True measure of Arsene Wenger that he’s still hungry enough to make enemies

Arsene Wenger is a born winner and when he’s not winning he’s not a happy camper.

For the last while, he hasn’t been winning. His Arsenal team have been on a downward spiral all the way to mediocrity for some time now and but for his own unyielding stubbornness he’d have been out the door of the Emirates Stadium a good while ago.

That’s because his Arsenal have been on a hiding to nothing for a number of years, they’ve been stuck in the mud while all around them have moved forward but Arsene Wenger was still always convinced that a change in fortunes was always only just around the corner for them.

And that was what sustained him. A borderline childish self assurance that nothing was as bad as it seemed and that the Gunners really were on the cusp of returning to the former glories that he was at the helm for. The only thing keeping them away from those brilliant days was the combination of an absence of luck and other people’s mistakes. He was sure of that.

Those days were never too far away and his team would match the feats of their predecessors in red by playing with the same free-flowing attacking vigour and verve that was both a joy to watch and was football in its purest, most beautiful form. They wouldn’t have to change their ways because those ways were good enough and he was almost too proud to alter it.

And while Arsenal’s faults and failings, mainly their defensive vulnerabilities, may have been clear as day for the rest of the world to see, Wenger didn’t want to see them and because of his own optimism, wishful thinking and belief, he didn’t see them.

Call him his own worst enemy, call him whatever you will but whatever is said about the 68-year-old, it would be impossible to accuse him of a lack of fight, to accuse him of a lack of character.

Because never once did Wenger throw in the towel. While the crushing defeats mounted and the failure to win a League title in his last 14 years at the club must have irked him more and more with each passing year, never once did this man take the easy option and pass the blame onto his players.

He would back them to the very last even when they didn’t deserve backing and while this noble honesty has to be one of his greatest and most admirable characteristics of all, it’s also the same single-mindedness that may have been his greatest flaw.

He would scrawl the surface for something, anything to cling onto so as to convince himself that they were doing it the right way and that it wasn’t his or his team’s fault, and given the genuineness of his ways, it was actually believable that he believed it.

On Thursday evening, in Wenger’s second last ever game in charge, Arsenal suffered a 3-1 away defeat to Leicester. This is not how Arsene Wenger would have wanted it to end but this is an all too familiar feeling now for a team who haven’t won an away game in 2018.

The narrative post-game was what it’s always been with Wenger. It wasn’t his player’s fault. They were hard done by again.

He has no real reason to care anymore, but he just can’t help himself.