Is Wenger’s time up?

On Sunday, Pep Guardiola won the Carabao Cup, the first trophy of “his Manchester City years”, said Daniel Taylor in The Guardian. It’s likely to be the “first of many”. Arsenal, by contrast, were appearing in what must surely be their last final under Arsène Wenger. Their 3-0 loss was “a stark reminder” of how far they have fallen behind the elite. “Weak and vapid”, they are now 27 points behind City in the Premier League and ten points adrift of the top four; they have already been knocked out of the FA Cup by Nottingham Forest, a Championship side. This is “the worst Arsenal team of Wenger’s reign”, said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. The likes of Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka just aren’t good enough to wear an Arsenal jersey. Yet despite his players’ chronic underperformance, the manager remains bafflingly loyal to them.

When Wenger arrived at Arsenal, 21 years ago, he “disrupted” English football, said Matthew Syed in The Times – just as Guardiola is doing today. Wenger was responsible for key “reforms in nutrition, training and sports science”. But eventually, clubs came to mimic his ideas; “some built on them”. And it’s now clear, 14 years after his last league title, that Wenger was “outflanked” a long time ago. His legacy as a great manager remains secure. But while Guardiola is “on the bow wave of innovation”, Wenger finds himself “clinging to the stern”.