Wenger sounds rallying call

THE spite that once shrouded meetings between Arsenal and Chelsea may have evaporated with the departure of Jose Mourinho, but the significance of tomorrow’s latest squabble between north and west London has rarely been greater.

Defeat for either Arsene Wenger and Avram Grant would inflict a potentially fatal blow to their hopes of wrestling the Premier League title from Manchester United, who could be six points clear at the top of the table by the time their sides walk out at Stamford Bridge. Against such a heady backdrop, it is no wonder the rival managers consider a war of words superfluous.

Wenger loathed the intensely personal nature of Mourinho’s mind games. The dark references to voyeurism and secret dossiers provided a poisonous preface to inevitably bad-tempered matches and Wenger resented having to defend his character against such jibes.

The Frenchman no longer has to fear verbal assaults from the King’s Road, and when he remarked yesterday that he cares “nothing for Chelsea”, he meant it.

Yet Wenger remains on the defensive, not from Mourinho’s barbs but from criticisms levelled at his team.

Arsenal stand accused of cracking under the intense pressure of the title race, of stalling just when United have slipped effortlessly into a higher gear. The statistics are suitably damning: no Premier League victory since February 12 and just six goals in their last seven games in all competitions are figures which make gloomy reading as Arsenal attempt to end Chelsea’s unbeaten home run in league football, which stretches back to February 2004.

Wenger was doing his best to sound bullish yesterday. He invited Arsenal’s detractors to “come back in May to speak about us” and insisted that he had seen enough on the green, green grass of London Colney this week to suggest that his side’s slump had ended.

“We’ve got the strength of character to win the title, believe me,” he said, thumping the table in front of him for added emphasis.

“There’s always a first time and until you win people have doubts about you, they’re questioning you but the strong ones keep going.

“I feel that since the beginning of the season we have been the most consistent team. We have lost just one game [at Middlesbrough] and I cannot believe that will not play an important part in the final part of the season.

“If we win our big games and continue to be consistent then I am sure we will finish in front of the other sides. I cannot imagine we will lose the league if we have lost only one game at the end of the season.”

Wenger has little choice but to beat the drum ahead of a match of such seismic importance — he conceded that the games between the current top three will effectively decide the fate of the title — yet he appears to be trying to convince himself as much as his doubters.

They might remain fiendishly difficult to beat, but ever since the traumatic afternoon at Birmingham City, Arsenal have looked oddly unsure of themselves.

There has been none of the zip or zest which characterised their performances in the first half of the season and even their totems are beginning to topple.

One vibrant performance in Milan notwithstanding, Cesc Fabregas has begun to look his age, hesitant on the ball and unusually slack in his passing, while Emmanuel Adebayor has scored just once in his last seven games. William Gallas has suffered a series of brain-storms ill-befitting a captain and Alexander Hleb suddenly resembles the callow, cowed figure which first arrived at the Emirates stadium in 2006.

It is no coincidence that Arsenal’s slide — or “little slow-down”, as Wenger called it — has overlapped with the absence of Tomas Rosicky, who has missed the last seven weeks due to a troublesome hamstring injury. Wenger has no natural alternative to the Czech on his left flank: Abou Diaby provides little attacking threat, while the heavily right-footed Hleb, who is likely to fill the position tomorrow, is uncomfortable in the role.

More worryingly for Wenger, Rosicky’s problem shows no sign of healing and yesterday he admitted he could not guarantee he will feature again this season.

“He is not making much progress,” he said. “The tendon of his hamstring is healing slowly. He has been out now for seven weeks and it is impossible to say when he will return. He’s just not ready.”

The suspicion lingers that Arsenal, too, are not quite ready to realise their glorious potential but Wenger — trophyless since 2005 and reluctant to see all his hopes resting on the Champions League — will not countenance such pessimism.

“There is pressure on the game,” he said. “But the mental strength we have in my squad, and the hunger that’s in there for us to do well, will come out in the final sprint.”