess his position after next season, but when I last spoke to him I didn't detect any waning in his determination to carry on," Keown continued.

Life as an Arsenal fan is often compared to the film Groundhog Day. To be a Gunner is to be Bill Murray's meteorologist character Phil Connors, perpetually trapped in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over. Admittedly, the Arsenal version condenses an injury crisis, a puzzling transfer window and a defeat to Mourinho into a single 24 hours, rather than merely a TV news report on a rodent emerging from its burrow, but as far as film-football analogies go, it's a fairly sound one. 

The problem for those who see the club in a state of acute ennui and inertia is that Wenger has been living a Murray-like existence more than any supporter. Rather than being driven to distraction by a 6 a.m. alarm call to the strands of "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher, he appears to start each day on a loop as content as the last. Safe in the knowledge his love interest—fourth spot, as opposed to Andie MacDowell—can never escape him, just as long as he keeps doing the same things.

As a sportswriter, reporting on Arsenal can certainly feel like you're trapped in Harold Ramis' 1993 film. Back in June 2011, I wrote a Sky Sports piece on how Wenger's obsession with elevating Arsenal's style of football to an art form, at whatever the cost, was holding them back. It seems as pertinent now as it did then:

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Herein lies arguably his greatest strength and Achilles heel. Wenger's obsession with creating something of aesthetic appeal is laudable, as is his board's patience in allowing him every chance to fulfil his vision, but it is also hugely prohibitive. And perhaps even selfish.

Writing and painting are solitary pursuits. The processes involved in both largely eschew collaborative factors and thus, in this respect, are not as Wenger attests like football at all. If anything the job of a football manager is more akin to an architect. It's a more meticulous building process that is needed to mould together disparate players and personalities to form a sum bigger than its individual parts.

Art is all about heart, an emotion that runs the terraces and stands but not dressing rooms and training fields. Not the good ones anyhow. But Wenger knows all this, he's too intelligent a man not to recognise that modern football - for better or worse - is more than just about the glory Danny Blanchflower once claimed.

Whether he's too stubborn to do anything about it remains to be seen.

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Wenger's admittedly impressive role in ensuring the club's move to the Emirates was seamless in the austere years seems to have bought him infinite good will in the boardroom. A turnover of £334.5 million will do that, but whether this is something that garners the same good faith from shareholders at the club's Annual General Meeting later in the month remains to be seen.

Arsenal vs. Manchester United, Sunday at 4 p.m. BST

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

In comparison, Manchester United travel to the capital in fine fettle. Wednesday's defeat of Wolfsburg was not without its moments, but a second victory from as many European matches should ensure they can play out the rest of their group campaign in cruise control. 

The usual quibbles about a lack of urgency in possession and Wayne Rooney's form—or rather lack of form—means even pole position in the Premier League is not without its grumbles. Yet, perhaps for the the first time in Louis Van Gaal's tenure, there is an overriding sense that a momentum built on solid foundations as opposed to blind hope is growing in Manchester. The processes may be painful, but the Dutchman builds his sides with the meticulous eye of an architect. 

Certainly history suggests a trip to the Emirates will hold little fear. United have lost just twice in 17 meetings between the two sides since 2008, and only one of those defeats came in the league.

When you add into the mix that Arsenal's win percentage against United is lower, at 24 per cent (via WhoScored.com), than against any other side, Van Gaal's trademark bullishness will not be misplaced. In the opposite corner, Wenger has lost 10 of the last 16 fixtures against United.

How Arsenal cope with Anthony Martial, who was yet again impressive at the point of United's attack in midweek, could go a long way to deciding the game's outcome. Sir Alex Ferguson's formula for beating Wenger never deviated. Allow Arsenal to dictate meaningless possession and then break with abandon when opportunities arise. The searing pace of Martial would complement a similar game plan, but given Van Gaal's obsession with dominating possession, it will be fascinating to see how he sets up his side to play. 

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#Arsenal 109 years from 1886 to 1995: 28 trophies #Arsenal 19 years from 1996 to 2015 with Wenger: 15 trophies pic.twitter.com/7mbRDB7K5J

— Arsenal FC (@FFArsenal) September 11, 2015"

The assessment of Arsenal proffered by Alfred Finnbogason, the Olympiakos striker, who scored his club’s winning goal in the Champions League, could have come out of the mouth of Ferguson, or Slaven Bilic, or pretty much any manager who has got the better of Wenger in the past decade. 

“When you play against this team you know they’re going to have a lot of the ball," he said, via the Daily Mirror. "You have to defend well, have the lines tight and use your time when you have spaces. And you know you’re going to have spaces because they don’t want to defend. So our plan worked.”

Van Gaal, though, is nothing if not his own man. Last season's FA Cup defeat to Arsenal saw United enjoy an unprecedented 57 per cent possession, according to WhoScored.com, and was one of the rare occasions in which Wenger showed a willingness to deviate from his own signature style of possession-heavy football.

Expect the same again on Sunday, with Wenger unlikely to go toe-to-toe with his heavyweight rival and instead will look to box clever on the counter. 

Everton vs. Liverpool, Sunday at 1:30 p.m. BST 

Rui Vieira/Associated Press/Associated Press

Brendan Rodgers takes his Liverpool side to Goodison Park on the back of a Europa League draw with Sion that has of today replaced the dictionary definition for "abject."

It was a much-changed line-up that hosted the Swiss minnows (who were branded "pathetic" and "embarrassing" by their own chairman last weekend—via the Telegraph), but nonetheless the chorus of boos that greeted full-time at Anfield will still be ringing in Rodgers' ears come Sunday.

Last weekend's victory over Aston Villa—and more pertinently the manner of Daniel Sturridge's superlative brace—bought Rodgers a slither of goodwill, but defeat in a Merseyside derby will make things positively hostile for the Ulsterman. 

Liverpool have now won just three matches from 10 games in all competitions. It's hardly hyperbolic to suggest Sunday's game could define Rodgers' time at Liverpool, or even end it, should they limp to defeat.

Everton, in contrast, could hardly be more buoyant going into the game. Monday night's 3-2 win at West Brom saw them come back from two goals down and lifted them up to fifth. With Romelu Lukaku currently in the type of bullying form that will make Dejan Lovren feel like the luckiest man alive on Sunday, expect Liverpool's beleaguered back line to take a proverbial battering from the Belgian. 

Roberto Martinez's side are unbeaten in their last six competitive games, but Rodgers can draw consolation from the fact the fixture has been kind to Liverpool of late. Liverpool are undefeated in each of their last six meetings with Everton and have not lost at Goodison Park since 2010. If Rodgers says he wouldn't take a point in Friday's pre-match presser, though, strap him to a polygraph. 

Swansea City vs. Tottenham Hotspur, Sunday at 4 p.m. BST

Matt Dunham/Associated Press

After last weekend's 4-1 defeat of Manchester City, a trip to Swansea is an acid test for a Tottenham side not usually infallible when it comes to putting in "After the Lord Mayor's Show" performances. 

Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino finally seems to have fine-tuned a previously porous back four, with an all-Belgian centre-half partnership of Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld looking emphatically assured of late.

In front of them, Eric Dier ensures the door is always left locked when his fellow midfielders show adventure ahead of him and press high, and he can feel a little disgruntled that it was Dele Alli who has been promoted to England's senior squad ahead of him.

Harry Kane's return to goalscoring form will be a further concern for a Swansea side who have quietly not won in four matches, scoring just a solitary goal in that period via Gylfi Sigurdsson’s penalty in defeat at Southampton last weekend. 

With Spurs unbeaten in their last six league games and boasting seven successive victories against Swansea in all competitions, only a three-point haul from their sojourn to Wales would be an acceptable return for Pochettino.