WENGER’S GREATEST TEST ...FOR THE MOMENT.

Arsene Wenger is, so far, having a decent season.  His team still have their beloved Champions League football, they are still in the FA Cup as it hasn’t started for the top teams yet, and also the are top of the Premier League heading into November.  Life is good if you’re an Arsenal fan.

BUT

Their game today comes on the back of two home defeats, as all the pundits are pointing out.  Big Woo!  Teams lose all the time and come back, look at United recently.  They may be struggling but are still close enough to the top for it to be less of a concern (Or are they?)  The big reason why the match today is so much bigger than in previous seasons is because Arsenal’s last defeat was a defeat by design rather than by chance.

Arsenal fielded a weakened team for the Milk/Rumblelows/Carling/Capital-One/League cup and this in turn means that the winning streak that was stopped due to Dortmund being the better side has been exacerbated by the manager himself.  Usually in the past whenever he has done this it has lead to a loss of form that then affects the rest of the performances from here on in, until they regain form later in the season but not before the traffic bump has slowed things down so much that it then becomes impossible to win a trophy.

Admittedly this is probably the first time that Wenger has had a player who is capable of turning a game on it’s head in the shape of Mesut Ozil since Henry (No offence, Cesc!) and that may well be the key today to the Arsenal conundrum that has been going on for the best part of eight years.  How do you stop your own winning streak without stopping your own winning streak?  Mesut Ozil may well be the missing piece to solving this puzzle once and for all.  

We will see.