Arsenal need to follow the United way

ONE game shouldn’t make or break a season, let alone a three minute spell when everything seems to collapse around you.

But Arsenal’s capitulation, as sudden as it was shocking, in the Emirates on Tuesday night, does leave Arsene Wenger facing what looks like the biggest managerial test of his career.

Four seasons without a trophy is bad enough; five would leave the North London faithful seriously wondering, perhaps for the first time, if the can prevent the Big Four from become a Big Three.

Lost in all the recriminations is the fact the Gunners began with real fire in their bellies against Manchester United but that little inferno was comprehensively doused inside 11 minutes by two goals which, in truth, owed as much to defensive frailties as they did to the opposition’s attacking prowess.

More worrying for Gooners was the team’s abject failure to mount any kind of sustained fight back after that, even if little more than pride might have been at stake. Already broken in spirit, they were then cruelly dissected for United’s third goal, a thing of devastating beauty which saw the home side well and truly beaten.

That Wenger’s team still have the capacity to thrill and inspire in a similar manner is beyond dispute, even if such attributes were conspicuous by their absence, not only at the Emirates but also in the first leg at Old Trafford.

At this stage, it feels like an observation far older than the youngest Gunners, but Arsenal really do lack authority figures on the park. The precociously brilliant Cesc Fabregas has carried the lonely burden of leadership for too long, and the absence of a technically gifted scrapper like Mathieu Flamini – never mind the Vieira of yesteryear – was never more keenly felt than over the course of this Champions League semi-final.

Indeed, the spine of this Arsenal side, especially when assailed by injury, is alarmingly brittle, which is why most observers agree that Wenger badly needs to recruit some battle-hardened experience in the form of a centre-half and midfielder in the close season. Possibly a striker too, even though Emmanuel Adebayor has pledged his troth to the club.

But then, that may not exactly be the news the Arsenal faithful need to hear most, given that his no-show over both legs of the semi against United has earned him the wrath of the fans. Still, they will hardly disagree with the disenchanted tone of the player’s own candid analysis of where the club finds itself after this latest and perhaps most crushing of all blows.

“I think we have taken a step backwards – not only me but the team,” he says. “We need some players. We had (Alexander) Hleb gone to Barcelona , Flamini gone to Milan and it was quite difficult to play. The team is quite young and we have tried to make the best of everything. Don’t forget I was injured three times this season. Those things make it quite difficult for me. But we have a good squad. We are learning things and are all young and we just want to achieve things. As soon as we have the chance to win the first trophy, I think many will follow.”

That upbeat conclusion is not entirely based on wishful thinking either. For certain, Wenger needs to go to the market to strengthen his squad but in Andrei Arshavin, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, Manuel Almunia and, if he can find his mojo again, Adebayor himself, Arsenal have a nucleus of exceptional talent around which the breakthrough at home and abroad can be made.

But that’s for future. The present is all about Manchester United, as Adebayor acknowledges.

“They are champions at the moment and the best team in Europe,” he says. “They won it last season and this season they are in the final. I don’t think anyone can stop them.”

It will hardly come as much consolation to the vanquished but the victorious have established a precedent for bringing the best out of youth, according to Wayne Rooney.

“I think the team is a lot better that when I joined,” he said. “When I first joined I was 18, Cristiano (Ronaldo) was 18/19, Fletch (Darren Fletcher) was 20. We had lot of young players but over the last few years we’ve got the experience that’s helped the team to progress. I think once (Roman) Abramovich went into Chelsea and all that money was pumped into them and they won the first two leagues it looked hard to beat them but thankfully we stopped them from winning the league for a third year running and from there we’ve kicked on.”

Boys to men; strength in adversity; matching youth with experience; deriving inspiration from a challenge – the Manchester United template is there for Arsenal to see and try to emulate, if they can. But soft, United have actually won nothing yet (well, apart from the Carling Cup and, er, the world title). History might beckon at home and abroad for Alex Ferguson’s men but they have still to make it happen before today’s garlands of praise are converted into precious metal.