Patrick Vieira is as baffled as the next Arsenal fan as to how the team can hit the heights one week and plumb the depths the next. Like all of them, though, the club's former captain has his theories. In his Highbury pomp the midfielder allied intimidation and physical presence to driving offensive qualities and helped to give the team a fear factor. Today, as the manager, Arsène Wenger, promotes raw youth at the club, Vieira wonders whether that aggressive mind-set is still there.
"A winning mentality does not come in one day," he said. "I'm sure that every single player at Arsenal wants to win but it is coming to the moment when you need to play really bad games and win 1-0. One of the problems for Arsenal as well is that they are conceding too many goals. I think that teams now play against Arsenal knowing that they can score so that can be a little bit psychological."
In a whirlwind Premier League season so far, Wenger's team have beaten Manchester United and Chelsea but they have lost five times to perceived inferiors to lie fifth, eight points behind the leaders Liverpool. They have conceded 20 goals in 17 games and opponents have regularly targeted them at set pieces.
Vieira recognises that his former club now hang by a thread in the race for the title and said that the home fixture to Liverpool on Sunday had become a "must-win". In the Champions League, meanwhile, they have qualified for the first knock-out round, the draw for which takes place on Friday, with a mixture of the imperious and the nervy.
Vieira traces much of the club's fragility to the summer, when Mathieu Flamini, Alexander Hleb, Gilberto Silva and Jens Lehmann were moved on and Philippe Senderos loaned out. In their place arrived Samir Nasri, Aaron Ramsey, Mikaël Silvestre and Amaury Bischoff. There has also been turmoil behind the scenes, with William Gallas revealing that there were rifts in the dressing-room, which led to Wenger stripping the central defender of the captaincy. The natives at Emirates stadium have been restless as well and they vented their spleen at Emmanuel Eboué during the Wigan Athletic game nine days ago.
"It has been a really difficult period on and off the pitch," said Vieira, who is now playing under Jose Mourinho at Internazionale but remains in contact with a host of Arsenal players, including his fellow Frenchmen Gallas, Silvestre and Gaël Clichy and the club's new captain Cesc Fábregas. "So many things get into the team and affect the team, so many difficult situations, and I think now they need to walk away from that and keep going. All the trouble outside the pitch, it doesn't help the team to come together.
"It's not easy when you lose Flamini, Hleb, Senderos, Gilberto and Lehmann. When you lose all these players — and Flamini, for me, was the best player last year — it's really difficult to compete against Chelsea, Man United or Liverpool."
Vieira was asked whether he felt the departed players had been adequately replaced. "When you look at the talent of Flamini and the talent of the new Brazilian guy [in midfield], Denilson, it's not the difference," he said. "He is really talented but maybe he needs more time to express himself. He needs to learn more because the more you play, the better you will be.
"I don't think Arsenal lost on the true talent but, by losing these five players, they lost a lot of experience. And of course, at the high level, people don't have the patience. The only thing that counts is the result."
Vieira, though, still has faith: in his friend Gallas, in the club and, above all, in Wenger, the manager who made him a superstar. "The decision to take the captaincy from William is a really tough one," he said. "I know William really well and, of course, he gets hurt like everybody else but he will want to show to Arsène and to the fans that he is a fantastic player and professional. He will give 100%.
"My message to the fans would be to be patient and calm, Arsène knows what he is doing. Being in London and seeing the Arsenal fans, the thing that is coming [out] really often is the frustration because they want to win trophies and they know that the talent is there but they are still missing something.
"I don't know if they need to get players [in January], I just really believe that they need to get a bit more together. I don't write them off. They can surprise so many teams and, even if they don't do what they expect to do in the championship, they can in the Champions League."
Patrick Vieira was speaking on behalf of Ford's Feel Football programme
