Stayaway Arsenal fans are the final nail in Wenger's rotting coffin

When it goes, it goes quickly, Alex Ferguson said about a team’s confidence. Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle United have all galloped into the lead at the top of the table before crashing into second, or worst.

Over the longer term, though, Arsene Wenger has overseen a decade and a half of slow, but inexorable decline. Thursday’s defeat against Manchester City was no surprise, but there finally appears to be a realisation on the manager’s part that he has nowhere left to go.

It was said this morning that the goals Arsenal conceded to City last night were doubly poignant because these were the kind of goals that, at their peak, Wenger’s side used to score. That’s true, but it misses the point of how Arsenal have fallen apart, and fallen so far.

It’s an easy point to make that when Wenger took over, he took over a side with perhaps the best defence in the world, as well organised as AC Milan’s back four. They knew offside better than they knew themselves. But they were also capable of acting the cee when necessary on the pitch.

None of them were willing – except Nigel Winterburn, terrified of Paolo Di Canio – to go missing in a scrap.

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Wenger appreciated those qualities in his earliest days, and either retained or brought in some of the most objectionable humans he could find: Nelson Vivas, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Gilles Grimandi, Cesc Fabregas, Dennis Bergkamp and a few others were all happy enough to gob at an opponent, introduce them to their elbow, or demonstrate to them the advantage of studs over blades. It wasn’t pretty, but it meant that there was no scope for intimidation of some of their less robust players.

Managers change throughout their career, and refine their approach, as do we all. The mistakes we make should inform our future actions, to make sure that we perform better. But that presupposes that we are able to learn the right lessons. With Wenger’s authority at Arsenal, he has been largely unchallenged, and he has removed those who might question his methods.

What made Arsenal was not their brawn, violence or technique. What made them special was their brawn, violence and technique. Few teams have been able to ally both the physical and technical sides of football so effectively.

Wenger rejected that, and since the departure of Gilberto Silva, Fabregas, Robin van Persie (no stranger to the snide foul) and now Alexis Sanchez, there has been a clear approach to abandon not just any kind of physicality, but also the willingness to challenge colleagues to improve their standards. Or, in the case of Gilberto, just tackle someone in midfield. Wenger has made his team half of what they were.

Weak

Wenger compensated by the sale of Sanchez by replacing him with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, already identified by Jose Mourinho as a mentally weak player. He has continued to embrace his failing methods, and created an atmosphere where players are allowed to half-arse their performances on the pitch, and it is now apparent that anyone who demands better will not only be chucked out by Wenger, but isolated by the majority of the squad.

Sanchez was excommunicated by the rest of his colleagues, and it seems as if that’s because he wanted to actually win games with his exceptional effort.

No wonder fans have lost their patience. The jeers and boos were plentiful. They had seen that Wenger has overseen an alarming and entirely preventable decline on the pitch, and now there is the danger that he will leave Arsenal in the same state he inherited them – obsolete and in mid-table. The comparison should not be between the style of football that Pep Guardiola and Wenger have both played at their best. It should be how their attitudes compare now.

While Guardiola might receive plaudits as a particularly thoughtful man, we should remember that he is happy to sarcastically mock reporters, essentially bullying them. He is happy to physically confront managers from lower leagues. He is happy to complain about his side getting men sent off for reckless challenges.

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None of these things make Guardiola a great bloke, but they do show a commitment to victory that will only help his side, especially as the press are happy to continue to, as Roy Keane would say, go on as if he’s a good guy. Wenger, on the other hand, looks defeated before the match even starts.

Only half of the Emirates was full last night. Following the dismantling in the League Cup, the fans evidently had no hope in Wenger and his side to improve upon their showing. Anger is one thing, and has been the default setting for many Arsenal fans over at least the last five years. They are right to be angry, because the failings were so obvious and so ignored by the club that it was an insult to be charged so much for season tickets.

Now though, their feelings are much more concerning – it simply isn’t worth their time to be angry anymore. They aren’t angry, they aren’t disappointed, they simply don’t care about them anymore. To make a football fan feel nothing about his or her club is striking, and shows it is time for Wenger to walk away before he damages the club any further.