SOCCER/ FA Premiership - What next for Arsenal?: With the Premiership title secured early, Arsene Wenger's close season has now started. He can be counted on to keep turning up for the matches, but it will be up to his players to generate the motivation to finish the league programme unbeaten.
Though Arsenal are far beyond their domestic rivals, there is still a gap to be closed. The achievements have never quite matched the public's admiration for the side. Arsenal were breathtaking in the Double-winning years of 1998 and, particularly, 2002 but they themselves ran out of puff in both attempts to hold on to the title.
Despite the mesmerising displays of poise at pace, the team still face the challenge of improving. They have never been further than the last eight of the Champions League. Having collected another set of Premiership medals, Wenger's men should now acquire greater faith in themselves and, with it, a deeper ambition.
Wenger is sure Arsenal can only improve. With half-a-dozen of Sunday's starting line-up aged 27 or under there is superficial support for the proposition, but he will have to intervene to keep his side on track. It is a problem that a key influence is also the oldest outfield player.
Tireless scampering may not do much good if Dennis Bergkamp is not on duty to guide it. This season has already been a bonus for a veteran who pulled himself out of a gentle decline. He has an ache in his heart to win the Champions League, but for how much longer will it override soreness in the legs? He turns 35 next month and, even if he does agree a new contract, Wenger will use him more sparingly in future. And when the forward is rested, one of the main supply lines to Thierry Henry will be cut.
The manager is already trying to address that matter and having signed Jose Antonio Reyes he may now buy Robin van Persie from Feyenoord. Wenger never has been in awe of experience and his emphasis on youthful energy has served Arsenal well, but neither of those new faces can conceivably have Bergkamp's guile.
Any satisfaction with the current squad is foolish if it assumes the injury rate will remain low. The club could be disproportionately harmed by one piece of sheer bad luck.
It is impossible to visualise them flourishing for long without Thierry Henry. In attack, the options are on the decrease. Sylvain Wiltord and Nwankwo Kanu are expected to depart shortly at the end of their contracts and, although Everton are sending Francis Jeffers back to Highbury, it would be uncanny if he became a belated success. So far, too, Jeremie Aliadiere lacks the physique.
The £10 million used in January for the initial payments on Reyes probably constituted about half of Wenger's transfer budget. The bulk of the remainder could be used to buy van Persie and bring in a goalkeeper such as Southampton's Antti Niemi or Parma's Sebastien Frey to replace Jens Lehmann.
Lehmann once hit a team-mate in Germany and he appears to have matured only so far as to lay hands on opponents instead, which he did again on Sunday to give Spurs the stoppage-time penalty for a 2-2 draw.
A manager obsessed with goalkeepers' reaction-times should have taken more note of Lehmann's hair-trigger temper.
The financial position at Highbury is much improved but Wenger will still be disadvantaged in comparison with Chelsea and Manchester United. He needs to develop his club from within, providing more chances for Gael Clichy and introducing Philippe Senderos, the Swiss centre-half who has suffered the sort of growing pains that once afflicted Steven Gerrard.
David Bentley, too, has to accelerate his transition from the reserves. Wenger may even wonder whether there might after all be a future for the sometimes undisciplined Jermaine Pennant when his loan spell at Leeds ends.
Arsenal need greater numbers to guard their supremacy. There can be no complacency if they are to savour an extended domination which others are taking for granted.
