Is The Wenger losing it?

Fulham 2
(McBride 6th, Radzinski19th)

The Arse 1
(V Pussie 36th)

He transformed a team that had previously thrived on a reputation of boring their opponents to death, into one that displayed the best flowing football ever seen by these jaundiced eyes of mine - aye, better even than Cruyff's total football during the '74 World Cup.

Plucked from relative obscurity while coaching in Japan, he practised a managerial style far removed from the prevalent hair-dryer approach among his peers in English football.

In doing so, he brought forth a team that dared to throw in its challenge based on modern flowing football. And that in a league that prided itself wholly on the passion and the physical style of the teams in it.

And he succeeded, in both maintaining the challenge and in driving home the message that purity too, will have its fair share of success.

Always a proponent of the beautiful game, there were times when we wished he had a harder edge - one that would make the Arsenal team the equivalent of a Japanese katana. A thing beautiful to behold, both during quiet contemplation and also while swiping off a samurai's head.

And it looked that we were getting closer to the Holy Grail - a team that would sweep all before them, bully-boys and fottie pretenders alike, and in impeccable style.

The 49-game unbeaten run showed how close we were to getting there.

But it now looks like the structure has collapsed - in pursuing his passion for intricate detailing, in striving for near-telepathic teamplay, it seems that Arsene Wenger had took his eye away from the fundamental engineering of it all.

The heart of a team is its defence, its engine the midfield and its clout the striking force.

In fiddling and tweaking with the engine and the strike-force, in trying to meld the whole into a seamless and relentless entity, in trying to create the footballing equivalent of a tsunami on the pitch - somehow the Master Juggler lost his place and we are now witnessing the aftermath.

Losing heavyweight players who scrap, get stuck in and biting if necessary and replacing them with young men of slight build but fleety of foot. Letting go psychotic wingbacks and replacing them with tireless (and speedy) young men who think nothing of running continuously up and down the flanks in joyful attack.

And we witness now the result - a team full of running, fast and skilful and seemingly all jacked into an unseen ethereal network that coordinates teamplay. Yet vulnerable to all the hacks, the barging and the niggling underhandedness that characterise the quickness of opponents in resorting to the illicit use of brawn on the pitch.

We are fast, but we are lightweight.

In engineering terms, The Wenger has built a team from parts and components that are too few in numbers and too low in mass.

And when he has to rest his best, the equivalent of custom-built components, and send in the second-liners - the whole team does huff and puff but it never looked like it could blow anything down.

And that's what happened last night.