It is the competitive edge which he once produced with such casual elegance of mind and action that he might have been meeting a challenge no greater than turning the page of his morning newspaper. This is not the picture we have now. It is of a man driven into a most discouraging corner, one who has just lost in Cesc Fabregas one great protégé to Barcelona and understands that another, Samir Nasri, is preparing to leave with much unfinished business at the ground where he was so quickly celebrated.
Like every other manager at every level of the game, Wenger no doubt is buoyed by recurring hope, in his case that Jack Wilshere will justify the belief that he is the English player of his generation by some distance, that the mantle of Fabregas will be worn without a flicker of self-doubt and that Aaron Ramsey will be another proven example of an unrivalled flair for identifying exceptional talent. Maybe Gervinho's skill will quickly dismiss the memory of his catastrophic misjudgement at St James' Park and perhaps, like a besieged conjuror, Wenger will at the last moment produce a white rabbit with some propensity to defend.
Still, it is idle to ignore the odds building against Wenger's ability to maintain any sense that Arsenal remain one of the more serious forces at the top of English and European football. Increasingly voluble voices say that Wenger has been encouraged to buy by the board but that he continues to sit in the face of a menacing tide.
Certainly, there were reasons for concern this week when the great prize of Champions League revenue, so long such a seamless source of major income, was put under threat by Udinese - and at the end of the game was protected by someone as raw as young Carl Jenkinson.
Wenger's achievements scarcely need listing. But none removes him from the obligation that sooner or later confronts the greatest of football managers. It is the need not only to win but also to make an indisputable case for such a possibility.
Rightly, Chelsea were castigated for their treatment of Carlo Ancelotti, sent on his way a season after winning the Double. But sooner or later, the tyranny of results exerts itself. For Wenger, six years after his last trophy, it is only now knocking lightly on his door.
This may outrage his admirers but it hardly offends a truth that in football cannot be ultimately denied. Sooner or later all the great managers are required to show their teams are moving forward. When they cannot do this, they are reminded that the greatest achievements in football have never proofed a man against the possibility of being asked to walk away.
In so many ways it is unthinkable this might be Wenger's fate. Even in defeat, his team still offers haunting promise. Even in defeat, the dream persists that one day his football will be triumphant again, as it was when Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira were in their pomp.
Wenger could do anything then, of course. He could make beautiful, winning football - he could ransack the world for the best of its young talent. But that was before the conspiracy, the one football always has up its sleeve - and from which no one will ever be exempt.
- INDEPENDENT
