Why Arsenal need to end their appalling record against the top sides or trophy drought will go on

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:25 14/12/10

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It was a better performance off the pitch than on it.

Arsene Wenger was far more threatening than his strikers, far more diligent than his midfield, far more defiant than his centre-halves, although not quite as sure-handed as his rookie keeper.

Even in defeat, the Gunners chief opted for the front foot approach, insisting it was wrong to try to draw any conclusions for the rest of the season from one game, maintaining his side are championship contenders, even suggesting the Old Trafford pitch was to blame for the quality of the match.

Wenger said: "I will look at this game, not draw the conclusions you want to draw.

"It is a big frustration and a big disappointment but what is important is that we bounce back in our next game. Overall on what I have seen tonight there is no reason not to believe and we know we can play better offensively."

All well and good, until you recall what Wenger himself had to say two months ago, on the eve of the game at Chelsea.

Wenger was looking back to last season, when his side had dropped all 12 points from their games with Chelsea and United and finished 11 points adrift of the champions and declared it had to be different.

"If we are going to win the league this season, and I believe we can, then we have to win that mini-league," said Wenger then.

"The only team I've seen win the Premier League without winning the big games is Manchester United but they then had more wins than anybody else at home, which meant they could lose all the big games and still win the league.

"But they were the only team. For us, if we want to win the title, it is vitally important to win the big games and win the mini-league."

Instead, after two defeats from two games, Arsenal will struggle not to come bottom of the mini-league now - and could be assured of that wooden spoon by December 27.

The fact that Arsenal have earned just one point from their last 11 league clashes with their two most prominent title rivals explains, more than any prevarication from the manager, why the Gunners seem doomed to fall just short again.

Last night, while they looked to weave plenty of pretty patterns, there was no killer instinct, never a stage when you truly thought they were going to win the game.

Yes, Park Ji-Sung's improvised header was something of a fluke, especially as the deflection off Gael Clichy's heel when Nani centred could have gone anywhere in the first place.

But it was Wojciech Szczesny - more than just a fantastic Scrabble score, it seems, but a real keeper in the making - who was far the busier.

Had Wayne Rooney converted the late penalty, rather than finding Row Z of the Stretford End, there could have been few complaints and even with Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie sent on towards the end, Arsenal never really looked like they believed in themselves.

Of course, as Wenger understandably pointed out, it is not all over, but the omens are not great and, on current form, it could be that the real battle for the crown takes place between two noisy neighbours.

Only Manchester City - who have enough troubles of their own to deal with internally - with 15 points in an unbeaten seven game run, are close to United's return of 17 from the same number of games.

Arsenal, by contrast, have lost three of those games, Chelsea dropped 15 points and Spurs, despite just one defeat in their last seven, have still dropped nine points.

Those are facts, pure and simple. "Objective", as Wenger himself would say.

Now, more than ever, the Arsenal boss needs Chelsea to do him a favour on Sunday and also requires his own side to stand up to the challenge that will be posed by Stoke - and the build-up will doubtless concentrate on memories on last season's clash at the Britannia which ended with Aaron Ramsey's leg shattered by Ryan Shawcross and the sniping between Wenger and Tony Pulis.

Five years without a trophy and counting. It is not, for all Patrice Evra's wind-up efforts, a "crisis", not when a club is as sensibly run as Arsenal.

But it is eating away at the Gunners fans and it is hard to believe many of them will really find a Carling Cup crown acceptable recompense for all the angst they have gone through since that 2005 FA Cup Final penalty shoot-out triumph over United at Cardiff.

Last night, for all Wenger's attempts to suggest otherwise, looked like another signpost on the road to under-achievement.

And, in a five-way scrap for the top four places, with everybody dropping points, Arsenal have to show real resolve in the aftermath of risk being dragged into the sort of scrap when the spotlight falls on the team that falls short, rather than the one that succeeds.

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