Arsenal’s limitations in defence have been exposed at times this season, with players talking about a title charge next year, it could be their undoing againn if the problem is ignored.
Only when the Premier League season is over will we know just how harmful Arsenal’s recent defeats to QPR and Wigan have been.
It may turn out they don’t matter one jot, in which case supporters can rest up and banish them from their memories, but the opposite is almost unthinkable.
Should they end up blowing their lead and finishing outside the top four, both games will be seen as the moments their rivals were allowed back into the race.
Their match against Chelsea will be far more telling this weekend, or will it?
If Arsenal win, which they are more than capable of doing given how they dismantled the Blues 5-3 at the Bridge early this season, it won’t really tell us much.
It will confirm that the club can get their best performances going when they are under pressure, as their 5-2 win over Tottenham showed.
They don’t always, there have been too many times when they have crumbled under pressure over the past few seasons, in fact it has been a strong criticism of Arsenal’s squad, but the facts remain that Arsenal seem incapable of doing anything the easy way.
Their Champions League tie against Milan showed that, even a stunning home performance is never going to be enough when you give the opposition a 4-0 headstart.
So Arsenal may make a big play in the race for European qualification by defeating Chelsea this weekend, but we have learned far more about the club in the past fortnight than we will learn on Saturday.
For all the bolshy talk from characters like Thomas Vermaelen and Wojciech Szczesny about a 2012/13 title charge, this group of players have shown they are not yet ready for such a challenge without reinforcements.
Nine wins in 11 is a great record, but losing to two relegation battlers is not, and throws question marks over the side’s concentration and attitude.
If this is not corrected ahead of next season, then Wenger’s men may well fall short once again.
More than anything, the last two defeats have shown the squad is still developing. Promising players like Aaron Ramsey are still finding their feet, while Andre Santos is yet to settle into Premier League football.
Another season, and both will no doubt have improved. Arsenal would love a step up similar to Laurent Koscielny’s jump from his first to his second season.
Wenger will strengthen his squad this summer, but he cannot ignore his blind spots as he has done so in the past with regard to goalkeepers.
The squad was caught napping in January when Gibbs, Sagna and Santos were all injured, and there has been no sign of this being addressed.
There is talk of Podolski, M’Vila, and Vertonghen arriving in the summer, and many others, but no full-backs.
Those three would no doubt strengthen the club and boost their title chances, but if Wenger does not pin point and correct the problem that proved their downfall earlier in 2012, then he risks it happening again.
Gibbs remains injury-prone, Santos an unproven quantity in this league, and whether Jenkinson can effectively cover Sagna at right-back for a sustained period is still questionable. They can’t afford to have Johan Djourou playing there again that’s for sure.
The incoming player does not necessarily have to be a multi-million pound world-beater, but a reliable and dependable full-back who can play both flanks.
Who, that’s not for me to say, but it should be up to Arsene Wenger and his scouting department to work out.
image: © Ronnie Macdonal
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