‘WENGER MUST BE SEETHING'

Arsenal are having another outstanding season. One defeat in 21 games, top of the Premiership, still in the FA Cup and an excellent chance of reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League this week. The Treble remains a possibility. Privately, however, I suspect Arsène Wenger is seething rather than glowing. Forget two points clear, Arsenal should be 10. They should also be already in the Cup semi-finals and the last eight in Europe. So talented are they, they probably could have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup last week.

Something is missing. Last week saw them fail to close out games against Chelsea and Roma, which would have averted some hard labour over the next 10 days. A bit of the resilience that characterised the George Graham era would not have gone amiss. None, supporter or neutral, would surely swap the exhilaration of the Wenger era for Graham's end of empire. When they have shifted up through the gears this season, at Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester City and above all in Rome, Arsenal have looked an object of awe and beauty; Real Madrid in embryo. None more so than Thierry Henry, currently a hot favourite to win player and footballer of the year. Athletic, balletic, he has embodied the attacking prowess of Wenger's side, his lithe running on the left flank a modern phenomenon. Eat your heart out, poor Perry Groves.

Could it be, though, that Henry is part of a problem at Highbury? Too frequently, especially of late, Arsenal have appeared to become almost bored with their superiority. Personified perhaps in Henry, there is an hauteur to accompany a longueur. This game can be too easy for such outrageous gifts. Why score an artisan's goal when the aesthete's within your powers? Henry is a scorer of great goals but also a misser of great chances. Wenger seems to have recognised it himself by giving more starting appearances to Francis Jeffers, a man grateful for what they call in ice hockey the garbage goal.