Arsenal go back to future in Milan

It was a game and a result that might have been the catalyst for a golden era.

Four years ago after a scoreless first leg, an Arsenal team that led the Premier League went to the San Siro and sent then European Cup holders AC Milan crashing out of the Champions League, thanks to late goals from Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor. The average age of the Arsenal team that started that night was just 24. The potential seemed limitless.

“I felt it was such a great night because we stayed faithful to our game and played without complexity,” Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger recalled at the weekend. “I remember that even Milan said the better team won.’’

Sadly for Arsenal, the win at the San Siro would prove a false dawn. Only one of the next six Premier League games would be won, a dismal run that ended their hopes of title glory. Liverpool would shatter their Champions League dreams, beating the Gunners 5-3 on aggregate in the quarter-final.

Four years on, Arsenal face the same opponents at the same stage in the same competition. Much has changed. Bacary Sagna may well be the only player who started in 2008 who will figure in Wednesday night’s first leg.

Theo Walcott came on as a sub four years ago and is likely to start on Wednesday. Other than those two, the team that take the field at the San Siro will be almost unrecognisable from the one of 2008.

Domestically, things have changed too. Securing a top-four spot is the extent of Arsenal’S league ambitions now and Saturday’s 2-1 win at Sunderland, thanks to Thierry Henry’s late winner coupled with defeats for their immediate rivals, was a huge boost in that regard.

Those are the differences. The obvious similarity is the age profile of the team that played in 2008 and the likely starting side on Wednesday is remarkably similar. In 2008, it was just 24. In 2012 it is only marginally higher, at 24.1. Players who are now in or approaching their prime such as Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Mathieu Flamini — who could line up against his former employers on Wednesday, after recovering from injury — and Adebayor have been lost.

As a result, Wenger finds himself back in a similar position to that which he was in back in 2008. Too many of his team lack the experience to consistently grind out results. Players like Wojciech Szczesny, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are some way off their peaks, hardly ideal for a manager under immediate pressure from increasingly impatient fans.

Massimo Allegri, Wenger’s opposite number on Wednesday night, will be able to identify with the Frenchman. Like Wenger, he too has issues with the age profile of his side but at the opposite end of the scale. His Milan side are, just as they were in 2008, an aging one. The average age of the team that lost to Arsenal in 2008 — a side that included the 39-year-old Paolo Maldini and 34 -year-old Filippo Inzaghi — was 30, while the possible starting team on Wednesday night is only marginally younger, at 29.1.

The upshot is, although AC Milan are in contention for the scudetto — Saturday’s 2-1 win at Udinese saw them go two points clear at the top, albeit having played two games more than nearest rivals Juventus — Allegri will face a major rebuilding job before long. And unlike Wenger’s side, his players have little or no resale value. Players such as the 34-year-old Mark van Bommel and 35-year-old Clarence Seedorf are in the twilight of their careers and may struggle to cope with the mobility and pace of a young Arsenal side.

Ultimately, just as was the case in 2008, Wednesday night’s clash will be a dual between youthful exuberance and hardened experience. The personnel may have changed in four years but the challenges faced by both clubs remain fundamentally the same.

Wednesday’s game and the second leg at the Emirates on March 6 will tell us a lot about both the short-term and long-term futures of both clubs.