F365 Opinion

Argument number one: Time's up for Arsene's way...

* All fantasies have to come to an end sooner or later.

* Arsene Wenger will be buried by the media with his own boasting. Announcing before the game that "my team's time is now" was an invitation for disaster and so it proved. As a result of Sunday's exposure and his own scene setting, Wenger will face questions like never before. Is his own time up? Is his brand of footballing philosophy fatally flawed? When will the Arsenal manager and his team finally learn? What hope is there of silverware when they have no effective answer to the power and organisation of the elite?

Tomas Rosicky spoke for many in an interview published on Saturday morning when he remarked: "I admire the boss for what he is doing. He is special. He doesn't let himself be influenced by people outside the club."

Wenger's refusal to listen and budge from his principles and philosophy is admirable. It's also refreshing, unique and many other virtuous qualities. Unfortunately, there's a devastating counter-view: all the available evidence argues that his only answer is wrong.

Arsene's time should not be up, but it's high time he called time on Arsene's Way.


* Chelsea are threatening to break into a league of their own. They made victory look ridiculously easy at the Emirates - which may be the ultimate compliment that can be paid. They were superior in every department of the pitch.

* As a tactician, Wenger continues to fall short. Sir Alex Ferguson revealed the way to stop Chelsea at the start of the month when he deployed a five-man midfield and instructed Antonio Valencia to curb Ashley Cole. Wenger failed his team by failing to heed the lesson, and, in the mistaken belief that Chelsea would change their formation to counter Arsenal's, had to watch his side being undone by two first-half goals assisted by the liberated Cole.

* It's time for the Arsenal fans to move on from the Cashley thing. He's made a few conciliatory noises, admitted errors of judgement and is but one of a million footballers who have changed clubs for more money. It's time that the Arsenal supporters got over it; all their booing seems to do now is inspire their nemesis.

* The game's outcome might possibly have been different had Andrei Arshavin's goal been allowed to stand after Eduardo poked the ball away from Petr Cech but it's just as conceivable that Chelsea would have been roused into scoring a third long before they did. Arsenal and Manchester United are frequently lauded for their threat on the counter-attack but even as they soaked up the jabs in the second-half it was Chelsea who still looked mostly likely to land a knockout punch. Theirs was very nearly the complete performance.

* At least Arsene is closing in on belatedly spotting one of Arsenal's chief failings. "It's quite amazing if you look at the number of shots against us from the beginning of the season, it's very minimal," he announced on Friday. "We conceded those goals from only 36 shots against us. Sunderland had one shot on target." At half-time against Chelsea, that statistic had moved on to 17 goals conceded from 39 on-target shots and 18 from 41 by full-time , with eleven of those saves made by Vito Mannone against Fulham. You do the Manuel Almunia maths and we'll do the reminder that it was two years ago that this site first described him as a goalkeeper of few mistakes and even fewer saves.

* John Terry was simply a colossus in the middle of the Chelsea defence. Though his relative lack of pace makes him occasionally vulnerable in international football and the Champions League, the Chelsea captain is without peer when it comes to the hurly-burly of league action and Chelsea's opponents are reduced to pumping hopeful balls into the penalty area.

* Didier Drogba must love playing against Arsenal. The striker has scored ten goals in eleven matches against the Gunners and it's absolutely no coincidence that when Arsenal won at Stamford Bridge in the final week of November last year the Ivorian did not play.

* Nor was it coincidence that Arsenal won that day courtesy of two goals from Robin van Persie. Without the Dutchman this Sunday, the Gunners were reduced to looking ordinary. They'll miss him badly because they'll miss his quality, his goalscoring, his first touch and link-up play, and set-piece delivery. But such is the risk taken whenever a side reshapes its formation around one player.

* It's just incredible that a football player of Theo Walcott's stature has so little football talent. But for his pace he wouldn't be a professional player. He has nothing else.

* Eduardo's performance should concern Wenger just as greatly. Perhaps he is lacking match fitness and match play, but on two occasions a poor first touch ruined decent opportunities and his link-up play was non-existent.

* Boys against men, strength against weakness, possession against penetration. If anything should convince the Arsenal manager that the time has come for change then it is the sense of déjà vu at the end of Sunday's game.

To continue with the same approach, to expect a different result when doing the same thing time after time, would be the definition of madness.

Something big has to change at Arsenal now.

Pete Gill

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