FOOTBALL'S moral high ground is rarely held by any single club for too long. Invariably the lure of dodgy cash, the signing of a notorious bad boy or the intemperate abuse of a referee dislodges them. This season, though, Arsenal find themselves hovering above the vulgar grubbiness of their Premier League rivals. It's an exalted position that might last longer than their lofty status in the actual table.
It was far from always thus. Only half a generation ago, Arsenal were loathed by right-thinking football fans, for being the visible expression of George Graham's misanthropic cynicism, for a back four on a stick that rolled forward as one, raising t
heir hands in the air, for Tony Adams' drink-driving, for being a team that saw a scrappy 1-0 as the sum of all their ambitions. Their laureate Nick Hornby wrote the definitive football fans chronicle at a time when loving Arsenal was, if not an outright crime, at least something of a perversion.
These days, Arsenal are a rare beacon of righteousness in a Premier League that makes short-selling in the City seem like an honourable trade by comparison. Their relative sanity off the field, where Peter Hill-Wood insists Arsenal are a club that will not be reliant on the caprices of a compliant billionaire, is somewhat compromised by the lurking proximity of two such candidates, Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov, but for the time being Arsenal, unlike immediate rivals Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool, is not the plaything of volatile overseas owners. Arsenal's revenue from the Emirates Stadium is healthy enough to prevent them following the Manchester City path and selling the whole club to the Emirates.
It's on the field, though, where Arsenal remain most pleasing. Arsène Wenger retains an unusual unwillingness to sacrifice his purist principles to the cause of immediate pragmatism. Although many scoff at his notorious inability to see his players commit a foul, he is obviously committed to an ideal above the accumulation of results at all costs.
We get a reminder of his class this week, as Arsenal take on Sheffield United in the Carling Cup. Nine years ago Wenger insisted on replaying a fifth-round FA Cup tie against United because the winning goal came after Marc Overmars failed to give the ball back when it had been deliberately kicked out after an injury. Where Sir Alex Ferguson or Luiz Felipe Scolari might have shrugged, grinned and said something along the lines of 'them's the breaks,' Wenger chose the more honourable route.
This week of course, Arsenal's team to face United will be significantly depleted, Wenger, like many Premier League managers, seeing the Carling Cup as a useful opportunity to blood young reserves. Wenger's young reserves tend to be more entertaining than most. One player who served his time in the second string, Theo Walcott, happens to be England's most exciting young forward and the scorer of an unforgettable hat-trick for the national team in Croatia. Wenger seems to have appointed himself the curator of this national treasure, even resting him on Saturday after an eventful two weeks.
Saturday's win at Bolton suggests that Wenger's principles, and his intrinsic faith in youth, get rewards. Of the starting XI, only the goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, and the centre backs Kolo Toure and William Gallas were over 25. Robin Van Persie, who hit that advanced age milestone last month, is the oldest forward on Arsenal's books. Incredibly, Tomas Rosicky is the only midfielder in the squad over 22 (and his injury problems suggest Wenger's mistrust of 27-year-old geriatrics is well-founded).
Alan Hansen's famous suggestion that you don't win anything with kids remains persuasive even if it was immediately disproved at the time. One of the first things you win with kids this good, though, is admirers. Wenger's patience is also beginning to reap rewards. The likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fabregas, Bakari Sagna and Gael Clichy have a maturity that belies their years, and Walcott now looks ready to join that group.
Eduardo da Silva's appalling injury last season put paid to Arsenal's hopes of silverware. Wenger's team is no longer so reliant on the Croatian's finishing. If he returns with anything like his old form, Wenger's impressive fledglings might have the extra ingredient that makes them serious contenders, in the Premier League and Europe. If there is any such thing as a neutral in football, they will wish this Arsenal well.
The full article contains 759 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
