Wenger needs to hit new level

The last time Arsenal flew out of Valencia the passengers could see bursts of flame in the dark city below, where the effigies had been set alight at the end of the festival of Las Fallas.

On that March night in 2003 it also felt as if the side's ambitions were being torched after a 2-1 defeat by Valencia ended their interest in the Champions League.

As the Arsenal party took off from the same airport in the early hours yesterday the contrast was absolute. Villarreal had just been overcome. Although the performance was, at best, scrappy, Arsenal took pleasure from scrambling to the required 0-0 draw at El Madrigal.

The manager depicts this season's campaign as the fulfilment of his grand project. "It completes a work of nine years and a lot of effort," said Arsene Wenger of the landmark in his tenure. This, in many ways, is a rightful satisfaction with his labours and those of the backroom staff.

Wenger should be proud of the manner in which his faith in the teenager Cesc Fabregas has been rewarded, of his resourcefulness in identifying a right back such as Emmanuel Eboue and of the fashion in which Kolo Toure has become a leader of the team irrespective of whether Sol Campbell is in the line-up.

Even so, the manager's euphoria did get the better of him. He has not always been implementing a gradual masterplan and there have been spells when he has had to scramble and snatch at any passing solution to the problem of the moment.

Arsenal know what it is to be nonplussed on the European scene and the history of false starts cannot be ignored.

By joining the club on September 30th 1996, Wenger had the good fortune to put a few days between himself and the 6-4 aggregate defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach in the first round of the Uefa Cup.

His turn to be rueful had merely been delayed. The following year Arsenal were eliminated at the same stage of that tournament by PAOK Salonika. There was much to be done but even when he had accomplished much of it there were still faults which seemed to develop into a permanent trait in Arsenal's character under him.

They defended grudgingly and the manager preferred to reserve his funds for glossy purposes. Lauren remains the costliest acquisition of the back four, at £7.2 million, and he had actually been bought as a midfielder.

Looking back over previous campaigns Wenger comes across as a man in denial. For years he declined to make his peace with the realities that rivals accepted.

In the 2003 failure against Valencia it was a blow that David Seaman and Martin Keown were not fit, despite the fact that they were, respectively, 39 and 36 by then. The club kept on aiming to muddle through and that night Wenger had Toure at left back and Pascal Cygan at centre half.

Although he had tolerated the cost, in wages, of securing Campbell as a free agent, the attention paid to the defence was sporadic and, in return, its contribution was patchy. Last season, Arsenal shipped nine goals in eight Champions League fixtures. Not even Wenger would pretend his currently impregnable back four has been formed wholly by design.

He now claims to have dropped Jens Lehmann in December 2004 to spark a reaction, but if Manuel Almunia had controlled his nerves when handed a run in the side the German might not have been around to save Juan Roman Riquelme's penalty on Tuesday or to suffuse the defence with his presence in the last six of 10 consecutive clean sheets in Europe.

Beating Real Madrid and Juventus gave Arsenal status, but the tie with Villarreal ought to preserve their humility. Though the Highbury side have only one fixture left in the competition, there is still a long way to go before the club can confirm that they are going to be redoubtable once more on all fronts.

The 4-1-4-1 system was no longer foolproof when Villarreal were dominant and Thierry Henry waned as Fabregas failed to link with him. In addition, bad finishing from Manuel Pellegrini's strikers had as much to do with the goalless draw as Arsenal's covering.

Wenger, with the exultation ebbing, would agree that there is great scope for improvement. In all likelihood, Arsenal will have to reach a whole new level if they are to win the European Cup.