Arsenals trophy cabinet looking bare

The Arsenal of today are a fight cry from the days of domination and the pursuit of trophies. Instead the fans are left with a team and club that are merely a poor imitation of the once glorious side.

Arsenal are without a doubt one of the most dominant sides in the history of the premier league, second only to Manchester United in the number of premiership titles won. For years it was a contest between Manchester United or Arsenal. The Arsenal of today, and the last few years are a far cry from the days of dominance.

The last trophy Arsenal won was the FA cup game, coming up on 7 years, ago when they beat Man UTD. The team on that day featured the likes of Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell and Patrick Vieira. That threesome were also part of the team in the 2003-04 season that went undefeated, not losing a game in the entire season, becoming known as the “invincibles”.

Since that last trophy, the number of top quality players that have the left club, both young and old is astounding. That in itself is not a problem, however, the caliber of the players coming as replacements has not be up to par. That is the problem.

The Arsenal of today lack the quality and the experience to win a major trophy. They may show flashes of brilliance and solid play, but over the years they have only come to deceive you in the end.

The last 10 days have shown us the good and the bad of the current Arsenal team. On one hand they are capable of putting in a performance that would leave you convinced that they are as good as anyone in the top 4, and can still compete for major hardware. Their recent performance against West Ham was seemingly a testament to that fact. In that game they were, swift, decisive and ruthless, scoring 5 goals.

But then in the next breath their performance and result against Chelsea a few days earlier was the complete reverse. In a fixture that was once a major date on the English calendar, the game now carries far less importance as Arsenal’s standing as a EPL power has dropped substantially. Chelsea came away 2-1 winners. But, at no point were Chelsea in any serious danger of losing as Arsenal where clearly out of their depth.

Arsene Wenger has lost most of his best players and wishing the return of some of them

Arsenal were thoroughly 2nd best and the result did not reflect the Chelsea dominance but rather a poor Arsenal. In that fixture they were poor, tepid, lacked confidence and overall looked nowhere near up to the challenge. More disturbingly, in their games against the other top two stalwarts Manchester City and United, Arsenal were clearly 2nd rate looking way out of their depth.

It’s a sad indictment on one of England’s powerhouses But the look of the team now and it’s non-competitive status, must be heartbreaking to Arsenal fans. Currently Arsenal sit in 6th place with the all important top 4 champions league spots up for grabs.

If they fail to get into the top 4 and not make the Champions league, it’ll be the first time in the Arsene Wenger era. And it might just be the failure they need to spur them forward.