Too young, too similar, too intricate and in desperate need of guidance: according to George Graham, Arsenal’s shortcomings will make tomorrow’s North London derby hard to call.

“Because of Arsenal’s inconsistency, this season it’s going to be a very close game,” the former Arsenal and Tottenham manager, who won two League titles at Highbury helped by some notoriously stout defending, said yesterday.

Arsène Wenger airing excuses after disappointing results such as Wednesday’s defeat by Fulham has become one of the few reliable aspects of Arsenal’s campaign. “He’s trying to protect the young players,” Graham said. “They all know they’re underperforming. They have lost Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Lauren, Patrick Vieira, Edu, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp. Don’t try and tell me they’re going to replace them with kids and get the same results.”

Even after — or perhaps, because of — a decade of extraordinary success under Wenger, the manager, Graham believes that the supporters will put him under pressure should Arsenal endure a third successive season without winning the Barclays Premiership or Champions League. The Premiership title already appears unrealistic.

“When you’ve reached the heights that they’ve reached, the success that they’ve had, the fans don’t want success in two years’ time. Last season, reaching the [Champions League] final gave the fans something to hang on to. If they drift out of the FA Cup as well, they’re not really challenging, fans don’t like it. Fans will not accept four years of failure.”

Now a PremPlus pundit, Graham spoke at a Hampstead café frequented by Arsenal’s French horde. He feels that the likes of Vieira and Pires are gravely missed. “Where are all the goals coming from — are Tomas Rosicky and Alexander Hleb going to get double figures like Pires? They’ve got a lot of players of similar style. They all want to be on the ball but I don’t see anybody making runs the way Freddie Ljungberg makes runs.”

Graham believes that Wenger’s faith in the youngsters that took the club to the climax of the Champions League last term is misplaced. “I think (he’s) been expecting too much too soon, I really do,” he said.

“Does nobody ever ask [Wenger] why he doesn’t buy a replacement for Dennis Bergkamp? With his vision, he used to bring in the wide players. To me Robin van Persie is just a finisher. Bergkamp was the orchestrator.”

Thierry Henry’s suitability as captain has often been questioned. Even if the France forward is in inspirational mood, Graham believes his input alone is not enough. “They’re nice, genuine lads,” he said. “I don’t think they’re big-headed, I don’t think they lack hunger. I think they need a bit of leadership quality. I think you need three leaders. My back four were all winners.”

Graham believes that Arsenal have fallen into a bad tactical habit. “Arsenal play too much in front of the opposition. Three years ago in my opinion they were the best team in Europe. At Sky we used to time them from when they won possession to when they scored at the other end. It was something like six seconds and within three passes they’d scored at the other end, and that was with pace.

“When you pass the ball around it gives the opposition time to get back. I think that’s the big difference between the team now and three years ago, I don’t think there’s enough runners off the ball to hurt the opposition. Arsène won’t change his philosophy. In many ways I admire that.”

Tottenham are at present only eleventh, though hard to beat and into the knockout stages of the Uefa Cup. “Martin Jol used everyone superbly and they gelled really well together,” Graham said. “I look at them now and I’m wondering, have they moved on from last season? Not really. They’re probably only two players away from a definite top-six, fighting for a top-four, position. I’m just surprised they’ve not moved on.”

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