Ex-giants cut down to size by embarrassment of titches

Published on Saturday 12 December 2009 20:16

PERCEPTIONS SHIFT rapidly in football. As the noughties draw to a close, Rafael Benitez and Arsene Wenger are finding that the infallible aura with which Liverpool and Arsenal supporters invested their managers in the middle of the decade has given way to murmurings of dissent.

Both men, whose faltering teams will strive to break a sequence of four consecutive Premier League stalemates between them at Anfield this afternoon, retain the backing of perhaps the majority of fans. But the mantra "In Rafa/Arsene we trust" is now challenged by a restive and vocal minority at either club. The duo's transfer dealings, team selections and, crucially, dearth of trophies are increasingly questioned in a manner once unthinkable.

Liverpool have won just three of the last 14 games; Arsenal six out of 12. The contrast with the 2004-05 campaign is stark. With Benitez at the helm for the first time, Liverpool would end it by bringing the European Cup "home". Arsenal were the defending Premier League champions, having gone through the previous season unbeaten. The Kop viewed Champions League glory as a platform for regaining domestic pre-eminence while "Gooners" had every reason to assume the silverware would keep coming. Benitez and Wenger have since garnered a solitary pot apiece – in each case the sadly devalued FA Cup.

It is premature to deduce that neither will update their honours list next spring. Arsenal may be off the pace in the Premier League, but then Manchester United trailed Chelsea a year ago and still took the title. Nor have Liverpool lost touch with the Champions League places. Moreover, Manchester City's metamorphosis from paupers to princes demonstrates how fast financial well-being can be transformed.

That Liverpool have fallen behind Chelsea and Manchester United in terms of spending power is partly because of the uncertainty over the relationship and resources of American owners George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks. That, in turn, has impacted on plans for a new, money-spinning stadium. When Arsenal made just such a move, from Highbury to the Emirates, the cost inevitably depleted their funds.

Whatever the sub-plots of boardroom and balance sheet, some of the anxieties which both managers must seek to dispel today have arguably been caused by their own idiosyncrasies. Benitez, for example, was inexplicably bent on offloading Xabi Alonso, even after failing to replace him with Gareth Barry. Despite the hefty profit Liverpool made when the Basque eventually joined Real Madrid, they have sorely missed his class and authority.

In his place came Alberto Aquilani from Roma for 18 million. When he finally got fit, the manager repeatedly left him on the bench, even in a 0-0 draw at Blackburn last weekend. The Italian received his first start in the "dead rubber" against Fiorentina on Wednesday, impressing with his elegance while not remotely looking like a replacement for Alonso.

Liverpool's total of seven points from six group fixtures was their lowest in their years of Champions League participation, scuffing Benitez's vaunted reputation as a European strategist. True, there were mitigating circumstances, namely a catalogue of injuries, although Manchester United won 3-1 at Wolfsburg without 15 unfit players.

Benitez's squad remains badly short of depth, and the Spaniard can justifiably point to being constrained in the transfer market by the Gillett/Hicks situation. They cannot be blamed, though, for using two holding midfielders against the most humdrum opposition.

Arsenal, meanwhile, topped their Champions League group, won 6-1 on their previous League visit to Merseyside, at Everton, and possess a player, Andrey Arshavin, who scored four times in April's 4-4 draw at Liverpool. Reasons to be cheerful, but there is a palpable unease over the team's form and what critics regard as Wenger's blinkered approach. Their fans are proud of the array of prodigies from Africa, the Americas and even Great Britain (the 18-year-old Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey is becoming a player of rare quality, as Scotland supporters are painfully aware). Running parallel is a widespread suspicion that he is obsessed with developing young talent; that the Gunners are continually a work in progress while Chelsea and the Manchester clubs buy the finished article.

Arshavin, a rare exception in that he was a stellar performer at Euro 2008 before defecting from Russia, himself tacitly queried Wenger's methods when he urged him to sign "players ready to do it now… not more potential". His own form has veered between stunning virtuosity and sullen ineffectiveness, especially when he plays on the left and not through the centre.

At 5ft 8in, Arshavin typifies Arsenal in one respect. After they were overpowered by a bigger and stronger Chelsea, one Arsenal fans' website summed up a chastening afternoon with the inspired headline "Embarrassment of titches".

Wenger has taken the unusual step of admitting he wants a new striker, prompting speculation that he might move in January for West Ham's Carlton Cole, Dzeko of Wolfsburg or even John Carew from Aston Villa. The towering Norwegian, 30, scarcely fits the Emirates profile and would smack of the short-termism Wenger disdains. Nevertheless there comes a point where adhering to your principles is tantamount to cutting off the nose to spite the face.

Defeat today would more or less ensure that a top-four place becomes the limit of Arsenal's ambitions. Liverpool already know the feeling. Since another draw is of little use to either manager, Anfield should brace itself for another epic.