Unai Emery’s tenth consecutive Arsenal win shows Arsene Wenger was past it and he should consider retiring permanently
As the new Gunners boss hails a 3-1 comeback win over Leicester at a buoyant Emirates, SunSport's Mark Irwin questions if legend Wenger should return to the game
IT WAS six months ago this week that Arsene Wenger finally confirmed that he would be leaving Arsenal.
The Frenchman announced that he planned to enjoy a couple of months holiday before taking on a new managerial challenge.
But that is not the way things have worked out because the sort of offers he was expecting to receive clearly haven’t materialised.
And as he celebrated his 69th birthday last night, he must have been wondering if football has finally called time on his managerial career.
Arsenal have already moved on without him. Now it seems the rest of the game has also written him off.
Real Madrid, Paris St.Germain and Bayern Munich appointed new coaches in the summer without even considering the man they were all once desperate to appoint.
Now Madrid are in the market again for a top boss as they prepare to pull the trigger on Julen Lopetegui.
Yet Wenger’s name is once again conspicuously absent from the list of potential replacements.
Former club Monaco have turned to Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira has been appointed by Nice without Wenger even meriting a mention.
He briefly had eyes on the French national job, but that door was slammed in his face when Didier Deschamps lifted the World Cup in the summer.
And though there were rumours last week that PSG are considering Wenger as director of football, that is a role which the veteran Frenchman famously dismissed during his time at Arsenal.
Now it is beginning to look more and more as though he will have to rely on offers from such football outposts as China or the Middle East if he is going to avoid being consigned to history.
The fact that Arsenal have marched seamlessly forward under Unai Emery has not exactly helped Wenger’s employment prospects.
It is 11 years since they last won ten games in a row and almost as long since they seriously challenged for the Premier League title.
Yet here they are, just two points behind leaders Manchester City and with their giddy fans chanting “We’ve got our Arsenal back.”
But Emery knows there is still so much more hard work required before this team can be considered realistic title contenders.
The ease with which this evening’s visitors found their way through Arsenal’s back four was a real eye-opener for the Spanish perfectionist.
Their high defensive line was always going to be asking for trouble against Leicester speed merchants Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho.
Every Leicester free-kick into the mixer caused panic in the Arsenal ranks and how referee Chris Kavanagh missed Rob Holding’s blatant handball in his own area is anyone’s guess.
It was even more of a mystery how Arsenal were able to go into the half-time break still on level terms after being comprehensively outplayed for the first 45 minutes.
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But Mesut Ozil’s sublime equaliser on the stroke of the interval and his passes for Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s second-half goals were worth the Emirates admission price alone.
The £350,000-a-week playmaker is finally starting to justify that eye-watering pay packet after a timely boot up the backside from Emery.
He was wearing the captain’s armband for the first time last night and revelled in the responsibility to lead the late fightback.
Wenger was often accused of indulging Ozil and allowing him to get away with going through the motions.
But Emery is a tougher task-master and has discovered a way to get a regular tune out of his most gifted player.
And every five-star performance from Ozil simply adds to the suspicion that Wenger’s methods are no longer suited to the modern game.