Wenger must act to remedy recurring flaw

So Arsenal can again count themselves unlucky in an away match against one of their two legitimate rivals for the championship. A one-nil defeat courtesy of an offside-shinner is a ridiculous way to decide a big match but at least it didn’t break a massive unbeaten record.

Didier Drogba's lucky touch in the 73 minute broke the deadlock in an otherwise equal match-up that still had a touch of the pre-seasons about it. Mourinho admitted as much post-match, and it is a shame that these two excellent footballing sides had to meet on only the second weekend of the season with preparations interrupted by international matches.

Focusing on the Arsenal, this match again showed-up a problem which Arsene is struggling to solve. That problem, which has been highlighted previously on these pages, is that Arsenal struggle to penetrate the best teams in football.

While Arsenal had 60 % possession and yet again put on a consummate display of flowing passing football- with Alexander Hleb showing tremendous potential in only his second Premiership match- there was a lack of cutting edge that separates the very good teams from the truly exceptional. They were restricted by Chelsea's awesome defence to a couple of speculative Henry efforts and an early Ljungberg toe-poke that went just over the bar.

Such limited returns from good possession represents a black mark that Arsene admitted as much in his post-match interview.

Unfortunately, this is becoming the customary feature of Arsenal when playing away at the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Bayern, etc. Because we only play away to teams with such defensive quality once in a blue moon, this problem is in danger of being missed.

I hope Arsene does not fall into that category!

Last year at the three teams mentioned above we scored only one goal- a last minute consolation in Bayern from Arsenal's best player so far this season: Kolo Toure. Otherwise, in all three matches, Arsenal barely created a goal chance worthy of the name. The same pattern repeated in the FA cup final: no goal threat.

The season before, Arsenal drew another blank at Old Trafford in a match that we played for a nil-nil. In fact, it is 18 months ago when Arsenal last convinced against a top side away from home: Chelsea in a 2-1 victory with goals courtesy of Pat and Edu.

A feature of Arsenal's attacking flaw in these matches is that we simply don't attack the penalty box in numbers. Yesterday, as against Bayern, we played with Thierry as the main striker with five midfielders supporting. The pattern then becomes familiar: Thierry gets isolated by a strong defence and a holding midfielder, so he comes deep or wide to receive the ball, which consequently leaves no expert attacker in or around the box.

In effect, we are left with zero six-yard box strikers and six or seven attacking midfielders. The world's tightest defences are repeatedly showing they can handle this. This lack of cutting edge against the best teams away from home leaves us vulnerable to sucker-punches like a Rooney dive or a Drogba shinner.

In 95 per cent of matches our system of attacking play seriously works. And at Highbury it is very rare for us to be stifled. It is the matches away from home against our biggest competitors where this problem is becoming endemic.

Two options come to mind.

One is to buy a pure penalty-box predator who may not be a great team-player but will stay in and around the box and be an ever-present goal threat. Michael Owen immediately comes to mind. When Thierry came deep yesterday it would surely have been an advantage for him and the team to know that Owen was waiting to pounce in the goal area. RVP, supreme talent that he is, did not offer this particular potential yesterday.

Second is to buy a Didier Drogba type-player who can physically barge defences and create openings for himself and others simply by having a heavyweight presence. When Drogba was at Marseille I told people that Arsenal should buy him. Whatever the critics may say about his lack of co-ordination- he is effective and has a fighting character. His physical presence was the main reason why Chelsea knocked Bayern out of the Champs League- and represented a significant contrast to the relatively lightweight physical presence that Arsenal's attack had against the German champs.

When Arsenal went after Baptista, I saw this as Arsene wanting to get an option two player. He is a muscular player who can knock defenders out of his way- an option that Arsene would have liked against Bayern.

This Chelsea defeat will be positive if it is the final wake-up call needed to spur Wenger on to buying an option one or option two striker, with the Vieira money. Otherwise, based on recent history, we will continue to come out second best when away from home against teams with top defences, due to the lack of an effective attacking edge.