Wigan 1 Arsenal 4:IN ARSENE Wenger's mind it could be a single, perfect season. It begins in August 2007 and halts just before Arsenal reach Birmingham in February, where Eduardo da Silva has his leg horribly broken and his captain, William Gallas, spectacularly loses the plot. It resumes again in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, where five weeks ago victory in a penalty shoot-out propelled his team into the spring of 2009 as if all the frustrations of the previous 12 months had never been
It is fantasy football, but Arsenal – even an Arsenal side deprived of three key defenders and their goalkeeper – are now a team to avoid. Five successive victories have all but secured fourth place and, as they proved at Wigan, where the referee, Alan Wiley, failed to dismiss Kieran Gibbs for holding back Antonio Valencia as he attempted to put the home side two up, they are carrying some luck.
Should they overcome Villarreal in their Champions League quarter-final at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, having drawn the first leg 1-1, Wenger would back his team to beat Manchester United or Porto and create an opportunity to heal the scar of their defeat by Barcelona in the 2006 European Cup final. On Saturday, there is Chelsea barring the path to Wenger’s sixth FA Cup final.
“These games will decide our season and where we can go,” reflected Cesc Fabregas, who, once Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor went on, took control of a game that looked as if it would mirror all the disappointments of last spring. “What we have done is good but it is not enough. We want to go all the way now. We have said to ourselves that we do not want to lose another game before the end of the season.
“Some critics have tried to create a bit of a bad atmosphere around Arsenal, at least that’s what I’ve felt from the inside,” said Fabregas, although whether he was referring to the spitting incident that marred the FA Cup quarter-final victory over Hull or the biting references to Wenger’s four-year wait for a trophy was not clear. “We can answer them by winning things and that’s why the next few days are key for us. We still have a big say in the season.”
That is also fantasy football, perhaps, especially with Gallas, Manuel Almunia, Gael Clichy and now Johan Djourou unavailable for the critical phase of the campaign.
If they allow Villarreal or Chelsea to dominate the opening hour as Wigan did here, their opponents will not be likely to tire as rapidly as Steve Bruce’s men did, a weariness that allowed Fabregas and Andrey Arshavin to run free.
Villarreal and Chelsea may copy Bruce and man-mark Fabregas, but Fabregas takes that as a compliment, “because they feel I can do something”.
