The chastening defeat, he said, should not make anyone “too desperate” and his team’s strong start to the Barclaycard Premiership campaign certainly made a nonsense of the more hysterical reports from Highbury. It was, after all, less than 12 months ago that the same side (minus only David Seaman, Pascal Cygan and Kanu) trounced Leeds United and were widely fêted as one of the greatest sides the world had seen.
They are not the worst now but Wednesday’s humbling did carry a significance beyond a bad night at the office; three lost points in the Champions League and dark omens before the match away to Manchester United on Sunday. The questions raised in pre-season about the lack of defensive cover were always going to have be answered at some stage; it is just that no one expected to raise them as early as mid-September.
They all derive from a core question that is how Arsenal expected to maintain a challenge for the top honours when the shortcomings of last season could be addressed only by the acquisition of a middling German goalkeeper and two highly talented, but pimply, teenage defenders. It always seemed a policy doomed to failure, which, in Arsenal’s case, amounts to plummeting to third in the Premiership — hardly a crisis but lower than Wenger has finished in his six full seasons in North London.
Predicting that Arsenal would limp in behind United and Chelsea was not easily done when set aside the brilliant resourcefulness of Wenger, the extraordinary talents of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, and an esprit de corps envied by most of their rivals, but the parsimony of the summer made it impossible to be more confident on the club’s behalf. A midweek defeat by last season’s European Cup semi-finalists hardly amounted to vindication, but the manner in which Arsenal were torn apart was not about to make a pessimist change his mind.
Just consider that, to balance the books, Arsenal’s squad has been reduced to 16 senior outfield players, of which six are defenders, including Cygan, in whom Wenger appears to have lost all faith, and Martin Keown, whose legs will have to be protected at 37 years old.
Kolo Touré, whose athleticism spared Arsenal an even heavier defeat by Inter, is now the first-choice centre half while also deputy right back.
The cover for Ashley Cole, England’s best left back but badly in need of a break after 2½ seasons at the deep end, is Gael Clichy, a teenager who may or may not turn out to be first-team material.
This is not intended to apportion the blame on a threadbare defence that is doing the best in difficult circumstances; Cole despite fatigue, Campbell despite his problems on the field and the death of his father yesterday that means he will miss Sunday’s match, and Touré despite spending most of his time at Highbury in midfield, even though he is a centre half for the Ivory Coast.
Of their colleagues, Jens Lehmann was badly at fault for Inter’s second goal and the midfield has been offering scant protection. Gilberto Silva needs to punctuate his gliding runs around the field with some juddering tackles. No wonder Wenger regarded the Brazilian as expendable this summer when he was trying to raise funds.
He could have raised more than £50 million by dangling Henry or Vieira in front of Roman Abramovich, but to sell one of his star assets would have been to sell the team’s soul. The board supported him in that policy, trusting that their manager’s ingenuity would see them through once again, but Wednesday surely will not be the last occasion this season on which the Frenchman’s excellence cannot make up for a squad so thin that even Igors Stepanovs risks being recalled from a loan spell in Belgium.
Six of the best
THE 3-0 loss to Inter Milan was Arsenal’s heaviest home defeat in the Champions League and extended their run without a win in the competition to six matches
December 10, 2002 v Valencia (home) 0-0: Despite dominating, Arsenal had to settle for a point — the beginning of the poor run of form.
February 18, 2003 v Ajax (home) 1-1: Sylvain Wiltord’s fifth-minute goal was cancelled out by Nigel de Jong.
February 22, 2003 v Ajax (away) 0-0: A disappointing stalemate in the Netherlands.
March 11, 2003 v AS Roma (home) 1-1: Patrick Vieira opened the scoring but Antonia Cassano equalised on the stroke of half-time.
March 19, 2003, v Valencia (away) 1-2: A John Carew double, either side of Thierry Henry’s goal, sent Arsenal to defeat.
September 17, 2003, v Inter Milan (home) 0-3: Goals from Julio Cruz, Andy van der Meyde and Obafemi Martins compound a miserable performance by Arsène Wenger’s team.