Things get even worse for Wenger

Arsenal 2 Swansea 2

His team had done the hard part, atoning at least slightly for their 6-0 mauling at Stamford Bridge by coming from a goal down to deservedly lead Swansea.

They had shown character and, after 70 minutes of frustration, a little bit of class.

But Wenger knows football can be an evil master, and so it was in his 1001st game in charge of Arsenal as Leon Britton bundled through, and when his shot was saved by the legs of Wojciech Szczesny, it bounced off Mathieu Flamini and rolled apologetically over the line.

It could have been even worse, with referee Lee Probert astonishingly blowing the final whistle with Jonathan de Guzman clean through on goal.

Swans boss Garry Monk lamented “a very poor decision” by the referee.

“We score, so they add extra minute, so it’s five minutes’ minimum. They stress word minimum... You tell me. I don’t understand.”

But this was all about Arsenal and their ability to find new ways of damaging themselves, their season and the expectation of their fans.

They are now locked in a desperate race for fourth, with all hope of the title shelved for another year.

“We have to take this on the chin. After we got to 2-1, we were too focused on keeping the result and too conservative,” admitted Wenger.

There could be no overstating the impact Saturday’s defeat at Chelsea had on the psyche of all at Arsenal. Suddenly a season that had shown such promise was reduced to nervous glances over the shoulder rather than promises of what might have been.

Rumours spread like wildfire in the wake of his decision not to attend his customary post-match press conference on Saturday, although the accusation he snubbed the media was wide of the mark considering he briefed the Monday papers and spoke to all rights-holders.

He has since referred to the game against Chelsea as “an accident” but his programme notes perhaps gave more of a clue to his thinking.

“At the moment there’s no rational explanation other than the quality of our opponents and that we were caught at the start of the game,” he wrote.

Arsenal fans might have been forgiven for hoping there was more insight than “no rational explanation” for what a beating that has happened three times this season, and it should be pointed out that clear-the-air talks were held at Arsenal’s training ground on Sunday.

Yet their inconsistency is best summed up by the fact that going into this game Arsenal had conceded four goals in their last 13 home games — less than they did on Saturday.

A total of four points from a possible 15 against the top four shows where the weakness lies, and Wenger’s record against the best sides — for example the astonishing statistic that he has never beaten Jose Mourinho — is evidence that can be used against him.

He has had little trouble with the minnows of the Premier League, though, and Swansea came into this match in woeful form having failed to win any of their last eight games in all competitions.

So what Arsenal needed was to keep it tight and wait for their moment. What they did was allow Swansea to score a goal of devastating simplicity.

Just as Chelsea did not have to work particularly hard for any of their six goals, neither did Swansea. This one came when left-back Neil Taylor was given an age to measure a cross that found Bony, who picked out an area just inside Szczesny’s near post.

Arsenal’s supporters groaned. Alex Oxalde-Chamberlain wanted to do everything on his own, though Santi Cazorla probed intelligently. But there was no spark, no inventiveness, with Cazorla’s drive after a jinking run the closest they had come by the break.

The half-time whistle was greeted with boos and Arsenal continued to struggle in the second period.

But then Kieran Gibbs broke forward down the left an his cross was poked home by substitute Lukas Podolski.

A minute later it was two, Olivier Giroud turning home Podolski’s wonderful cross.

The Emirates let out a huge sigh of relief and prepared to airbrush events at Chelsea from their collective memories. But then Britton broke through, Flamini unwittingly played his part and Arsenal were back to square one.

ARSENAL: Szczesny 6, Sagna 6, Mertesacker 6, Vermaelen 6, Gibbs 7, Flamini 6, Arteta 5, Oxlade-Chamberlain 5 (Podolski, 57; 8), Rosicky 7 (Kallstrom, 79; 7), Cazorla 7, Giroud 6 (Sanogo, 89; 6)

SWANSEA: Vorm 6, Rangel 7, Williams 7, Chico Flores 7, Taylor 7 (Davies, 73; 6), Britton 7, Shelvey 5 (Hernandez, 79; 6), de Guzman 6, Routledge 6, Michu 6 (Dyer, 63; 6), Bony 6.

Referee: Lee Probert.