A different Wenger, but same old Arsenal?
You hear the word 'platform' all the time in football.
We are constantly told that this victory could be a platform for the remainder of the season, or that a clean sheet is a platform to build on.
Yet when Arsenal's players talked in such terms after May's FA Cup final victory over Hull City, who they meet again on Saturday, it was difficult not to take them seriously. After all, they had just ended a nine-year trophy drought and with the coffers swelling with cash to be lavished on new signings it seemed the sky was the limit.
“This is a platform for us,” said Jack Wilshere at the time. “We failed in the cup final against Birmingham a few years ago. No disrespect to the Carling Cup but the FA Cup means more to us as players.
“The last time I won a cup it was the FA Youth Cup but this is a bit different. It's the first one for many of us and hopefully it's a platform.”
That theme continued into pre-season, with captain Mikel Arteta stating in July that more was expected this season.
“Hopefully it's the platform we can build on, because I think this club has to be aiming for much bigger trophies and be much more consistent. And hopefully that's the road we take.”
Yet as Arsenal prepare to face Hull again, many are wondering just how much has changed.
There have certainly been improvements, with the team undoubtedly stronger than last season.
Alexis Sanchez is a superb addition, while the €20 million signing of Danny Welbeck made perfect sense. Mathieu Debuchy, before his ankle injury, was proving that he was a more than capable replacement for Bacary Sagna while David Ospina will provide Wojciech Szczesny with competition.
The revelation has been Calum Chambers, a player who insiders at Arsenal have admitted is better than they realised when they paid Southampton €20m for him.
Arsene Wenger has also got tough on his players, unleashing a verbal volley at three of them - including Alexis - for their part in Chelsea's first goal a fortnight ago. The Frenchman has tweaked his gameplan for the big matches and felt he had been let down by individuals.
It is part of a wider revolution in the manager's thinking, but as Sir Chips Keswick made extremely clear, he has the full backing of the board to do whatever he likes anyway: "If he has a plan, we back it," he said. "If he doesn't, we keep quiet."
The concern, then, is that not enough has changed. A high-class defensive midfielder should have been purchased, while going into the season with just six senior defenders always looked an extremely risky strategy.
Then there are the injuries. Twice after the draw with Tottenham Wenger said 'I don't understand' - or words to that effect - why Aaron Ramsey and Arteta had suffered injuries in that game.
Both were well-rested, neither was in the 'red zone' that they would have been at the end of last season, yet both suffered muscular injuries.
Next up was Mesut Ozil. The German's position in the team was coming under intense scrutiny due to Wenger's reluctance to play him in his preferred No.10 position – he was outstanding when selected there against Aston Villa but the manager wants him to build up his fitness on the wing – but for the next three months he will be sidelined with a knee injury.
Arsenal's record signing completed the 90 minutes in the defeat at Chelsea and left for international duty, where the injury was scanned and a diagnosis given by the German national team via Twitter, which does not reflect well on Arsenal.
Ozil's injury will at least save Wenger more headlines and questions over whether he should drop the German or switch him to a more central position, with the likelihood being that Jack Wilshere - one of the biggest positives of the campaign to date - will be given extra responsibility.
But the fact that Arsenal are once again suffering an injury crisis –
physioroom.com states their playing staff have suffered an incredible 28 separate injuries since that FA Cup victory – is cause for grave concern. Wenger has promised a thorough investigation into the causes, and Shad Forsythe was brought in over the summer, but no other club suffers as Arsenal do in this regard.
Already this season Arsenal have used 21 players in the Premier League alone, just one fewer than the Invincibles of 2003-04 required over the entire season – a statistic that will worry Wenger.
Other old failings were visible in the defeats to Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea, too. Arteta and then Flamini were over-run, with Nemanja Matic in the latter game providing an exemplary example of how the holding midfield role should be played.
It is perhaps unfair to compare the duo to Patrick Vieira and Gilberto, but their stats during the Invincible season make for interesting reading. In the 03-04 season they made nine tackles a game between them. So far this season Arteta and Flamini make 4.5.
They also created 1.49 chances per game between them, while Arteta and Flamini average 0.9.
Arteta and Flamini have higher pass completion percentages – 94% compared to 82.5% - but there is always the feeling that they are guilty of 'sterile possession', with Jose Mourinho intimating in the past he was happy to allow Arteta to have the ball as he was unable to kill Chelsea with his range of passing.
Questions are also being asked over whether Szczesny has progressed as might have been expected – his save percentage of 62.5 is the lowest in a single season so far in his career – but it is hoped Ospina's arrival will bring the best out of him.
That there is no top-class competition for Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny must also be queried, particularly when Chelsea and Manchester City added Kurt Zouma and Eliaquim Mangala to their ranks this summer.
And there's the rub: while Arsenal have improved Chelsea and City have done so to an even greater degree.
The season could well be defined by Chelsea's purchase of a player Arsenal wanted in Diego Costa and one they turned down in Cesc Fabregas.
Former Arsenal hero Fabregas has racked up as many assists as Wenger's whole team, while Costa has been ruthless in front of goal, converting 47% of his chances. The Gunners' conversion rate this season is 15% - down 2% on last season.
The ruthlessness that saw Mourinho purchase Willian from under Tottenham's noses last summer does not appear to be in Wenger's make-up. In signing Fabregas he would also have been striking Chelsea a significant blow, but he continued to put his faith in Ozil.
The AGM threw up more questions about Stan Kroenke's ownership of the club and whether he intends to run it for personal profit, but there is around €75m that could have been spent on players.
And as Arsenal have scored fewer goals and had fewer shots in their first seven games of this season compared to the final seven of 2013-14, it is clear this side is not operating at full capacity quite yet.
When they do it may well be enough to haul them past a Manchester United side rebuilding under Louis van Gaal, a Liverpool team coping with the loss of Luis Suarez, an Everton side that are struggling to hit the heights of last season and a Tottenham team that are frustratingly inconsistent.
But few would bet against them catching either Chelsea or City, particularly as they are already nine points behind the former.
And while chief executive Ivan Gazidis said on Monday that Arsenal were "off the shoulder of the world's top teams", you have to wonder whether they can catch or overtake any of those sides.
Gazidis also claimed the toughest challenge Arsenal will face is finding Wenger's long-term replacement, but of more immediate concern should be bridging the gap at the top of the table.
It is obvious that the club took a step in the right direction last season, and another step forward over the summer. But Chelsea, in particular, made a giant leap.
And as Hull roll into London again, many at the Emirates will be wondering if more could have been done to ensure they really did use the FA Cup victory as a platform for change.
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