As Arsene Wenger prepares to head to White Hart Lane for Arsenal's crucial encounter with Tottenham Hotspur, he must surely be praying that his club's remarkable unbeaten streak against its North London rivals holds out for one more engagement.

Arsenal was last beaten by Spurs in the league back in November of 1999. For the white half of North London this intolerable drought would be worth it if they could crush Arsenal's slim title hopes with a win at the Lane, Wednesday morning our time.

After a string of injuries and heavy losses to fellow top of the table rivals Manchester United and Chelsea, the Gunners have defied expectations and fought back to give themselves a shot at the title.

If they fail to overtake Chelsea (and with the form Ancelloti's men are in, they don't look like dropping points anytime soon) it will be a fifth consecutive season in which Wenger has failed to deliver a trophy to the Emirates Stadium.

And in the generation-now culture of 21st century football this is all that matters for the vast majority of fans who obsess about the game.

Not Wenger though. Despite the trophy drought he insists his team are capable of greatness. Not everyone shares his faith in a squad that looks frail and thin. The Gunners manager remains stubbornly resolute as always.

The mercurial Frenchman has revolutionised Arsenal and indeed English football since arriving at a moribund Highbury to take over from Bruce Rioch in September 1996. Few could have imagined what the virtually unknown Frenchman with the professorial demeanour had in store for the Gunners and the game.

He brought an insistence on players who could pass and move, maintain possession and play at constant intensity with precision and flair. The likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry amongst others brought to an end the "Boring, Boring, Arsenal!" image of the club.

"Wenger ball" as it became known set a new standard in the EPL, one beautifully counterbalanced by Sir Alex Ferguson's similarly skilful and combative Manchester United teams. "Wenger Ball" reached its apex with Arsenal's team of "Invincibles" who went the entire 2003-2004 season unbeaten in the league, a run that extended to a remarkable 49 matches in total.

Times have been more challenging since then. A move away from Highbury to a new stadium has meant the purse strings have been tightened whilst other clubs shack up with mega rich oligarchs and Middle Eastern principalities.

And last week's Lionel Messi clinic in Barcelona cruelly exposed the current gulf between Wenger's aspiration and ambition for his team and the reality of what it is currently capable of.

Wenger is a curious mix of philosopher, politician, football obsessive and competitor with a street fighters thirst for victory. His run-in with fellow managers Sir Alex Ferguson, Sam Allardyce and more lately Tony Pulis of Stoke and Phil Brown formerly of Hull City speak of his intolerance and contempt for football's pragmatists. Kick them off the park, lump it forward, pinch one on the break, do whatever it takes to win.

To hear Arsene Wenger moaning about teams not coming to play football is at times infuriating even for his ardent supporters (of which I am one). You don't go to an AC/DC show hoping to hear a Chopin piano concerto. Yet Wenger insists on it, almost in a belief that the game is owed something greater than a Rory Delap throw-in.

His almost comical blindness to his own player's misdemeanours is legend. When Patrick Vieira and friends were picking up more cards than Joe Hachem in the late 90's, Wenger never admitted to seeing a single infringement.

For all that though, Wenger has set a new standard for the game to aspire to. And whilst his burning desire to win the UEFA Champions League has eluded him once again, you get the feeling his time will come.

And if it does, the team that Arsene built will be one hell of a team to watch.