Arsenal receive blank reality check

THE man with the red shirt and the puce face was in no doubt. “It’s like George bloody Graham’s back in charge,’’ he bellowed, before stomping out of the Emirates, his cry scarcely audible over the cat-calls that greeted this result.

Actually, he was being unfair. As Highbury’s North Bank delighted in pointing out, at least Graham’s sides usually scored one. In contrast, Arsene Wenger’s class of 2009 can only dream of prompting chants of “1-0 to the Arsenal’’, in the Premier League at least.

Statistics might sometimes be a step down from damn lies, but here they say more than purple prose ever could. Arsenal have now registered four consecutive goalless league draws for the first time since October 1993 and have not scored more than once in a league game since 17 January. They are functional, without the fun, and their season reads like a binary code. Dark times, indeed.