Ten days that shook Wenger's men

14 April 2012

The danger of flying as high as Arsenal is that you risk falling to earth with a considerable bump. Arsene Wenger acknowledged as much when he talked to the media at Arsenal's state-of-the-art training headquarters 24 hours before the Champions League tie with Panathinaikos.

He was determined to consign the Old Trafford defeat to history but did concede that when you fall from high altitude "it can take time to get back up there".

It has been a difficult few days for the Arsenal manager and his problems can be traced back directly to the defeat by Manchester United that ended their record-breaking run of 49 unbeaten Premiership matches.

The French coach has used all his guile in an attempt to downplay the significance of that defeat. But United's 2-0 victory has had a greater psychological effect than he anticipated. Talking to Arsenal fans before the draw with Panathinaikos it was clear that, while upset by the loss of their record at Old Trafford, what irritated them more was the sense of injustice that followed a controversial defeat.

If they still feel they were robbed at Old Trafford that day, so must the players.

For more than a year Patrick Vieira and his team- mates stood astride the domestic game, each week adding to their reputation with fluent, adventurous football. At their best, they were playing the finest football seen in the history of the Premier League.

Untouchable until a fortnight ago, a dodgy penalty award suddenly introduced an element of doubt. It was Wenger's job to put that one defeat into perspective and convince his team that their momentum was merely slowed, not halted.

But the 2-2 draw with Southampton, when Robin van Persie's 90th-minute equaliser spared Arsenal the ignominy of a second successive league defeat, suggested that the champions had been more deeply damaged by the United loss than we first thought.

"Flat mentally," was how Wenger explained that narrow escape in his programme notes for the Panathinaikos match. That game ended 1-1 with the stubborn Greeks throwing Arsenal's Champions League progress into some doubt. Arsenal's manager explained that this time his team had been flat physically. It would be easy, in the context of Arsenal's recent successes, to draw the conclusion that all is not well with the Premier League champions.

The draw with the Greeks was their fourth serious game in 10 days - discounting the reserve-team victory in the Carling Cup - without a win.

Crisis? Hardly. But in the high-octane world Wenger has created for Arsenal, such an interruption to normal service is unusual and worrying.

Add to that the optimistic noises emerging from Chelsea and you have to ask yourself whether the balance of power in London might be shifting.

It's too early to make a relevant judgement but there is little doubt that Jose Mourinho's excursions into Europe carry a more strident message. The Champions League remains Arsenal's soft underbelly. Had they been able to transfer their current domestic form onto the European stage, Arsenal would probably have won the last three Champions League titles. As it is, they've never progressed beyond the quarter-finals.

The contrast in their form is remarkable. In their last 51 Premiership games Arsenal have had 36 victories, 14 draws and one defeat.

Compare that to Wenger's 64-match record in the Champions League - 26 wins, 18 draws and 20 defeats.

How do you explain such a difference? Obviously, Arsenal face the best in Europe in the Champions League but that's too simplistic an explanation for 20 defeats.

European football makes demands that can differ significantly from the challenges Arsenal face in the Premiership. Almost every team Arsenal meet in domestic football plays a pressing game. The pressure they generate and the space they create is often exploited by the pace and precision of Arsenal's passing game. But many Continental teams play a more measured game. They set Arsenal problems they wouldn't normally face at St James' Park or White Hart Lane.

The Panathinaikos coach Zdenek Scasny twice exposed the flaws in Arsenal's European strategy. "I've watched many of Arsenal's games this season and I would say they created fewer chances against us than in any other match," he said. "The key at Highbury was controlling the tempo of the game. We didn't play the way Arsenal expected."

Wenger has refined a wonderful attacking style of football that is both entertaining and menacing - when it works.

But when it doesn't there is no sign of an effective Plan B.

Flying high is all very well but, as Wenger will remember from his Greek lessons at school, when Icarus flew too close to the sun his wings melted. When that happens you land with a bump.

Premiership form under Wenger
P51 W36 D14 L1 (win percentage 70%)

Champions League form under Wenger
P64 W26 D18 L20 (win percentage 40%)

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