The main objective of any manager is to get the best from the panel of players at his disposal. This panel may not be the biggest in the world and may be diminished somewhat due to injuries or lack of form. At the business end of the season a manager shows his worth by getting the maximum from the squad available to him.

We are constantly assured and mollified by the throwaway “Arsene knows”. But does he?.  

A fortnight ago he lost his excellent right-back Bacary Sagna to a nasty ankle injury. You would think that the natural thing to do would have been to move Emmanuel Eboue back to his natural and favoured position. Yes, I would be the first to agree that Eboue has not had a great season but he has been played out of position at right midfield which he was never suited to.

'Wenger keeps on making the same mistakes year after year with no sign that he has learned anything'


When he first came to the club, he slotted in seamlessly to right-back and played no small part in our run to the Champions League Final. Since the arrival of Sagna, though, he has been shunted to midfield with inevitable results.

But instead of Wenger making this simple move he instead moved Kolo Toure to right-back and brought Phillipe Senderos into centre of defence. Senderos or Ponderous has had a nightmare time and Toure has also been ill-at-ease at right-back. Surely the natural thing to do would have been to make as few changes as possible and leave players in their favoured positions?

On the night against Liverpool at Anfield a similar problem cropped up in midfield when Mathieu Flamini got injured. Surely to move Abou Diaby into his preferred position in central midfield with Aleksandr Hleb on the left and Theo Walcott on the right would have been the right thing to do? But instead Arsene brought on Gilberto Silva, who has looked but a shadow of himself this season.

And then what of Alexander Song, the hero of Cameroon’s run to the African Nations Cup Final? Named on the team of the tournament, an excellent midfieder or centre half, he was surely a better option than either Senderos or Silva. Yet he has not played for five minutes since his return.

Wenger keeps on making the same mistakes year after year with no sign that he has learned anything. Take the situation with Senderos. It is no fault to him but you would turn a double-decker bus quicker. But then Pascal Cygan, anybody?

“Arsene knows?”  I don’t think so.