The nightmare scenario, once a mere doodle, is almost ready for the printers.
Arsenal, a Champions League club since 1998, face the possibility of a battle against relegation to Europe’s second division. You can call the Europa League anything you like but that’s what it is.
Only two likelihoods need to become reality this weekend. If Arsene Wenger’s team lose at home to the Manchester City who swaggered to victory at Old Trafford last night, and Roberto Martinez’s Everton triumph at Fulham, the Goodison clash of fourth-place contenders could see the home side edge ahead on goal difference with a match in hand.
While that might have all sorts of interesting ramifications — including the addition of Martinez to Brendan Rodgers on the list, real or imagined, of candidates to be the next Barcelona manager — Arsenal supporters will be more concerned about where it leaves their club.
They will, in particular, ponder the future of the great football man under whom Arsenal have regained a status in the world game not known since the glorious Thirties of Herbert Chapman. For one day Wenger will have to follow the example of Sir Alex Ferguson in standing down.
He may already have decided. In October, he will celebrate his 65th birthday and, while the first half of this season suggested that it would be a double celebration — October would also mark 18 years in the job — performances of late have been unacceptably limp, as if the players sensed the end of an era.
Arsene Wenger's best Arsenal XI
The supposition he is about to sign a new and improved contract seems anomalous: if Arsenal were a bank, we should lambast them for rewarding regression. Football is, of course, different, a matter of faith and emotion, and Wenger inspires both. But his place in history is secure. You might call him a “specialist in Doubles” and perhaps this FA Cup, whatever it holds, will provide the moment.
