Alarm bells ring for Arsenal

As Ljungberg pointed out, the ringing of alarm bells may be somewhat premature. After all, he said, Arsenal have lost only twice in the Premiership in 18 months. But it is a fact that those two defeats have come in the last six weeks. If the first at Old Trafford had extenuating and mitigating circumstances, the one at Anfield did not.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger blamed fatigue as a factor, especially in view of the way his side finished with nine men in Holland during the 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.

There may be some merit in that argument but it would seem the problems runs deeper. Suddenly, the explosive players, the ones who Wenger says " can make a difference", are flat and short of fuel.

Jose Reyes terrorised defences up and down the country at the start of the season - now he is a shadow of that player. The same can be said of Robert Pires, whose gliding, smooth action can be a delight and a danger when he is in full flight. In Arsenal's last two matches, he has looked lacklustre.

The defence? Not too much wrong. Sol Campbell, settled in mind with a new four-year contract and fit after an Achilles tendon injury, is a man mountain in central defence, while Kolo Toure is a mobile and muscular ally. Lauren and Ashley Cole are hard to beat as a full-back pairing and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was beaten only by two super strikes from Alonso and Neil Mellor, who failed to shine during a spell at West Ham last season.

Thierry Henry will thrive when the service is adequate but despite the energy and power of Patrick Vieira, the ball is not reaching the French striker at the right time or at the right pace. Without it, he can contribute little. True, a second-half revival brought a superb equaliser from Vieira but Mellor's late 25-yard effort secured the points. And the inquest has begun.

Wenger says "there is not a lot wrong at the moment" but while it may not be a major fault, something is amiss. Clearly he would like to rotate his squad to rest the likes of Pires and Reyes and to give 17-yearold Francesc Fabregas a well-earned break. But injuries to Gilberto Silva and Edu deny him such a luxury, and suspensions will also play their part.

Following his booking yesterday, Vieira misses the clash with Chelsea on December 12 at Highbury and the Champions League match with Rosenborg five days earlier. No rest, then, for Fabregas.

The complex disciplinary rules mean that if Vieira had provoked a second booking and been sent off, he would be clear to face Chelsea but miss the Carling Cup game with Manchester United on Wednesday - a match from which he would have been absent, anyway, as Wenger continues his policy of selecting youngsters for the competition. If Arsenal could have cherry-picked their first eight games of the season, they would have struggled to come up with a better selection than the one handed them by the Premiership computer. Only two points were dropped in a draw with Bolton.

So maybe the impression of an allconquering outfit from Highbury was a false one.

While Chelsea, United and Liverpool were all playing each other, Arsenal were disposing of, among others, newly-promoted Norwich, an Everton team still harassed by the Wayne Rooney scenario and a Blackburn outfit who were looking like Football League material rather than regular Premiership contenders.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson always said that the test for Arsenal would come after they were beaten. While Ferguson's words carry little weight at Highbury, it looks as though he had a point.