Building up a rickety defence and a lack of confidence will be Arsene Wenger's main task when he prepares Arsenal for Wednesday's crunch Champions League game at PSV Eindhoven.
Arsenal have won only one of their last five Premier League games and only one of their four European matches to date as the champions continue their dazed stumble after being battered by Manchester United at Old Trafford.
United's 2-0 victory on October 24 not only stopped Arsenal's record unbeaten league run at 49 matches, it also sowed the seeds of self-doubt in a team which had hitherto appaered invincible.
Saturday's 1-1 home draw with promoted West Bromwich Albion followed a now familiar pattern of Arsenal taking the lead, missing chances to build on it and then conceding an equaliser.
In their last six draws in all competitions, stretching back to the end of September, Arsenal took the lead every time.
"We couldn't finish the game off and I think it affected our defenders and they took advantage of it," Wenger said after Saturday's setback.
Looking ahead, he added: "The most important thing is to keep the way we want to play and get that nervousness out of our defenders."
If a large part of Arsenal's problems are in the mind, the remainder are located in Sol Campbell's calf.
CYGAN FOCUS
The England central defender has not played in seven matches since that defeat to United and his French replacement, Pascal Cygan, has shouldered much of the blame for Arsenal's relative decline.
Just as United's defence is not the same without Campbell's 2002 World Cup partner Rio Ferdinand, so Arsenal's rearguard struggles when the former Tottenham Hotspur skipper is unavailable.
The point was driven home particularly forcefully in the recent north London derby against Campbell's old club, when Arsenal conceded four times in a 5-4 victory. As one commentator observed wryly afterwards: both teams missed Campbell at the back.
It was all a far cry from their championship-winning performances at the back, with Arsenal letting in only 26 league goals over the whole of last season.
Campbell is nearly fully fit and Wenger will have to decide whether to launch him into the game in Eindhoven or give him an extra few days' preparation for a Premier League return against Liverpool on Sunday.
Wenger's concern at the lack of cover was reflected in Friday's announcement of a deal to bring Ivory Coast defender Emmanuel Eboue to Highbury in the January transfer window.
With or without Campbell, Arsenal need to settle their nerves by Wednesday, when a defeat by the group leaders could well see Wenger's side leapfrogged by Panathinaikos, with just one match left to play against Rosenborg Trondheim.
The omens are not good.
Europe was already a problem even before losing to United, as the previous draws with Rosenborg and Panathinaikos showed.
Now they face their sternest test of the group phase after plenty of possession against West Brom failed to bring them three points and Wenger was left to put a brave face on his team's latest self-inflicted injury.
"I am convinced we are close to our best," said the Frenchman. "But it doesn't mean we don't have any problems."
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