Wenger’s revolution gone wrong

It’s more than 12 years since Arsenal last won the Premier League title. On the 20th anniversary of Arsene Wenger’s appointment, Adam Bate looks at how the Frenchman’s revolution went wrong.

It was after Granit Xhaka’s second start for Arsenal that Arsene Wenger compared him to Emmanuel Petit. “He has a good engine, good stature, he is good in the air and has a good balance in his game,” said Wenger. “He is a bit similar to Petit in the way he plays football.”

Cue the exasperation. It’s not that Wenger is wrong. Xhaka is a physical presence in midfield and a left footer to boot. That upright stance is indeed reminiscent of the old ponytailed favourite. It’s more that supporters had long realised this had been missing from the team.

Such players had been a feature of Arsenal’s years at the apex of English football under Wenger. The pairing of Petit and Patrick Vieira had propelled the side to the first of his titles in 1998. Two more followed after Petit was replaced by the Brazilian Gilberto Silva.

This was an Arsenal that fused the mean streak of the George Graham years – the Gunners picked up more red cards than any other Premier League team between 1996 and 2006 – with a silky smooth style of play that had been hitherto unseen in English football.

It was a blueprint for success. A blueprint Wenger abandoned. “He identified it as soon as he came,” Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “Patrick Vieira was one of his first signings. His first summer he brought in Emmanuel Petit. I don’t understand why he went away from it.”

Unlike Petit, Vieira was not replaced. In fact, the only midfield arrival in the summer that he departed was Alexander Hleb. Instead, youngsters Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini – two very different midfielders – were given the freedom to develop. Arsenal changed.

Working out the reasoning behind that is a tricky one to decipher. It’s been much debated among Arsenal supporters and everyone else. A myriad of factors were at play. Certainly, Wenger has argued that the stadium move, and the funding required to facilitate it, limited his options.

But it’s also impossible to ignore the context in which he reshaped the Arsenal midfield. The emergence of Xavi Hernandez …

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