Numerous issues for Wenger to address

Arsene Wenger set the agenda before kick-off when he described the significance of this game to both teams.

“I think they [Manchester City] are in a situation where a draw will not be good enough, and we are in the same situation,” said the Arsenal manager.

By those terms of reference, then Arsenal were not good enough. It was a point even Wenger accepted as he uncharacteristically passed up the chance to direct his frustration on the match officials. Instead he accepted Laurent Koscielny’s early red card let them down and focused on the shortcomings of his players.

Even more disturbing for Wenger was the alarming margin by which his side weren’t good enough. Disguise the colour of the kits and the venue and this could have been a top team playing any one of the Premier Leagues also-rans, an accurate, if painful, description of Arsenal’s standing this season.

If empirical evidence is required, a return of 34 points from 21 games is the lowest recorded since Wenger took charge. Little wonder this feels like a pivotal season at the club.

Contrasting periods of despair and optimism have become a common feature of recent campaigns at the Emirates as Wenger has overseen the transformation of a squad that once traded under the name of the Invincibles but are now anything but. This time, however, the turbulence has been greater, the dissent more audible and here, over 90 minutes, it was easy to see why.

Disjointed, incoherent and lacking in discipline — shockingly, in the case of Koscielny — Wenger’s side offered little to suggest they are capable of closing the six-point gap between themselves and Tottenham in fourth place. They have recovered bigger margins before, not least last season when they lay 10 points behind Spurs going into the north London derby in late February yet, inspired by Robin van Persie, they still managed to overhaul their near neighbours.

This year there is no Van Persie to make the difference and no sign that Wenger is any closer to filling the gap created by the forward’s painful departure for Manchester United.

The manager yesterday pointed the finger at the other end of his side. “We started too timid, with not enough authority in a game like that, and allowed them to dictate,” he said.

“We paid very early from that. We didn’t start with enough confidence or authority. You have to dictate your personality, especially defensively.”

Yet while a moment of brilliance from Van Persie might have disguised a similarly flawed display, this year there is no goalscoring talisman to intervene. Theo Walcott has offered flickers of excitement since being moved into the central striker role but yesterday had precious little impact. Nor did Olivier Giroud, the forward brought in from Montpellier last summer but who now appears consigned to the bench after a stuttering start in England.

It is clear the manager needs to strengthen and while Wenger maintains he is looking, his renowned reluctance to get involved in the January transfer window — any transfer window, in fact — means no one will be surprised if there are no new arrivals.

“I don’t want to talk specifically about names,” he said. “We have a team around me who analyse everything. We select targets, I watch them... but it’s difficult to speak about any name.”

But names are needed if Arsenal’s season is to be revived. Wenger’s model of spotting talent early and developing it to produce a Thierry Henry or Patrick Vieira now appears flawed with the squad fundamentally weakened year on year as the club’s world class players — Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas amongst them — have left to be replaced with inferior versions.

“We are in there. Of course we are,” said Wenger when asked about the battle for a top four spot. “I feel we need to find in this kind of game more defensive stability.” That is only one of issues Wenger must address.