Wenger fooling nobody but himself

ARSENE WENGER is a rarity in that he is a football manager whose name is sometimes used in the lexicon of another sport, namely golf.

His name doubles as the tee shot you hit whose destiny everyone else tracks without mishap but is somehow missed by the one who hit it (Dennis Wise is also part of golfing slang, although he is a putt – a nasty five-footer).

The Frenchman has long been famous for claiming he never saw controversial incidents involving his players but now, it seems, it’s those he actually does admit to witnessing that are taking the breath away.

Wenger’s take on his side’s 3-0 loss to Chelsea was that his side had not been over-powered physically and that Didier Drogba, who scored the first and second, “doesn’t do a lot”.

Doesn’t do a lot? This man terrorises defences all over the globe and has scored 10 goals in his last 11 games against the Gunners. If Wenger is honest with himself he will concede that it was his own attack that under-performed yesterday.

Shorn of Robin van Persie through long-term injury, the combination of Eduardo and Samir Nasri just could not cut it against John Terry and co, although the Chelsea back-line was put under pressure.

Wenger moaned that the referee had made a big mistake by ruling out a goal early in the second half by Andrey Arshavin, the individual who gave Chelsea’s defence the most problems on the day.

The official in question, Andre Marriner, ruled Eduardo had kicked the ball out of goalkeeper Petr Cech’s hands but Wenger was adamant a Chelsea defender had got there first.

Inadvertently, however, he had summed up the problem with the Croat’s performance – too often he had been that split-second too slow and you cannot afford that against Chelsea.

Eduardo was replaced by Carlos Vela, who might also have been hard done by when Branislav Ivanovic slid in on him on the edge of the box but overall it was a day to forget for attackers in red and white, especially Theo Walcott, who came on for defensive midfielder Alex Song at half-time and hardly got a kick. And those kicks he did have were woeful.

He will be hoping Fabio Capello’s steely gaze was elsewhere in a week when Wenger lost his cool over the winger’s prospects of starring for England in next summer’s World Cup finals. It must be said, however, that despite traipsing in to the dressing room after a 3-0 home defeat, Arsenal had not actually played badly. It was just that Chelsea had been better, and in every department.

Wenger oddly reckoned Drogba had been lucky when his touch from Ashley Cole’s cross took the ball over Manuel Almunia and in off the woodwork, though he conceded his free-kick second had been expertly executed.

But the forward had also been busy in defence, especially at set-pieces, on a day when Arsenal simply could not turn possession and intention into anything clear-cut in terms of chances.

The home fans had delighted in abusing Ashley Cole and the former Highbury favourite encouraged that early on with a few wayward passes. But the first two goals came from his crosses and on both occasions it was the man who travelled in the opposite direction when his controversial transfer was concluded who was at fault.

“Gallas what’s the score?” taunted the away fans and Wenger will see from his DVD player that William Gallas, the centre-back who wears the number 10 shirt, was indeed twice culpable, having lost Drogba for the first and then completely missed the cross for the second, which saw Thomas Vermaelen’s knee unluckily divert the ball past Almunia, who had decided to come for it but never arrived.

Moments like that end up deciding championships and on no occasion did the Chelsea defence wilt under similar pressure, with the possible exception of the Arshavin ‘goal’.

Wenger was adamant afterwards that his DVD player would also prove critics wrong who, inevitably, will claim his side was not up to the physical challenge posed by Chelsea. He did concede that the chances of his team winning the title were receding quickly.

Surely not even Arsene Wenger could claim that was anything more than a remote possibility. Not a bit of it.

“I don’t think it is all over,” he said. “We are fighters and we will show that in our next game. The problem is that people do not believe in us.”

Not quite, Arsene. It’s you they don’t believe any more.