Quixotic Arsenal begin hunt for glory again

It is all very well to say that their intricate passing and rapid counter-attacks are perfectly set up for the European game, but sooner or later they face an English side and find themselves overpowered.

 Manager Arsene Wenger, though, remains unmoved and if anything the 4-3-3 (perhaps more accurately 4-2-1-3) formation he has adopted this season is a step further down the road of purism.

 "Until now it has been convincing," he said. " It is at least worth persevering with in terms of our offensive style and how we play the game."

   The style allows Arsenal to press higher up the pitch, and this - in theory at least - stifle a greater per centage of opposition attacks before they have begun.

 "There are many benefits from it, but it is not a definite system you know?" he said

   "Just at the start of the season I wanted to play high up the pitch and it can change in some games but overall I believe we can play high up and we can bring the threat to the opponents half very early in the game.

 "We like to do that, we are an attacking team and that gives us an opportunity to show our character."

   Last season it was Manchester United who eliminated Arsenal in the semi-final.

 After a 1-0 win at Old Trafford, United brushed Arsenal aside with two early goals at the Emirates, eventually winning 4-1 on aggregate.

 The year before they lost 4-2 at Liverpool in the quarter-final after a 1-1 draw at home.

 The year before it was a muscular PSV Eindhoven who eliminated them, 2-1 on aggregate in the second round.

 And yet it is not quite so simple as to say that Arsenal need to be tougher, for they can look at the example of the side who beat them in the final in 2006, Barcelona, and see how their diminutive midfield was able to dominate games both then, and last season, when they lifted the Champions League again.

 Arsenal's shape now replicates that of Barcelona - or, at least the Barcelona of last season.

 Just as Leo Messi would regularly become the central attacker, but drop deep, confounding a simple marking system, so Robin van Persie is capable of doing that for Arsenal.

 "It can get a little bit lonely for him, but that depends how quick and how massive the support is we give him," said Wenger.

 "I believe that we work on that, you know? That he gets quick support and he needs people around him because he's a combination player, more than a physical player.

 "That's why the distances within our side are important, that he's not isolated."

   Similarly Barca's central triangle of Yaya Toure, Andres Iniesta and Xavi has been replicated by Wenger, with Cesc Fabregas taking, and revelling in, Xavi's playmaking role.

 Strangely this season, Barca seem to have taken a step back towards orthodoxy, replacing Samuel Eto'o with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

 The Swedish striker will almost certainly insist on operating more centrally than Eto'o did, which in turn will force Messi back to the right.

 The Argentinian is devastating from that position, but it does make Barca more predictable.

 So it is Arsenal, who begin their Champions League group campaign at Standard Liege on Wednesday, who are left in the tactical vanguard.

 Wenger's critics would argue that too often he delivers style and not substance, and already this season Arsenal have lost in Manchester to both United and City in games they seemed to have had the better of.

 But then, as the former Argentina forward Jorge Valdano once said, perhaps the pursuit of perfection is its own reward, and counts for more than prosaic victories.

DPA