By John ST

Soccer Net Live

The tightly knited brows of Arsene Wenger were eased slightly in midweek as Arsenal strolled to a comfortable 3-1 victory at The Hawthorns. Yes, it is only West Bromwich Albion, but this is Arsenal arriving on the back of a horrid goal drought, and against weaker opponents, they have shown a propensity of misplacing their scoring boots.

So tarnished was their aura of invincibility. The relief for Arsenal fans was palpable when their beloved team broke the duck within four minutes of kick-off. Despite West Brom equalizing two minutes later, the Gunners found their range with two goals, a fair reward for superior possession and enterprising play.

Is Arsene Wenger At Fault For Arsenal’s Woes?

Though the match was already sewn up in the first half, Arsenal continued to run riot after the break and were were unlucky not to add to the scoreline. West Brom had been most helpful with their porous defence, naivete and lack of technical skills.

The improvement coincided with refreshing changes to a jaded team which was held to four consecutive goalless draws. Robin van Persie, Carlos Vela, Abou Diaby and the injured William Gallas were replaced with Johan Djourou, Alex Song, Nicklas Bendtner and Emmanuel Eboue.

Andrei Arshavin was another ace up Wenger’s sleeve. Indeed, the Russian has been impressive since his arrival. Though he missed three glit-edged chances to score his first Arsenal goal, he created an assist for Kolo Toure. For now, he is already repaying Wenger’s faith with his creativity and exquisite passing.

However, special mention goes to Nicklas Bendtner, the player who has been vehemently abused. Bendtner was a vital cog in the dominant strikeforce and it was a gamble which paid off for Arsene Wenger. I doubt Arsenal fans will forgive his decision to leave out top scorer van Persie while the club sought its first league goal since January 28.

Bendtner is adjusting to life on the left wing, so there will be no Robert Pires’s silky movements, defense splitting passes and goals for the time being. For a 20 year old, it is unfair to expect Bendtner to be the main goal threat and lead Arsenal to glory but given time and and Wenger’s guidance, he may yet develop into a world class player.

His 11 goals this season is not a disaster either as compared to a senior striker like Adebayor who only managed 12. Not surprisingly, Arsene Wenger stood behind Bendtner, saying: “Nicklas has shown tonight that he has the talent to play for Arsenal. I liked his presence, his determined attitude and the way he took people on. That shows he has matured.”

This result is certainly a confidence booster and Arsenal again has the coveted top four within sights. Aston Villa’s failure to keep up the pressure by stumbling 2-0 to Manchester City and being held 2-2 by a late Stoke rally could be their undoing, once Arsenal snowball their run of victories.

Over the past weeks, I have watched with disdain at the behavior of the Anti-Wenger Brigade which called for Wenger’s head and some even branded him as a liar. Now, I understand Wenger’s post match interviews have been grating on the ears. He is ignoring the facts when he said the team is only 1-2% away from perfection, and his lads are full of potential and spirit.

But what do the fans actually expect? Arsene Wenger cannot raise morale by lambasting the players, or blaming the opponents, pitch, match officials, media, etc. Any reprimand has to be done behind closed doors. Wenger needs his charges to believe in themselves, at least until the end of the season.

I believe most of the unappeased fans are relatively new to the scene and have not gone through the eighties when the pace was slower, their club was languishing, and commercial interests were not pervasive. The Premier League fans today are accustomed to crazy-money, either from leverage or sugar-daddies (think $100 million pounds for a player) and desire instant gratification.

After having their appetite whetted by initial successes, they cannot tolerate poor results. Coming in third or fourth is unacceptable and they demand to spend their way to the championships by purchasing star players. And if that approach fails, then the manager is at fault and must be sacked. Such a mentality has claimed countless worthy managers in the Premier League.

A case in point is Juande Ramos who revived his career at Real Madrid and has whittled Barcelona’s lead to four points in the La Liga. Ramos’s fate at Tottenham couldn’t be more different. After winning the Carling Cup, he went on a run of 13 games without victory and was eventually dismissed. A manager of his calibre does not become a dud overnight, the players, fans and directors have a role to play in a club’s success too.

So far, I am skeptical of the support given by the Arsenal board. They have raised fans’ expectations by making statements like, “we have 30 million pounds to spend,” but actions count louder than words. Xabi Alonso was snatched from under Arsenal’s nose because they haggled over a few million dollars and the Arshavin deal was nearly botched in a similar manner.

The power struggle is apparent when the board took everyone by surprise by sacking former Managing Director, Keith Edelman, and keeping Arsene Wenger in the dark. As outsiders, we cannot be sure who is doing the penny-pinching. The money is definitely there as the club has been making huge profits and is now the fifth richest in the world in terms of revenue.

Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that Arsene Wenger will help the club save money and compromise the quality of his squad unless he has some profit sharing involved. If Rafael Benitez had been in charge, I am sure he will have raised a stinky ruckus in the media when the transfer budget is not forthcoming.

I do not encourage Arsenal to go on a spending spree though. The financially prudent approach is laudable. Signing expensive players is good while it lasted, but football prestige built on this foundation is illusory. Without constant silverware and new influx of funds, clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City and to a lesser extent, Liverpool, could implode under the weight of debts, ala Leeds United.

Arsene Wenger is on a sustainable course by sticking to his philosophy of nurturing young talents, integrating them into the team and then selling them for profits if better candidates come along. For that, he has been viewed as a selfish, stubborn and self-aggrandizing man.

Wenger has always taken pride in his keen eye for raw talents and developing them into established players. But this time, the Anti-Wengers feared their manager has carried things a little too far. Wenger may be deriving greater satisfaction from building great teams than winning titles, else why will he persist in doing things the hard way by reducing his squad for profits rather than retaining his best assets through making exceptions for higher wages.

By sticking to his principle and refusing huge contracts to players such as Mathieu Flamini, Alexander Hleb and Diarra, Wenger may have inadvertently hurt the club’s interest. On the surface, Arsenal are not held at ransom to players’ demands but negative emotions are being bottled up.

Flamini was a key reason for Arsenal leading the Premier League table until the final third of last season. His presence added tenacity in midfield, without which the mouth-watering football is often stopped in its track by physical opponents. He did not shy from challenges and constantly fought for possession by harrassing opponents into making stray passes. Maybe he carried the fighting spirit a little too far into the contract negotiations.

Flamini’s presence also freed Fabregas from his defensive duties and the latter was able to roam up further to exploit defensive gaps. As for Alexander Hleb, he may not have scored loads of goals but his telepathic understanding with Fabregas and Adebayor created turmoil in opponents’ defenses. This season, Hleb’s technical ability and vision were solely missed as Adebayor is impotent in front of goal and van Persie, despite being a shining light, struggles to attain his full potential of winning the Golden Boot.

If AC Milan deem it fit to double Flamni’s wages while limiting his match appearances, then Wenger must wake up to the workings of the free market. Being adamant on his wage strategy because he is worried about club’s debt on the Emirates stadium is not going to cut it with the players.

Yes, they appreciate and respect the manager’s achievements but they also need him to show ambitions by buying and retaining key talents. If a player has proven his worth and the club is raking in the cash, they expect to be paid their dues - loyalty works only for a select few.

I admire Wenger’s beautiful vision of how football should be played and his team has always been able to pass teams into submission. But his current squad has difficulty keeping possession and Wenger cannot be absolved of responsibility for inadequate replacements after releasing Diarra, Alexander Hleb, Flamini, and Gilberto.

Arsenal are also sorely lacking in natural leaders and winners. Though Gilberto and Flamini tried their best, none can replace effectively Patrick Vieria’s leadership, competitiveness, motivation in going the extra mile, and resilience under pressure. The team spirit is in fact impaired by William Gallas’s captaincy.

Too often, when the going gets tough, fissures appear and the team doesn’t stick together as a unit. There is nobody who commands enough respect to sort things out - Gallas is too much of a big mouth and hot-headed for that. If his outstanding performances for Chelsea and France did gain him any stature, he destroyed all that goodwill with his inappropriate outburst at St Andrew’s.

Wenger continued to turn a blind eye to Gallas’s poor leadership but when Gallas aired dirty linen, his captaincy was finally withdrawn. Nevertheless, bad blood remains and Gallas behaved like an outcast (his best friends are in Chelsea) and not performing consistently. I suspect his open conflict with van Persie will see either one of them leaving soon.

The injury crisis has been another hallmark of Arsenal’s season. After the departure of the legendary “Invincibles” of the 2004-2005 season (featuring the likes of Lauren, Cole, Campbell, Pires, Ljungberg, Wiltord, Reyes, Vieira, Edu, Henry, Bergkamp), Wenger has struggled to put his first XI for any extended period of time.

His new generation of players are too soft and could not endure the ordeals of a long season without spending time on the injury list. Cesc Fabregas is the heartbeat of the team but is often missing in action when the matches start piling up. The loss of Tomas Rosicky, Eduardo, Walcott and Bacary Sagna had also been crucial.

Though the injuries are not Wenger’s fault, the thin squad is his responsibility. He has done well to infuse new blood to quickly replace the aging “Invincibles” and Arsenal remain virtually unbeatable (in the domestic league and Europe) whenever they field their best eleven. However, when the first XI is tampered with, it is a different ball game.

For a top four club, injuries should be the least of its concerns as compared to a lower division club operating on a shoe-string budget. It is the manager’s job to ensure the squad is still good after the first eleven players. Denilson, Song, Bendtner, Diaby and Djourou have shown glimpses of quality but cannot be expected to carry a team in the top flight or Champions League qualifications. Aaron Ramsey and Amaury Bischoff are simply not ready to even step in as substitutions.

While Wenger has some questionable judgment calls, I feel he does not deserve to be booed. I believe Wenger has suffered in silence as a victim of circumstances and his own success. From reaching the pinnacle of 2004 when Arsenal swept the Double with an army of “Invincibles,” their form have faltered drastically.

Arsenal currently lie in fifth spot, three points behind Aston Villa and four ahead of Everton. Their Premier League record is 13 wins, 10 draws and 5 defeats. They have taken only 8 points from their last 16 and could not find the net in 4 consecutive league games. To be sure, that is not sizzling form deserving of a Premier League title, especially with 10 league games left.

However, Arsene Wenger can take heart from Manchester United’s success. The present Manchester United squad may be all-conquering but they went trophyless in the 2004-2005 season and only reclaimed the Premier League title in 2007. Back then, their recruitment policy was a disaster.

Youngsters like Quinton Fortune, David Bellion, Diego Forlan, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson were not breaking through the ranks convincingly. As for the senior players like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Paul Scholes, Gabriel Heinze, and Ryan Giggs, they were either injured or a pale shadow of their stellar form when they returned to the pitch.

Alex Ferguson was whiplashed from all quarters and under pressure to resign but fortunately, sanity prevailed. I have to credit Ferguson for overhauling the squad successfully while Manchester United struggled with a change of ownership, massive debts and lack of quality signings.

Opportunistic clubs jacked up the prices when the Red Devils came calling or players simply refuse to come under the wings of Ferguson who “lost” his touch for winning titles. Luckily, the return of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs as well as the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo steadied the ship.

At full-strength, Arsenal boast a fearful offensive lineup comprising Cesc Fabregas, Rosicky, Nasri, Arshavin, Walcott, Adebayor, Robin Van Persie, Eduardo and Bendtner. If they stay clear of injuries, and purchase quality centre backs and defensive midfield cover, I have little doubt Wenger will mount a serious assault on the Premier League crown next season.

Every club goes through rough patches, and sometimes it can stretch for years. So long as the board perseveres with good management while allowing time for the situation to turnaround, no crisis is insurmountable.

Meanwhile, the Gunners are still in contention for the quarter-finals of the FA cup and the Champions League, so their season could yet end on a high note. If I were the manager of the top four, despite whatever misgivings, I will not discount Arsene Wenger as a formidable enemy. The fans are certainly running the risk of forcing Arsene Wenger out of the club at their own loss.