Graphic: Recipe for success: the key to Arsenal's breakthrough

Emmanuel Adebayor exposed the deficiency at the heart of Arsenal’s inconsistent season yesterday by admitting that they struggle to concentrate against supposed lesser teams in the Barclays Premier League.

Such a problem has seemed evident in Arsenal’s results this season, with victories against Manchester United and Chelsea offset by defeats by Fulham, Hull City, Stoke City, Aston Villa and Manchester City, but Adebayor is the first player to admit to it in public.

Arsène Wenger, the manager, has always sought to explain his side’s various setbacks as a consequence of his players’ inexperience, but Adebayor’s version may be closer to the mark. The defeats by Fulham, Hull and Stoke were the result of poor defending at set-pieces — obvious examples of a loss of concentration — while Arsenal seemed to have no stomach for a fight away to Manchester City ten days ago. In contrast, Wenger’s side have elevated their game against United and Chelsea in the past month, raising awkward questions about their professionalism and desire.

“Sometimes maybe you have a little bit more concentration against a big team, that’s one of the things that we’re going to work on very hard,” Adebayor said. “Those are the things we’re going to discuss a little bit in the dressing-room in the days ahead and see what we can do now against the lower teams.

“One or two days were not very good, but everyone can see that we keep the title dreams alive and the most important thing is to keep going. I think even if we had lost [to Chelsea], we would never say the title race is finished for us. We want to keep going to the end of the season. We know we have a good team, a good squad and everyone is ready for it.”

Wenger, having had his fingers burnt in the recent past, reacted more cautiously to the victory at Stamford Bridge, while offering a more technical explanation for his side’s inconsistency. The Frenchman believes that Arsenal are at their best when playing a high-tempo game, which comes naturally amid the fevered atmosphere surrounding a match between top-four sides, and wants his players to impose themselves on opponents for the rest of the season.

“We’re cautious because of what happened after the Man United game,” Wenger said. “I believe that is where we can show that we have learnt and we can keep the temperature up. That is the target of the next game. The Premier League is difficult because as soon as you drop a bit off of your level, you don’t win. That has changed since five years ago.

“I would like to take the positives from yesterday’s game because I believe we have shown character. At 1-0 down at Chelsea, if you don’t really fight you have no chance. Very few teams come out with a victory once they are 1-0 down at Chelsea. You could say that Liverpool have won 1-0 and Man United have drawn 1-1, but they were never 1-0 down. You need something special to come back and win the game from that position.”

Arsenal will get an immediate chance to put Wenger’s theory to the test amid difficult surroundings in this evening’s Carling Cup quarter-final against Burnley at Turf Moor, with the club’s youngsters returning to the match-day squad alongside Lukasz Fabianski and Mikaël Silvestre, who were unused substitutes on Sunday.

“I believe that the club doesn’t get enough credit for this,” Wenger said. “We have always stayed faithful to our policy and we have always done well. I still believe it is very unfair that, even with the quality shown, when you get to the quarter-final, everybody wants you to kick them all out for the experienced players.”