Tom Watt: Why I have faith in the Wenger way

When the First Division title was secured at White Hart Lane on a Monday night in May 1971, it brought to an end an 18-year wait, although I never imagined it'd be another 18 years before I saw it happen again.

The last few weeks have been painful, nonetheless: a comfortable lead at the top of the table surrendered and a place in the Champions League semi-finals snatched away in the dying moments at Anfield by dodgy decision-making from a referee and a stand-in right-back.

The pundits have been forming an orderly queue to tell Arsene Wenger how and why he's got it wrong, impatient newcomers at Arsenal's shiny home in Ashburton Grove are up in arms about another season without silverware and there are even one or two out there calling for the manager's head.

Me? I'm already looking forward to next season. In fact, I'm looking forward to Saturday lunchtime and a home game against Reading. I believe in the manager and in this team who, in spite of their fallibility - maybe even because of it - I enjoy watching more than any other in over 40 years of following my local club.

I was lucky, growing up round the corner from Highbury, and I've been even luckier to witness Arsenal's re-invention under one of the greatest football managers of all time.

Never mind the pre-Sky era, you only need to have been following Arsenal since Wenger arrived to recognise that, this past decade, we've died and gone to football heaven in N5. Don't get me wrong: I'll get a good moan in most weeks. And not just about the referees' decisions that have cost us so dear since the first wrong one - the injury-time penalty at St Andrew's, on the afternoon the wheels began to come off.

I'd have had Jens Lehmann in goal, I'd have been playing William Gallas - not Kolo Toure - at right-back since Bacary Sagna got injured, I'd rather have seen Theo Walcott than Emmanuel Eboue given the chance to fill in for Tomas Rosicky wide on the right and, most importantly of all, I'd have done pretty much whatever it took to keep Lassana Diarra at the club at the turn of the year.

I'm not suggesting Wenger is the perfect manager. I'm just stating the obvious - that he's the best Arsenal have had and has achieved more than enough to be trusted to put things right.

The Arsenal manager, in between bouts of bemoaning bad luck, has pointed at defensive naivety as the reason for his team's failings. He's not wrong. His back line has given way too often in big games - Arsenal were in winning positions against Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, twice, and gave up soft goals and the advantage each time.

Wenger has chosen to do without an out-and-out defensive midfielder this season [a Makelele, a Mascherano or a Gilberto] and that's left his defenders exposed. If he wants to continue in the same attacking vein, he needs to buy a big, ugly and experienced centre-half.

Both commentators and Arsenal fans have been suggesting that the front line needs reinforcing as well. Emmanuel Adebayor has taken some stick, ploughing the proverbial lone furrow as often as not.

Arsenal's squad isn't big enough, people say. But what would have happened to United's season had two of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo been missing, like Robin Van Persie and Eduardo, for weeks on end?

Would Louis Saha have been any more convincing as a stand-in than Nicklas Bendtner?

Sometimes you just have to recognise that injuries are bad luck and can't be blamed on a manager. Up front, there's no need to panic: Wenger will add the young Mexican Carlos Vela - currently on loan at Osasuna in La Liga - for next season. Never mind criticising Adebayor [20-plus goals and a phenomenal work-rate], the worry will be him failing to hit the same heights next time round.

Wenger clearly believes playing beautiful football and winning trophies don't have to be mutually exclusive ambitions. He's a purist, dedicated to individual and collective technical quality. But he's also, plainly, a very bad loser.

Unlike last season, Wenger's recent frustrations haven't been about how far off winning silverware his team have been. He's been spitting feathers because he knows how close they've come.

Is he tough enough? More to the point, are his players? These players, it's worth remembering, were expected to fall apart once Thierry Henry left last summer. They'll be tougher for this season's disappointments, that's for sure.

And they're better than tough as well: brave. Brave enough to believe they'll win things playing the way Wenger wants them to. I've been watching Arsenal a long time now; long enough, anyway, to believe they will, too.

Tom Watt covers the capital's football scene on BBC Radio London every Saturday afternoon.