PL Preview: Will Vardy and Mahrez Show Wenger What He Could Have Had at Arsenal?

If the course of a football season can be broken down into a series of sliding doors moments, 14 February 2016 should have seen Claudio Ranieri let out a yelp upon having his fingers trapped.

Arsenal let him off the hook. They are nothing if not charitable.

Leicester City travelled to the Emirates that day aware victory would propel them eight points clear of Arsenal at the Premier League summit. North London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur were nestled between them in second place, two points shy of the leaders.

Nearly five minutes of added time had elapsed when Arsenal substitute Danny Welbeck, making his first competitive appearance since April the previous year, got his head to a set piece to secure the home side a 2-1 victory. The gap closed to just two points.

It bore all the hallmarks of a result that could prove seismic in terms of the title race. It was but not in the way we all anticipated. It was Arsenal that choked thereafter, not Leicester.

Arsene Wenger's side would not get any closer to Leicester between Welbeck's header and the season's conclusion. Ranieri's team did not lose another game, going 12 unbeaten to secure the title at a canter. Some 10 points separated them from runners-up Arsenal in the final reckonings.

Ranieri met the Arsenal result as he had all those that preceded it and all those that would follow: with a smile. The Italian's disappointment was over by the time his shoulders were back in place after a shrug. In the grand scheme of things, it seemed to affect him about as much as his local deli's running out of his favourite type of pizza.

Last weekend, when Leicester become the first defending champions to lose their opening league match since Arsenal in 1989, Ranieri similarly remained level. For an Italian, his mantra in defeat is very c'est la vie.

It's a unique situation this season: The champions are under no pressure to retain the title, while last term's runners-up are under innumerable strain to go one better this time around. Few give them much hope.

Just 90 minutes into a new Premier League campaign, it seems ludicrous to suggest Saturday's game between Leicester and Arsenal (King Power Stadium) could be another sliding doors moment. Yet, rightly or wrongly, there's no doubt pressure is building on Wenger already.

Over the past 12 months, the two teams have seemed both intrinsically linked and polar opposites. One the great overachiever, the other an arch underachiever; the most content supporters in the country, compared to the gloomiest; Ranieri's stock has never been higher, Wenger's has never sunk to such swallow depths; one a team revered for its bravery, the other regularly mourned for its cowardice; the lion (with a fully functioning roar) and the tin man.

A more tangible sliding doors incident occurred between the two clubs over the summer. When Wenger made it clear he wanted to add a little needle to the tapestry of his side, Jamie Vardy was stitched in as his new No. 9. After years of nice, the Frenchman fancied a little naughty.

Think the end of Grease when Olivia Newton-John's character Sandy ditches the below-the-knee skirts and cardigans for a leather catsuit and you're not far off. Unfortunately for Arsenal, Wenger's repeated rendition of "You're the One That I Want" over long summer nights left Vardy cold, as he proved hopelessly devoted to Leicester in signing a lucrative new contract.

At 29, with only a single outstanding season at the highest level in his locker, Vardy would have been the antithesis of a Wenger signing. Throwing caution to the Wenger Law of Resale Value, his capture would have provided a refreshing dash of hard-nosed pragmatism at a football club that "floats like a butterfly and stings like one too," to borrow the words of Brian Clough.

Signing players for the future like Rob Holding from Bolton Wanderers is fine, if that is what actually transpires. When they are part of a back four that concedes a goal for every member on the opening day of the season, as Arsenal did to Liverpool last weekend, that's something else entirely.

As the American writer Philip Roth once said: "The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress." Arsenal supporters crave the finished article, not preparatory sketches. It's unlikely Takuma Asano, a 21-year-old from Sanfrecce Hiroshima, will meet such criteria.

On Sky Sports pundit duty for the Arsenal-Liverpool game, Thierry Henry did a fair job of articulating the exasperation of most Arsenal supporters:

"

Are Arsenal still the first choice in England? If a big player becomes available on the market, first of all, can you compete? Can you put the money on the table?

Next, is the money stupid? We all know the money is stupid but you have to pay.

And finally does the player want to come to Arsenal? That's something we all need to take into consideration. So are we still the first choice in England? I don't think so.

"

Gary Lineker is not the only Leicester favourite to have flashed his pants of late, as Riyad Mahrez spent much of the summer bearing his frilly bloomers. Again Arsenal were purportedly his primary suitors. Again Arsenal were left holding their rod, wondering wistfully about the one that got away.

Whereas Leicester could have sold N'Golo Kante 10 times over, there's a sense with Mahrez the very top clubs across Europe still hold reservations. The Algerian was crowned the Premier League's finest player last season, and deservedly so after 17 goals and 11 assists, but no bid has been lodged to tempt either club or player. A new four-year contract signed on Wednesday should draw a line in the sand over the Algerian's future.

If Leicester can convince Danny Drinkwater to do likewise and reach the close of the transfer window having only lost Kante and influential head of recruitment and assistant manager Steve Walsh, they can be content.

Earlier in Wenger's Arsenal tenure, Mahrez would have been on his radar before he moved to Leicester from Le Havre for just £450,000 two years ago. That was just the type of signing he used to conduct in his sleep, when he had first-mover advantage in terms of the French market.

These days, Wenger is the worst fox catcher since Roald Dahl came up with Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

It seems a strange sentiment to put to paper, but the Leicester pair are exactly the type of winners Arsenal need. Vardy criticising a Mesut Ozil pass would be akin to Tony Hart telling Pablo Picasso the subject of his painting has a wonky nose. But Vardy's abrupt manner would be quite the wake-up call in the politest of dressing rooms.

The A-Team wouldn't have been the A-Team if all four of them were the suave and debonair Face. It takes all sorts. Maybe Wenger should have offered Vardy a glass of milk before starting negotiations. If it was good enough to get B.A. Baracus on a plane, maybe Vardy would be wearing red and white by ways of the same method.

In future lists of players Wenger could have had, the names of Vardy and Mahrez will no doubt be added to Gianluigi Buffon, Roberto Carlos, Dimitri Payet, Xabi Alonso, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Didier Drogba. All managers have transfer skeletons in their closet; Wenger is the one only who seems proud of his.

A widely reported move for Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi has long been stalled due to Arsenal's protracted reluctance to pay the Spanish club's £30 million asking price, according to the Mirror's John Cross. He'll be added to the list when he inevitably captains Germany to a World Cup triumph.

If Ranieri is having a late bloom in the autumn of his career, Wenger looks more like a great elm stripped of its leaves—exposed and brittle. A fair swell of Arsenal supporters would like to see it cut down at the roots. The view is it has become too omnipresent, casting a shadow over the football club where once it was a source of pride.

The Premier League's longest-serving manager is notoriously prickly whenever he's told his board gives him an easy ride, though were it to come to light he is protected by a preservation order, few would fall down in surprise.

As Henry Winter put it in no uncertain terms in a piece for the Times in May: "Even the thought of Arsenal offering Arsene Wenger a two-year extension to a contract expiring in the summer of 2017 is as preposterous as it is presumptuous. It is inappropriate. It is insane. He has not earned it."

It's safe to presume Winter won't be getting an invite to ghostwrite Wenger's autobiography.

A great innovator upon first setting sight on an English football landscape, Le Professeur was more than an educator. In terms of what he was doing in 1996, it would be only be slightly indulgent to label him a visionary.

Now he appears to be playing catch-up with his contemporaries, especially after the Premier League opened the gates to the managerial Galacticos.

Even in his darkest days over the past decade, it would be hard to argue that he hasn't been one of the top three or four managers in the country. Today, would any of Leicester, Tottenham, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton or West Ham United swap their respective manager for him? As for Sean Dyche at Burnley, not a prayer. The Clarets would be rioting outside Turf Moor.

Get him talking about the vagaries of the transfer market and the current lack of value to be had, he starts to sound like your dad banging on about Marathon bars' being rebranded as Snickers. Earnestness on the topic comes from the heart, and when you strip down what he says, there's an argument he's the sane voice in an industry where the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

But principles don't win titles. At 66, Wenger remains a brilliant and smart man; unfortunately, he might be too cerebral for the sport.

"You are absolutely convinced that I don't want to spend the money, but I would like to reassure you that we are ready to spend the money we have," he said on Thursday, per the Guardian.

He added, "Buying calms the fans down—it is important to spend but even more important to spend it the right way."

Wenger is right in that a manager shouldn't think like a fan but better that than thinking like an accountant. It is a chief executive's job to balance the books, not a manager's.

After Sunday's defeat to Liverpool at the Emirates, discontent Arsenal supporters made little concession to Wenger regarding a starting XI shorn of several star names. It seems the reserve of goodwill has been exhausted in the red corner of north London. Being booed off on the opening day by your own supporters takes some doing.

Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud and Ozil may all be back for the weekend. It could prove a double-edged sword for Wenger if the trio returns and Arsenal slip up regardless. Even more so if either Vardy or Mahrez inflict the damage.

Like an episode of Bullseye where a couple from Stockport are left devastated having not gambled to win a speedboat, Saturday could be a "here's what you could have won" moment for Wenger. Still, at least he got a Bully tankard to take home with him.

Given Arsenal were responsible for two of Leicester's three defeats in the league last season, Wenger will at least feel he has the measure of Ranieri.

Indeed, Arsenal have quite the hoodoo over Leicester. The last time the Foxes beat Arsenal in a league meeting was back in 1994, when goals from Ian Ormondroyd (for younger readers, he was essentially Peter Crouch) and David Lowe at Filbert Street rendered Ian Wright's effort for the Gunners no more than a consolation. Current assistant manager Steve Bould was part of Arsenal's back four.

Should Arsenal fall to a second defeat in as many matches on Saturday, talk will be less of sliding doors and more about an exit for Wenger.