West Ham United - 0 Arsenal - 0: Arsene Wenger coated the result with nostalgia but it was still difficult to swallow. He reminded everyone that Arsenal had shared the points at Upton Park before hogging the Premiership and the FA Cup in the Double years of 1998 and 2002. "We have had great seasons when we drew here with a weaker West Ham team than the one I saw today," he said.
The comments felt sentimental rather than inspiring. Arsenal, who deserved no more than a point on Saturday, will have to summon up real pugnacity if they are to dispel the air of fatalism about their prospects of recapturing the title. Still, there are enough clubs in a similar plight to form a select support group.
Wenger and Alex Ferguson should let go of each other's throat and sob on each other's shoulder instead.
Arsenal's return of 10 points from six games is as poor a start as the Frenchman has known since he took up the post at Highbury.
Ferguson, who had come dangerously close to stating that Manchester United could not afford to lose a game, has Saturday's home defeat by Blackburn to haunt him.
Rafael Benitez might draw up a chair at a little gathering of elite melancholics. Despite winning the Champions League and seeding the Anfield squad with several of his own men, they have seven points after five matches, just as they had a year ago when they ultimately finished fifth in the Premiership.
Teams are cracking up under the strain of meeting the standards they feel they must set to compete with Chelsea. As the Stamford Bridge side reels off victories, the form of rivals may even deteriorate because of the panic-ridden nature of their attempts to keep pace.
West Ham stand fourth after a disciplined, high-tempo display which might have brought a victory if a penalty had been awarded for a Nigel Reo-Coker drive which rebounded from the raised arms of Cesc Fabregas or if Bobby Zamora had not headed a late chance wide. Alan Pardew's side were at their best, however, in defence, where a tenacious Paul Konchesky virtually shut one wing off to Arsenal.
The visitors did disturbingly little about it. With Thierry Henry and Robert Pires injured, the options are few in a squad which was not reinforced sufficiently in the summer once Wenger had missed principal targets such as Julio Baptista, who went to Real Madrid instead.
His small resources are now diminishing further, even if Pires is close to a recovery Gilberto Silva, Arsenal's best player against West Ham, left Upton Park on crutches after injuring an ankle and Wenger gives Dennis Bergkamp, who has a back problem, only a two per cent chance of facing Ajax in Amsterdam tomorrow.
With Fabregas suppressed by Reo-Coker and Freddie Ljungberg catching the eye for miscontrolling a pass which should have sent him clear, Arsenal's sole midfield creativity on Saturday flowed from the adroit Alexander Hleb and few chances were devised.
Wenger was exasperated by the assumption that Jose Mourinho's men have all but retained the title already. "Stop the championship, give them the trophy and start again," he said sarcastically.
Unfortunately it sounded like the best plan Arsenal had come up with all day.
Guardian Service
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)