Six weeks is a long time in football and not many of the Arsenal fans travelling to the Madejski Stadium on Monday will be whistling a happy tune in anticipation of another carefree 12-goal thriller like the one in the Capital One Cup. In the light of what happened at Bradford even Arsenal supporters tempted to look back fondly on that crazy night will be more inclined to take a stern view of going four goals down to Reading in the first place than relive the Theo Walcott-led recovery. Reading have just dropped to the bottom as a result of QPR's first win but that is roughly where most imagined the Royals would be at this stage.
Arsenal, too, are doing what most of their supporters expected them to do – hover around mid-table with a view to making a late bid for the top four. Yet though 15 consecutive seasons of Champions League football is an achievement that has answered most questions about Arsène Wenger's stewardship of the club, it is struggling to excuse daily disappointments, such as being outplayed at home by Swansea or kicked out of a cup quarter-final by a League Two side put together for around a 10th of what Walcott stands to earn every week if he would only sign his new contract.
Is Walcott worth £75,000 a week? Not in most people's opinion. Could he command that sum or more elsewhere in the Premier League? Yes, so that must be his true or actual value. What should Arsenal do about this unreal state of affairs? That is the question that has fuelled several weeks worth of of phone-ins and internet chats in recent years and has come to dominate what will eventually be termed the latter stage of Wenger's Arsenal career.
It is not all about Walcott, of course. It is about money generally and how a successful, well-run club such as Arsenal should respond to having their once universally admired business model dynamited by rivals with infinite spending power and little commitment to rational investment. Fans on phone-ins always point the finger at chairmen or directors and demand they put their hands in their pockets but few people acquire football clubs to trade financial punches with people such as Roman Abramovich or the Abu Dhabi United Group, and Arsenal's owners are no different.
Manchester United have managed to remain competitive while living within their means – indeed they were the predators when Robin van Persie's departure announced the last Arsenal crisis before this one – but Wenger has never managed to be as bullish in the transfer market as Sir Alex Ferguson.
The difference between the two clubs, the Premier League's most successful until Chelsea and Manchester City came along, is that United tend to aim high, identify their transfer targets and nail them, whereas Arsenal under Wenger seem to disdain the obvious and risk the wrath of their fans by bringing in nearly men, players with some ability and promise but rarely ones who are attracting other clubs.
While Wenger was astute enough to make a fortune from hiring and selling Nicolas Anelka, not to mention realising that the Thierry Henry struggling on the wing for Juventus in 1999 might be a sensation with more freedom in England, very few of his recent signings would have interested Manchester United. On the basis of Tuesday's game some of them might not make an impression at Bradford City and, though Wenger can point to a crop of home-produced talent, he knows the tricky bit is keeping hold of good players, so that Manchester City or Chelsea do not end up enjoying their best years.
The Wenger philosophy is quite simple. "With teams like Chelsea and Manchester City coming in, I think we have to do what we do even better," he said on Thursday. "We have always managed the club with its own resources, given a chance to young players and developed a style of play that we think is right."
It is easy to see why the Arsenal manager is often described as stubborn. He may be willing to overlook seven years without a trophy and a succession of players leaving the club in search of success elsewhere but even the most loyal Arsenal fan can see the club is getting not better at what it does but increasingly worse. Part of the problem is wealth elsewhere but another is Wenger's own attitude to spending. Suffice to say he is not a natural. Were Alisher Usmanov ever to get the chance to lavish some of his Uzbek billions on the club he would probably have to move Wenger out of the way to match the Chelsea/City splurge level. If you are going to toss money around just to get noticed you need someone who can do it without a qualm, and Wenger is not that man.
Wenger is no longer even spending the money he does have very well, hence the unusual emphasis on the humiliating aspect of Arsenal's midweek defeat, when the conditions were ripe for just about anybody to suffer an upset. Wenger said he was unembarrassed by the result since he felt his players had tried their utmost, only to be told by Bradford players that Torquay had been tougher opponents. That is modern football for you.
Wenger gave Bradford credit for their giant-killing, Bradford let the giants know they thought £65m could have been spent much better. The game passes everyone by eventually, only the unique Ferguson stays ahead. Wenger was up there with him once, even out in front for a while, but this most modern of managers, with all his varied achievements, is now being stalked by results and the past tense.
Wenger's wobbles
Pre-season Captain Robin van Persie refuses to extend his contract beyond July 2013 and is sold to Manchester United for £24m
Slow start Arsenal begin season with two 0-0 draws before an Abou Diaby-inspired win at Liverool
September surge After three clean sheets a 6-1 mauling of Southampton lifts them to third.
Champions held Laurent Koscielny's late equaliser seals draw at Manchester City
Weaknesses emerge Chelsea exploit a vulnerability at defending crosses, scoring twice to inflict a first defeat
European wobble Schalke win 2-0 at the Emirates in the Champions League against an awful Arsenal
Emirates unrest The boos begin in earnest after a 3-3 draw with Fulham but they come back to defeat Spurs 5-2. Then Swansea's 2-0 win, putting Arsenal in 10th, leaves home fans angry and bewildered
Bradford barrage League Cup ignominy, then rumours of disagreements with coach Steve Bould.
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