Arsene’s a trophy short of true greatness

BY any measure Arsene Wenger is one of English football’s greatest managers.

He has won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups and is the undisputed champion when it comes to spotting a bargain in the transfer market.

But if he is to go down in the history books alongside the true greats such as Bob Paisley, Brian Clough, Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson then the Arsenal manager has to deliver the Champions League trophy.

He has to prove that when it really matters he can fashion a team capable of playing more than pretty football. That is why the Wenger brow will be furrowed and shoulders hunched with the weight of pressure at the Emirates Stadium tonight when Manchester United arrive with a 1-0 advantage in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final.

Lose and Arsenal head for the sun loungers after another trophy less season in which they have struggled to match the rest of English football’s big four. Win on aggregate and Wenger is off to Rome on May 27 for his second Champions League final in four seasons and a date with destiny.

There is no doubt Arsenal at their best have the fire power to upset a United side who might yet rue the chances they squandered to put the tie out of reach at Old Trafford.

But Arsenal need their big players to turn in big performances. They need Emmanuel Adebayor to emulate the deadly touch which saw him score arguably the goal of the competition so far against Villarreal.

They need Theo Walcott to give them width and penetration and prove that he is the most dynamic of English wingers, rather than go missing in the second half as he did at Old Trafford.

Most of all, they are dependent on Cesc Fabregas playing the match of his life. In any great contest there is always a pivotal moment. On the football pitch so often it is the creative thrust of a game’s most imaginative player. Too often this season Fabregas has not delivered.

Look at his contemporaries. At Liverpool Steven Gerrard has scored 13 league goals, at Chelsea Frank Lampard has knocked in 12, the same number as Wayne Rooney at Manchester United.

Fabregas has just three, albeit in a season curtailed by a knee injury which has seen him make just 19 league appearances.

The point, however, is that last season’s PFA Young Player of the Year, who also featured in the 2008 PFA Team of the Year, has fallen off the radar along with too many of his team-mates in the really big matches.

Apart from one aberration at home to Liverpool that just does not happen to United.

Ferguson’s main men are more reliable. If Cristiano Ronaldo does not deliver, then Carlos Tevez or Dimitar Berbatov or the evergreen Ryan Giggs probably will. And Ferguson can always rely on Rooney, whose work rate, increasing maturity and ability to make things happen have been the most influential features of the season.

Rooney’s consistency and the fact that Arsenal failed to plunder an away goal at Old Trafford is why United will stay on course to become the first club successfully to defend the Champions League trophy.

And leave Wenger still that vital trophy short of true greatness.