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We allow ourselves to believe that Arsenal have turned over a new leaf each time they go on a run of beating the minnows with verve and swagger.

Then they get bent over by the big boys and we are reminded that, on the field, nothing seems to change at The Emirates.

In the aftermath of defeat to Dortmund Mikel Arteta is quoted as saying:

‘If you make errors like we did against the top sides, we know there is no chance to win the Champions League.’

He needn’t have even said the first part of the statement. Because winning the CL means beating the best at some stage. We just can’t see Arsenal doing it right now. Wenger has had ample opportunity to invest in better defensive options.

Perhaps, after all these years at the club, it comes down to a lack of the burning ambition which makes Jose Mourinho, for example, go the extra miles to sign exactly the right players for his club each year. This summer he brought Cesc and Diego Costa. When was the last time Arsenal made an ‘ideal’ signing of exactly the player that they needed?

Ozil, Welbeck, Sanchez, Chambers, Ospina. Decent players but are they what Arsenal really require? Of course not. Wenger should have been concentrating, for the last 2-3 years, on signing a top centre back, a top anchor man and a top striker. Everyone knows it except the manager himself.

For the money that the aforementioned 5 cost (about £110m) he could have signed Mangala, Khedira and Falcao. The former reportedly wanted to move somewhere other than City. Khedira is clearly gettable at the right price. And would Falcao have taken Champions League football over United if Arsenal had agreed to pay his wages? We think so.

Rant aside, Arsenal will apparently attempt to bring in some free agents with news that Mathieu Debuchy has broken a ligament.

The Daily Mail reports:

The club are looking for a central defender to provide cover for Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.

Scouts have been asked to examine short-term options Diego Lugano and Joseph Yobo, who are both available and have been discussed at the club’s London Colney HQ.

Jospeh Yobo was of course a superb Premier League player in his pomp at Everton – quick, strong and technically adept. At 34 he may have lost some of that ground speed but he may be a decent emergency purchase – 101 caps and counting for Nigeria tells you that he’s still relevant.

In general, we feel that Wenger has one more window to finally show that he knows what he’s doing. January is not an ideal window but if he can’t push the boat out for a Schneiderlin or similar in January – plus another defender – we genuinely feel that a managerial change will be made in the summer.

We love Arsene Wenger. But we no longer trust him to make the right decisions going forward. He just doesn’t seem to understand what is needed to take Arsenal back to the top.

Arsenal fans: will Wenger ever break through the glass ceiling?