Debate: Time for Wenger to go?

In the dreams of their supporters, Arsenal are like James Bond: suave, sophisticated, elegant, with the cold eye of a killer. The trouble is, on nights such as this, they better resemble those old-fashioned Bond villains, the type that left the captive spy suspended over a pool of sharks and departed the hide-out taking his death for granted, strangely reluctant to seize a gun and simply finish the job. Against Fenerbahçe, Arsenal should have had seven; instead, they settled meekly for the double 0.

As it is, they remain one win away from qualification in group G and, with Dynamo Kiev next to visit North London, few are expecting late drama. Another performance as wasteful as this, however, and who knows? As Chelsea discovered in Rome on Tuesday, what appears a straightforward task in the Champions League can turn arduous if a team take their eyes off the ball, and Arsenal have certainly done that of late. Their past three results have been disappointing, and each for a different reason. Against Tottenham Hotspur, they led 4-2 and surrendered two points by conceding late goals; away to Stoke City they were undone by long throws and physical confrontation; here, they kept a clean sheet — only their second in all competitions since September 30 — but squandered a series of chances to win the game.

Robin van Persie was the worst culprit, but far from the only one. He danced around Fenerbahçe, light on his toes, but failed to deliver the knockout punch, putting one in mind of the comment by the late Brian Clough on Trevor Brooking, a delightfully delicate midfield player for West Ham United and England. “He floats like a butterfly,” Clough said, “and stings like one.”

This was an opportunity lost for Arsenal, who have a reckoning with Manchester United at this stadium on Saturday. Arsène Wenger, the manager, would have wanted his players to get the defeat by Stoke out of their system and against unambitious Fenerbahçe they had the chance but did not take it. They did not take anything else, either, turning in a performance that encapsulated the annoyances of the season.

There were empty seats in many areas of the ground as Luca Banti, the fourth official from Italy, signalled four minutes’ injury time, a sign of the growing frustration with football that is high on panache but lacks a cutting edge. This was a night to get a result and move on; instead, there was brief booing as the game ended and a general sense of irritation. Arsenal are better than this and, from the manager down, those connected with the club know it. If the injuries at Stoke gave Wenger a way to deflect criticism at the weekend, here there was no excuse. Arsenal should have stuffed Fenerbahçe as they did in Istanbul and they would have needed one point from two games to progress. Instead, they must win against Dynamo, or, failing that, away to Porto.

For those that have not been able to watch Arsenal regularly this season, it was kind of them to recap the theme of the season in one 90-minute package. This game gave a general idea of the way things have been. The superiority of Arsenal’s play, the intricacy of the build-up, the moments of bewitching skilfulness, the ease on the eye, and the complete failure to turn dominance into goals. “What shall we do, what shall we do, with all this useless beauty?” as Elvis Costello once asked.

It did not help that on the rare occasions that Fenerbahçe attacked — and this was not a team set up by Luis Aragonés, the coach, to carry the game to Arsenal — the stand-in goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski, was uncertain and looked every inch the understudy getting a rare shot at the big time. It made for a frustrating night: misses at one end followed by a frisson of panic at the other. When Semih Sentürk broke away on the counterattack, Fabianski seemed undecided whether to race from his goal to narrow the angle or retreat. In the end, he remained on the edge of the six-yard area and was fortunate that the Fenerbahçe midfield player took his shot early, allowing it to be turned around the far post by Fabianski’s fingertips. A shot from Gökhan Gönül just before half-time was well saved, but other efforts were less convincingly handled and there is little doubt Manuel Almunia, absent through illness, will return for the visit of United.

That match promises to be as much a test of Arsenal’s mettle as any this season and United like to fight it out here. By contrast, Fenerbahçe were not dirty, just organised and negative, and a team of Arsenal’s ability should have taken them apart.

Nicklas Bendtner was a poor replacement for the injured Emmanuel Adebayor and when he was taken off after 59 minutes, the crowd let him know it. Van Persie’s saving grace was that his play was exquisite. He may have squandered chance after chance, but he did it in an almost balletic way; a nimble twist, turn and pirouette, before a finish that could have been taken with size-14 Doc Martens. In the seventh minute, Roberto Carlos made a dreadfully poor clearance, which Denilson played to Cesc Fàbregas, whose chip left Van Persie one on one with only Volkan Demirel, the goalkeeper, to beat. His low finish travelled wide in what grew to be a motif of the night.

Soon after, a Van Persie cross was palmed out straight to Samir Nasri, who failed to bring it under control with the goal unguarded. From a ball pulled back by Fàbregas a minute later, Van Persie contrived to drive a close-range shot into the ground and over the bar as Volkan struggled to recover. So it continued. A free kick by Van Persie was deflected wide from the head of Carlos and soon after a great pass from Kolo Touré led to a shot from the Dutchman that the goalkeeper tipped on to the bar. In a final flourish of an intense period of Arsenal pressure, Nasri had a shot from the edge of the area tipped wide. All of the play, and so little to show for it. Haven’t we seen this movie before?

Arsenal (4-4-2): L Fabianski — K Touré, J Djourou, M Silvestre (sub: A Song, 84min), G Clichy — A Ramsey (sub: A Diaby, 59), Denilson, F Fàbregas, S Nasri — N Bendtner (sub: C Vela, 59), R van Persie. Substitutes not used: V Mannone, B Sagna, J Wilshere, K Gibbs. Booked: Djourou.

Fenerbahçe (4-2-3-1): Volkan Demirel — Gökhan Gönül, Lugano, Edu, Roberto Carlos (sub: Gökcek Vederson, 68) — C Maldonaldo (sub: Josico, 68), Selçuk Sahin — C Kazim-Richards (sub: A Bilgin, 59), Semih Sentürk, Ugur Boral — D Güiza. Substitutes not used: Volkan Babacan, Burak Yilmaz, Yasin Çakmak, Deivid. Booked: Selçuk, Lugano, Gokcek.

Referee: R Rosetti (Italy).