Arsenal this season

Twenty-seven months ago, Arsène Wenger suffered what he still regards as the “humiliation” of losing 8-2 to Manchester United.

It was a crushing defeat, a moment in history, and one that the Arsenalmanager admitted, before Sunday’s return to Old Trafford, he will never forget. Tellingly, Wenger has not only repeatedly revisited the match on video – breaking from his tradition of reviewing every Arsenal game only once – but continues to draw withering conclusions from the footage. “It’s interesting to see who continues to fight when you are 6-2 down and who gives up,” he said. “You learn a lot about the players.”

Wenger does not specifically name Andrei Arshavin, but he hardly needs to. Only eight of the 18 on duty that traumatic August afternoon are still at Arsenal this season, and the Russian midfielder is not among them. Only one of those who left – Robin Van Persie, now at United, of course – did so against Wenger’s will.

In the book, The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football’s Leaders, Wenger explained the “checklist” he had to go through after that day to reassure himself that what he described as a titanically bad performance was not symptomatic of a greater, systematic fault within his squad and within him.

“At that moment you come back to the team and say: ‘That is important for us, that is our culture, that is us, so let’s come back to what we are good at and what we want.’ That sometimes helps get the team back on track,” Wenger said.The defeat, the club’s worst since 1896, left Arsenal 17th in the Premier League (Tottenham Hotspur were bottom) and prompted an unusually frantic trolley dash from Wenger to bring in experienced reinforcements. It worked. Arsenal once more finished in the top four. But of those signings, only Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta have been convincing additions.

Yet something apparently more significant was already afoot at Arsenal, something which has enabled Wenger’s side to arrive in Manchester today eight points clear of United. It was the development of a new, young core to the team – one heavily invested in that club “culture” Wenger referenced so warmly in The Manager.

Wenger had craved it for years and hoped that Cesc Fabregas – who had been at Arsenal since he was 16 – would be its standard-bearer. Instead the Catalan defected back to Barcelona and it can be no coincidence that the 8-2 defeat was suffered within two weeks of his departure.

So Wenger went British and there is a revealing comparison to be drawn between the strength of this new young domestic core and the far more experienced one he inherited when he first arrived at Arsenal, featuring the likes of Tony Adams and Steve Bould, now his assistant.

Wenger has identified players who could fulfil the roles he needed to allot and none more so than Aaron Ramsey, who has had made such an astonishing impact this season. Improbably he has become Fabregas’s successor.

“I never wanted to,” Wenger said, when asked if he considered selling Ramsey while the youngster struggled for form and confidence. “It’s very difficult for us because when you take a player out straight away people say he will lose confidence but when you leave a player on, [his confidence] slowly deteriorates. Just before he had his good period I extended his contract because I always believed in him.”

That moment has been pivotal. The contract had appeared a piece of window-dressing to some cynics weary that Arsenal were no longer competitive in the transfer market but its effect has been clear. And Ramsey was not alone: one day last December Arsenal announced that he, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson had all agreed new five-year contracts. The core was being cemented.

The image of the five signing is reminiscent of Ferguson’s so-called ‘Class of 92’ – the six young United players – Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil – who became a golden generation for the club and who are now the subject of a soon-to-be-released documentary about their astonishing, unprecedented achievements.

“I believe it is important, the sense of belonging is important and it has been a bit neglected in the modern game certainly,” Wenger explained. “It’s important for the players to feel part of the culture of the club and that the club means something to you. That is important for the fans as well and I really believe that through some difficult periods in the season, through some difficult periods in the careers of the players then that feeling that you belong can only be built with players growing up together.”

Indeed, the manager now argues that the likes of Wojciech Szczesny and Theo Walcott should also be included in that select group.

“For me, Wojciech is an Arsenal player. Why? Because he grew up here. From 15 years, he was here. It is like Wilshere, who came here at 10 years of age. There’s something more there that you can build on.”

It would be remarkable if the Arsenal Six (or Seven) came even remotely close to emulating the achievements of ‘United’s Class of 92’ but Wenger does not shirk away from the comparison – or the faith he has in them. “Look, that is what is at stake to become successful,” he said. “I would sign up today if you could say this group will become as successful as Manchester United’s players were. But we have to show that. And we have an opportunity to do it.”

Despite the victory over Liverpool last weekend and the superb away 1-0 win against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek it would be three points today that would provide the most compelling evidence that the “opportunity” could be realised. It will, more immediately, be a chance for Arsenal to demonstrate how far they have come since August 2011 - and just how much further they can go.