Did Isaac Newton discover the falling apple or did the falling apple discover Isaac Newton?

Whichever way, the gravity of Arsène Wenger’s stubborness to change tactics within sufficient time has left Arsenal short of one of its best chances of silverware in four seasons.

Now, it’s taken a while to take the longue durée of how Arsenal has been shaping up since dropping two points to Liverpool in December and even before Fabregas’ delightful return, the team had begun to turn the corner, namely through Song’s fine-tuning to a near-Paul Davies prototype and Arshavin a descant to Bergkamp.

But, Arsène Wenger’s thinking on Saturday should be held publicly accountable to paying supporters.

If ever Arsène Wenger wanted to tell the fans the club had turned the corner, failure in Saturday’s semi-final was the one time to blame him alone for what can only be the most crass of tactics he has ever deployed in North London.

At first glance, there was little wrong with his team selection, assuming Wenger aimed to contain and frustrate Chelsea for the first half before upping the pace in the second, all while keeping the squad reasonably rotated and fresh for the coming fortnight’s tests of endurance.

But surely Arsène Wenger himself can admit his own tactics single-handedly fell off the pace?

Song should have played in place of Diaby allowing room for Fabregas to play close to the hole and allowing for any one of Nasri, Arshavin, Vela or even Diaby to replace Denilson, Song or Van Persie with at least half hour of the game to play in order to provide width, pace and vision on the left.

Song’s increasingly perfect pitch allows Denilson to express his game and covers his relative weakness to track back and reclaim the ball. Likewise it has worked with Diaby, but not with Fabregas on the same terrain.

Insisting to start Diaby with Van Persie played strangely out of position should have required Fabregas to play a deeper collection and distribution role. This did not materialize however, painting the midfield maestro a superviolet alongside much of the team after the first 15 minutes.

And for those first 15 minutes, Arsenal kept the ball from Chelsea’s possession for the most part.

Afterwards, however, as all too often after the first goal, the collective foot came off the pedal and, for the most part, the team struggled to find gear again while the mainstay of its creative engine and high-power torque remained sat on the mechanic’s bench.

Arsenal’s collective failure to be a truly rampant force requires the club’s coach to inform the opinion fueling his convictions. Either that or he must change his rose-tinted windscreen.

Walcott’s pace is wasted on the right flank. He needs to receive the ball earlier, nearer the half-way line and provide the early cross, as the Old Trafford pairing of Giggs and Beckham once did.

Failing that, Walcott should move more inside. Walcott is no longer a fledgling, work-in-progress, and neither will it take too long to lose both his technical sharpness and the confidence required to become a devastating one-on-one striker if the fruits of his potential remain undernourished.

Bendtner and Diaby must both be reviewed. Diaby is football’s Graham Hick. Often superfluous to England’s batting line-up, an occasional innings of brilliance preserved Hicks call-up yet he could never match public expectation with consistency.

Similarly, Bendtner’s ability to be in the right place at the right time are not matched by his poor first touch and woeful finishing. Better options to both players would be Yohan Gourcuff and the Colombian 21-year old striker Carlos Quintero currently playing for Mexico’s Santos Laguna.

For the remainder of the season, Arsenal have little chance of squeezing the Premiership title. Looking at the run-in, Liverpool would seem favourites to edge it by two points from Manchester United. A committed flourish could see Arsenal finish a point or two further off in third position.

However, the UEFA Champions League does offer a true alternative for a trophy, but not if Wenger continues to think he can assemble a finely-tuned European superteam using kit car spare parts and wishful thinking.

Saturday’s gameplan will remain a sorer point of Arsenal folklore than that red card against Barcelona.