Arrogant Wenger has lost the plot

London - It's a hard question, especially if you believe that even if Arsene Wenger never wins another trophy, he will remain unassailably one of the great benefactors of English football. But there is simply no way around it. You just have to wonder whether the Arsenal manager has lost it. His hold on reality, that is.

At a rather dismaying rate, the accumulating evidence suggests that indeed he has.

Consider again, for starters, his delusional reaction to a third consecutive undressing of his team by an outfit at the serious end of the title race, and the second time Chelsea have done it with a killing instinct bordering on contempt.

"We had mountains of possession," announced Wenger. "We were not running after the ball for 90 minutes. We were not in a position where we were dominated. We were always in an attacking position. I'm completely happy with the performance and the spirit. When we got into it, we were completely dominant."

Unfortunately, when Arsenal did get into it, there really wasn't a whole lot to get into, other than fresh evidence that beautiful football without a cutting edge is like most other forms of foreplay. It needs, well, a result.

As currently constructed in the critical absence of Robin van Persie, it seems as if against the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, Arsenal might experience difficulty scoring in a dodgy massage parlour.

A harsh point, maybe, but inevitable when you consider that in 180 minutes of utterly pivotal action against Chelsea, they have failed to find the net while conceding five goals.

Though it is true Arsenal suffered a harsh fate at Old Trafford early in the season, the fact is that they were not so much beaten as eviscerated by United just a week before this latest evidence that, when the heat is on, the gossamer touch of the Gunners simply goes up in smoke.

Yes, it is true Arsenal threaded their way towards Petr Cech's goal for most of the way. But it was tortuous work.

Long before the end of the transfer window, it was clear that the admirable Andrei Arshavin was wilting under the pressure of trying to lead the attack. He is a brilliant football artist but, when Van Persie was struck down, even those on a much lower plane of football intellect than Wenger could trumpet the wisdom that Arsenal needed a bigger horse than even the most gifted of Shetland ponies.

Talking of intellect, the most telling indictment against Wenger is maybe that in his current situation, he has carried rather too much of the arrogance that often accompanies it. He says he had the money to make a vital signing up front, but not the instinct.

Why not? We have to guess that it was because it might have offended his own sense of omnipotence, his belief that, one way or another, he had built the resources to deal with any situation.

Heaven knows, it is a beguiling idea. Imagine the anointing of Wenger that would have inevitably followed some freakish achievement by Arshavin, some consistent reproduction of the brilliance which confounded Liverpool at Anfield recently.

Yet on Sunday, Arshavin might have been a mere charm on a bracelet worn by Didier Drogba. The decisive power and judgement of the Chelsea striker, admittedly now pretty much in a class of his own as a pure finisher, settled the match and, let's be honest, the debate centering on Wenger's resolution to do it entirely his way.

He has tried to do this for some years and anyone who loves the artistry of the game is in his debt. But if the old gridiron legend Vince Lombardi was wrong to say that winning is the only thing that matters, it will always be the central purpose of any competitive sport.

Playing prettily, as Arsenal did on Sunday for so much of the time, without the serious expectation of a decisive end-product, is at the finish an exercise in futility.

Down the years, the fans of Arsenal have had plenty of reasons to believe they have inherited the football world - the beauty of Thierry Henry, the titles, the unbeaten season - but then you get used to such a banquet. It shapes your appetite. It creates a certain hunger.

Wenger has to recognise some time soon that it is one that needs to be appeased. You cannot do it with a team that has become a tease. - The Independent