Sun sets on Wenger's way as a route to the title

Arsenal need more extensive options in all areas if the league title is to be won again in the near future

Kevin McCarra

It was nightfall in the hearts of the Arsenal supporters at full-time on Sunday. Defeat by Chelsea was galling enough, yet less dispiriting than the confirmation that their team has been going downhill faster than a toboggan on the Cresta Run. A five-point lead has been converted into a six-point deficit since the middle of last month and the trend has all but rushed the club out of contention in the Premier League.

The oddity is that the future ought still to look marvellous to fans. In many respects Arsenal are in well-nigh perfect condition. They have the biggest club stadium in the capital and can fill it with ease while charging the sort of London prices that the Glazers could only dream of inflicting at Old Trafford. Arsenal now earn more from the executive areas on match days than they did from Highbury in its entirety.

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, so far stymied in their efforts to find new grounds, must grind their teeth. The switch from Woolwich to Highbury in 1913 was cunning as the entrepreneurial Henry Norris planted Arsenal beside the Piccadilly line. Other transport links, including the Victoria line, would follow over the decades. During the modern era Arsène Wenger has made the club accessible in a different fashion.

Since he was appointed 12 years ago Arsenal have been a catherine wheel, a whirl of luminous and thrilling football. United are the only English club in that time who can argue that they have given as much pleasure to those who adore the game for its own sake. As a visionary, however, Wenger now has to decide how he will adapt to a changing sport.

Without a better-stocked squad it is impossible to see how Arsenal will prosper in the league. Havoc ensued at Stamford Bridge merely because a right-back, Bacary Sagna, needed to be replaced. Options at centre-half may also have to be reviewed although, in fairness to William Gallas and Kolo Touré, there are few forwards with the complete set of attributes deployed by Didier Drogba when his mind is on his work.

Arsenal's choices are limited. A 5-1 trouncing by Tottenham in the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final undermined any trust that a remarkable generation is emerging. The fans rightly feel a profound debt to Wenger and only that can have made 7,000 of them bite their tongues at Old Trafford in the 4-0 FA Cup beating. Senior players were guilty of dereliction of duty there as they failed to compensate for weaknesses elsewhere in a makeshift selection.

It is ironic that Wenger has the means to expand his squad and upgrade its calibre by making a splash in the transfer market, yet has traditionally been reluctant to do so. The financial burden of building the Emirates sits lightly on Arsenal and there will be over £100m profit from the housing developments on the site of the old stadium. This club is already the fifth richest in the world, with scope to haul itself on to the higher rungs.

It is Wenger who imposes a tight budget on himself, even making a profit in his transfer dealings last summer. His taste is not for ready-made stars but for those who can be shaped by his philosophy. That is reflected in the fact that Arsenal's record still stands at the £11m spent on Sylvain Wiltord in 2000. Even Middlesbrough and Fulham have splashed out more than that.

Wenger's obstinacy is quite marvellous in its way but the trends are going ever more strongly against Arsenal. Sir Alex Ferguson might have made an immense misjudgment when deciding that the £30m Juan Sebastián Verón would fit the English scene but, undeterred, he continued the outlay on Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney and many expensive others. In consequence Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick and Anderson, for example, constitute three compelling candidates for the role in front of the defence.

Arsenal, in comparison, are wilfully starved of resources. With Eduardo da Silva injured horribly, the side has a single established centre-forward, in Emmanuel Adebayor, since Robin van Persie takes up withdrawn positions. Apart from that, Wenger has a hankering to keep the line-up roughly the same week after week, running the risk that someone like Lassana Diarra will despair and insist on leaving.

It is four years since Arsenal won the league and the trophy will not be back until there are more extensive options in all areas, even if that means compromising the special character of the team. Wenger has never feared to break up a side and start anew but now it is his own cherished philosophy that has to be re-engineered if Arsenal are to regain the peak of domestic football.

原文地址：http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/03/25/sun_sets_on_wengers_way_as_a_r.html