C & P
Wenger's skill in recent years has been narrowly averting disaster – failure to qualify for the Champions League – which in turn has put no pressure on the club to change anything radically. Every calamity, such as last year's frenzied summer window trading after the 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford, is patched up. In May, Arsenal finished third and it looked like a success compared to the situation nine months' previously. Even now Arsenal are only two points off fourth place, albeit 15 off the top.
Every season something slips. Take this summer's signings. A tick for Santi Cazorla, but Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski have failed to make an impact. Podolski was looked at by most of the leading European clubs and subsequently passed over. As Arsenal have found in their failed attempts to sign the likes of David Silva and Juan Mata, if a richer and/or more successful club is interested, they lose out. Wenger will not be leaving soon and certainly not before the end of the 18 months on his contract. Kroenke and Gazidis have no appetite for the attrition and pain that would cause the club. There is nothing like the critical weight of supporter feeling to force him out, in fact they sang his name at Valley Parade.
There is every chance Arsenal will beat Reading on Monday and limp on. They pull the occasional rabbit from the hat to divert the gaze from their increasing mediocrity. Defeat by Bradford was simply another marker in the road in the gradual falling of Arsenal's fortunes, not a pivotal moment from which change will spring. In fairness, a League Cup defeat should never decide a manager's future but this is a club that is very different. The more life becomes difficult for Arsenal, the closer they stick to their guns and for some that is a quality to be admired. Yet every bad day brings with it further examination of Arsenal's financial approach. There is no question they pride themselves on the fact that they will sail through Uefa's financial fair play regulations for the first monitoring period that ends in May. Their last accounts posted a £36.6m profit, but that was boosted by player sales. The football operation made a loss. The wages bill was £143m, £50m more than Spurs. Ticket prices, as every Arsenal fan knows, are the most expensive in the league.
The tales of Arsenal's increasing parsimony are legendary. At one point, a visitor to the training ground who asked for a television screen to be switched on to a live match was told the club did not have the channel. The local provider had quoted Arsenal the higher rate paid by pubs and restaurants and the club refused to pay it. 