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After their 4-0 humiliation by AC Milan on Wednesday, Arsène Wenger took the unprecedented step of openly criticising his players. The Frenchman, who in the past has usually resorted to smokescreens to detract from his own side's shortcomings, offered no such refuge to his charges at San Siro.

"It was one of those nights you never forget," said Wenger, whose side are now 26.0 to pull off a miracle in the return leg against the Italian champions. "It was our worst performance in Europe by far. We were punished and deservedly so. I felt we were never in the game. We were very poor offensively and defensively. It was shocking to see how we were beaten everywhere. There was not one moment in the 90 minutes when we were really in the game. The result is a disaster."

It was refreshing to hear such honesty from a man whose footballing philosophy has earned the respect of many, but whose disingenuous post-match appraisals in defeat have often subjected him to ridicule. It was also a veiled attempt to jolt his players into reacting in the right way in their next game against Sunderland. But it failed, and after a supine 2-0 FA Cup surrender on Wearside, Wenger reverted to type, defending his underwhelming players instead of criticising a dispirited display. Roy Keane described "the worst Arsenal team I have seen since I've been watching football."

Wenger said: "I think it was a committed performance, we gave everything we had left but three big games in one week were too much." He then laid claim to a "100% penalty" on Robin van Persie, which at best was a 50/50 call. After briefly poking his head above the parapet, the Gunners boss was back in the bunker again, attempting to cobble together some sort of siege mentality from his shell-shocked troops.

"We have to stand united and fight the critics," he added. "We have to focus on the next game, on finishing well in the league and fight for the small possibility of staying in the Champions League." The Arsenal manager's reaction is understandable, really, as, having tried and failed to adopt the stick approach, he has decided that any more such public beatings will risk completely destroying the remnants of his side's fragile mental fabric.

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, the Gunners had just beaten Barcelona in the Champions League round of 16 first leg, lay second in the Premier League, were through to the League Cup final and going strong in the FA Cup. Twelve months on they are out of contention for silverware for a seventh season running, are 2.6 to hold on to fourth place http://sports.betfair.com/?mi=102873654&ex=1&origin=MRL&rfr=3013 and represent a pale imitation of their former selves.

The banners around Highbury used to read "Arsène Knows" but now Le Professeur is losing his way in a modern footballing landscape dictated by whichever owner has the most Russian gas reserves or largest Qatari oil fields. Wenger is trying to take on the Ferraris with his Renault Mégane and unsurprisingly is coming off second best.

Arsenal's campaign has also been constantly undermined by crippling injuries to key players and we can only speculate as to how the season might have gone had Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere, Bacary Sagna, André Santos, Abou Diaby and Kieran Gibbs not spent so long on the sidelines. Laurent Koscielny - one of the Gunners' few shining lights this season - limped off against AC Milan and was joined in the casualty ward on Saturday by Francis Coquelin, Aaron Ramsey and Sébastien Squillaci.

Wenger, however, must take responsibility for his failure to act in the transfer market. The panic buys of late August represented a knee-jerk reaction to their 8-2 humiliation by Manchester United and the players recruited are downgrades on the departed Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. Not paying City rates is one thing, replacing Fabregas and Nasri with the likes of Yossi Benayoun and Park chu-Young is quite another. Le Professeur needed to buy a solid centre-back, a commanding central midfielder and a quality striker and had all summer to do so. Instead, in came the lumbering Per Mertesacker, the steady but not exceptional Mikel Arteta, and the peripheral Benayoun and Park chu-Young at the 11th hour.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is another promising young signing, but Arsenal's failure to buy established players of quality has stunted their progress. The likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain need to be shown the ropes by experienced commanders. Arsenal have none. And to make matters worse there is a noisy neighbour in town.

Admittedly, Tottenham have also thrown millions at their project and Arsenal are operating in a different economic reality to their north London rivals, whose next concern is how the hell to hold on to Robin van Persie, but the fact that one of Spurs' star performers this season is a midfielder Arsenal could have snapped up for £5.5m is symptomatic of the Gunners' shortcomings in the transfer market.

Where once they blazed a trail, now they just trail. Now, it seems, all Arsène knows is that he must stubbornly back an average side that only lie fourth due to the pig's ear Andre Villas-Boas has made out of Chelsea's campaign. For this beleaguered Arsenal side, the north London derby next weekend could not possibly come at a worse time.

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