Tuesday’s League Cup defeat to League Two side Bradford was a watershed moment for Arsenal.

For so long, manager Arsene Wenger did not consider the tournament worthy of concern even during much of the seven year trophy drought at the club.

But there was something different about this season. With a place in the semi-final up for grabs, Wenger chose to field an almost full-strength team and still fell short.

Such a prospect was unthinkable eight years ago as the Invincibles swept all before them.

But of course there were no sheikhs to shake up the league at Manchester City and Roman Abramovich had just taken up camp at Chelsea.

Way back then, Wenger was revered for the manner he turned raw youngsters into world class stars. This preceded his time at the Gunners. At Monaco in the late 80s and early 90s he helped developed future World Cup and World Players of the year such as George Weah, Lilian Thuram, Youri Djorkaef and Emmanuel Petit. 

Rough diamonds

And he took this innate ability to polish rough diamonds to Arsenal where Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas and Patrick Vieira benefited from his expertise.

Arsenal’s foundations were built on recruiting youngsters from far afield – but especially from Wenger’s native France – and integrating them into the first team.

But that approach cannot work as effectively anymore because Arsenal no longer have the pick of Europe’s best youngsters. Other Premier League clubs’ scouting networks cottoned on to what was going on at the Emirates and in terms of recruitment have caught up.

A cursory glance at the youth academies of the Premier League’s top sides shows a significant proportion of foreign acquisitions. Most will not make it anywhere near their first teams, unlike at the Emirates.

But as recently as five years ago players like Paul Pogba (formerly at Man United, but now at Juventus) and Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea, but on loan at West Brom) could well have ended up at Arsenal because they had the pick of the emerging talent.

Wenger’s ability to work miracles on small budgets created an unrealistic expectation that he would continually build great teams from scratch.

But any manager on a relatively tight budget would struggle to win trophies in a Premier League saturated with the mega bucks of Manchester City and Chelsea.

And when average players like Gervinho cost more than €13 million, Wenger’s task becomes all the more difficult.

But one type of player that Wenger has struggled to mould is in the heart of the defence.

Famous Four

Sebastien Squillachi and Pascal Cygan are two examples. Neither player arrived at the club at a young age but they were expected to improve under Wenger’s tutelage. A series of blunders and shaky performances put paid to that hope.

Wenger’s early success was aided considerably by a famous back four of Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn and David Seaman in goal.

That solidity has never been truly replaced with the noteable exceptions of Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole in the intervening period.

Of the current crop of centre-backs at the Emirates, there is some talent. Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacher and Laurent Koscielny have ability – their individual shortcomings aside - but Wenger has been unable to create a formidable unit.

It has become all the more apparent that the great defence he inherited in August 1996 was the foundation behind Wenger’s trophy success at Arsenal.

New assistant boss Bould was prematurely praised earlier this season for helping the Arsenal defence turn a corner after three clean sheets in the first three league games.

But from reports emanating from the Emirates, Bould has not been given free rein to organise the defence.

The results would not bear fruit instantly but Wenger would be wise to give the former Gunners centre-half a chance to pass on his expertise.

In the short-term however Wenger will hope to guide Arsenal to a win at Reading tomorrow - a team the Gunners defeated 7 - 5 in the last round of the League Cup.