Several reasons.
1) I believe this to be the most important factor. Cliques in the
Arsenal locker room, dominated by the French players. I am sure
most of u have read or heard about the fact that the French players
are kings in the dressing room. Somehow, the french clique seems to
think that with a French boss in charge, they can rule the roast.
Ashley Cole, Graham Stack have said it several times that the
French clique has caused morale to dip in the locker room. Remember
Reyes was once tricked into saying he wanted to join Real Madrid?
It emerged that he was unhappy at Arsenal and that there is no
unity in the locker room, which of course points at factions at
Highbury. When u have unhappy players, how do u expect them to gel
as a team? Robert Pires seems to be buddy-buddy with Henry more
than others, as seen in that crap penalty against Man City. And
when Vieira left the club, who voiced out his displeasure early on?
Pires and Henry again. If nothing is done, the team may no longer
be able to play as a team again. Something has to give.
2)The Vieira factor. He was never adquately replaced. Helb is more
of an attack-minded player, and we can't really expect Gilberto to
do two jobs. Flamini, Fabregas are still too young, although the
young players are improving pretty fast. Clichy, Senderos, Flamini,
Reyes, persie, Fabregas will be the heart of the team in time to
come. But right now, they still need time and experience. they need
a leader on the pitch, which Vieira was to Arsenal. Henry has too
many responsbilities on his hand now. Sign a world-class central
midfielder, and things in the middle will return to normal.
3)The Chelsea factor. Arsene has spent a lot of team to attack
Chelsea in the paprs. It only goes to show that Arsene has silently
admit that Chelsea is the team of the EPL. Arsene used to only
worry about Sir Alex, now he has to contend with Mourinho also. And
their never-ending pocket gives Arsene a bigger headache. Arsenal
as a whole seems to worry about Chelsea too much to realise that
there are 18 other teams in the EPL too. They think how to play
catch-up with Chelsea such that they didn't really think much about
other teams. That's why West Brom was able to beat them. That's why
Tottenham, Wigan are now in front of them in the table
