I Think Its Time For Arsene Wenger To Part Ways With Arsenal -- Sport Analyst

Arsene Wenger boasts the highest win percentage of any permanent manager in Arsenal's history -- but by virtue of being in charge for over 18 years, he's also accustomed to defeat. With any long-serving manager, the number of losses starts to pile up. Sir Alex Ferguson, for example, lost 267 games as Manchester United manager, and Wenger is closing in on his 200th for Arsenal. These figures are worth remembering -- among happy, successful periods in charge, there are a succession of setbacks.

Wenger, like Ferguson -- and perhaps every other great manager -- often comes across as a sore loser, and both are excellent at finding excuses for defeats. Ferguson's most famous was blaming Manchester United's grey shirts for an awful first-half performance in a 3-1 defeat at Southampton, while referees were often strongly criticised.

Wenger's excuses -- or explanations, if you prefer -- are less specific and often based on considering football from a wider perspective. As Rory Smith recently observed, when Wenger is asked a specific question, his responses are no more enlightening than the average Premier League manager, but he considers football from a broader, more general and philosophical point of view.

The same applies with his attitude toward defeats. Often Wenger doesn't have to formulate excuses, because he's a long-standing critic of certain things about the game. Because this approach has been ingrained in the thinking of Arsenal supporters, there's already a pre-excuse.

There are two obvious examples. When Arsenal are defeated by a club like Chelsea or Manchester City, who have developed into giants because of significant financial investment, we know Wenger's belief. We know he doesn't appreciate the way "financial doping" has changed Premier League football.

Arsene Wenger has often hid behind excuses when losing to certain clubs, but his negative results against Anderlecht and Swansea are inexcusable.

When Arsenal lost 2-0 to Chelsea earlier this season, Wenger's response was simple: "At the end of the day, they have a financial power and they used it in a very efficient way when they had the chances -- the individual players they had made the difference, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa." The claim is clear: Chelsea are good only because they've spent lots of money.

When asked whether he thought it was strange that Manchester City were English champions despite falling foul of UEFA rules, Wenger was similarly insistent. "Of course there's something wrong, but I plead that for years," he said. "There's two ways of thinking about the whole process. You can say 'We don't care, we want the billionaires to buy the big players, they spend what they want.' Or you say, 'We want to keep things fair.'"

So, that's clear -- if Manchester City or Chelsea beat Arsenal, it's unfair.

The second type of excuse comes when Arsenal are defeated by sides accused of playing "anti-football" -- Tony Pulis' Stoke, Sam Allardyce's Bolton, Blackburn or West Ham. Wenger is on record as saying football is, at its best, a form of art, and his sides have generally attempted to play open, entertaining football.

Stoke, though, were once accused by Wenger of playing "rugby on the goalkeepers rather than football ... you cannot accept that because it has nothing to do with the game."

When Arsenal lost to Stoke at the Britannia earlier in 2014, he said: "They made the game physical, but we knew that before the game; they have the highest number of fouls in the Premier League."

"Usually, if people are moaning about us, it's because we've beaten them" former Stoke long-throw expert Rory Delap once pointed out. Allardyce's Bolton sides, too, have often frustrated Wenger because of the combination of tough tackling and long balls.

Because the excuses are from a philosophical perspective, long-standing and established before the defeats themselves, they often appear more legitimate. Wenger's view is obvious: Clubs with financial power have an unfair advantage, and teams that play physically are not playing football. Arsenal, therefore, rarely lose games of football fairly. It's helped provide Arsenal with a clear identity.

The problem, however, arises when Arsenal suffer results like this week's double setback. First, they threw away a 3-0 lead over Anderlecht, contriving to draw the game 3-3. Second, they lost 2-1 away at Swansea City, having led 1-0.

Both these teams play neat, technical football, and both have more modest resources than Arsenal. Anderlecht are a fine counterattacking side that threatened throughout the game Tuesday evening and boasted an incredibly young starting XI with some seriously promising young talents. No. 10 Dennis Praet, who was once on trial at Arsenal, and all-round midfielder Youri Tielemans looked particularly impressive.

This is the type of approach Wenger admires: good football based around youngsters brought through the academy, compensating for a lack of financial resources. In this situation, neither of Wenger's objections excuse Arsenal's collapse.

Swansea, too, are a hugely admirable side that have risen through the divisions courtesy of intelligent financial management and a cohesive playing style based around ball retention. They've often caused Arsenal problems since their promotion to the Premier League. Again, it's tough to see how Wenger can criticise them, and in the postmatch interview at the Liberty Stadium, he seemed slightly lost for words.

Despite having a fraction of the resources that Arsenal have, Swansea were able to pull off an upset against the Gunners.

These are the types of matches in which Arsenal simply can't slip up if Wenger is to remain so dogmatic in his approach. Having created such a clear identity for his club, and such strong opposition to two different types of anti-football (in the boardroom and on the pitch), Arsenal must defeat the teams that adhere to Wenger's stipulations.

Talk of a "crisis" at Arsenal is plainly nonsense. They are in a good position to push for the top four -- yet again -- and are highly likely to progress from their Champions League group -- yet again.

It might be an underwhelming start for Gunners fans who expected a title push, but it's in line with their performances throughout the last 10 years, which isn't a decade that can be described as a "crisis" by anyone but the most deluded Arsenal fan.

Results like this, however, don't look good. Arsenal fans have reluctantly grown to expect disappointing results against rich clubs and anti-football clubs, but if Arsenal are outplayed at their own game by clubs with fewer resources, it's a much more serious situation.