Wenger has lessons to learn in Europe

ARSENE WENGER has brought so much to English football.

The Arsenal manager has lent intelligence and perspective to a game which is not overly blessed with characters of cerebral prowess.

He seldom ducks a question, rarely misses a press conference. With his professorial manner and serene demeanour he has earned respect wherever he has gone these past five years while producing a team of swashbuckling talent which has garnished the Premiership with truly enterprising football.

But when it comes to Europe, Wenger still languishes in the bottom half of the class, a pupil with much to learn and most of it from Alex Ferguson.

That is the obvious, if unpalatable conclusion for Wenger as Arsenal bowed out of the Champions League once again before the quarter-final stage, accompanied by the more anticipated exit of Newcastle, while United reached the last eight of the competition for the seventh consecutive season.

It was billed the Week of Truth for Arsenal who play Everton on Sunday with United closing fast in the Premiership and then Chelsea in midweek in the FA Cup replay. So let's deal in a few home truths. First, Wenger talks too much. For all his wisdom, he was ill-advised and arrogant to suggest his double-winning team of last season, however stylish their success, could negotiate the current season undefeated.

It attracted needless pressure, unsurprisingly stiffening resolve in opponents in much the same way that his contention last week that Arsenal would win the Premiership will have refuelled the title determination of United and Newcastle.

Second, Arsenal's European campaign remains blunted by Dennis Bergkamp's fear of flying, especially as he remains the Highbury player most capable of unlocking the tightest defences.

Third, Wenger's inattention to providing cover for his own defence has left Arsenal stretched to the point where, against Valencia, Sol Campbell was playing through the pain of injury so parlous were the alternatives.

SUFFICE IT to say that Pascal Cygan and Igor Stepanovs have not been Wenger's finest moments in the transfer market.

There is another reason why Arsenal appear to have cracked United's dominance at home but struggle in Europe.

The Premiership is littered with defenders who cannot defend. An afternoon at West Brom or Sunderland or even down at White Hart Lane, where a London bus could be driven through some of the defensive gaps, is brilliant for Henry's goal average but no preparation for facing Europe's elite.

It is something Ferguson has learned down the years and why United have evolved their sharp one-touch passing style and capacity to treasure possession and swamp the midfield in Europe even if their defeat against Deportivo in midweek only highlighted the shambolic nature of Europe's most prestigious competition.

Too unwieldy, too many meaningless matches, too much pandering to television and not enough thought for the paying public, many of whom would need a degree in accountancy to work out the permutations of Champions League qualification.

Quite how ITV could justify screening youngsters such as Lynch, Roche and Fletcher bright prospects but not exactly Law, Best and Charlton on prime time television when United had qualified and Deportivo were already eliminated is a mystery.

Actually it's worse than that, it's a liberty fortunately one which next season will be improved when the second group phrase is scrapped, television executives at last concluding they can delude the public no longer with dead contests which, even involving United, pull in less than five million viewers.

At least this season's competition, after so much tentative foreplay, finally has reached the point of real romance the eight teams remaining at the knockout stage, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and United, more than capable of stirring the emotions. We should all say Hallelujah for that.

More importantly, Ferguson's dream of lifting the trophy for the second time at Old Trafford on what would be a spectacular night in May lives on.

The tribal nature of British football is such that no Arsenal or Newcastle fan would ever admit it but isn't it time the whole nation roared on Ferguson and a United side which for so long has carried the standard for the English game?

Who knows, in the process Wenger might learn actions in Europe speak a lot louder than words.