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The almost unlimited spending by those two clubs as they sought to build title-winning squads shunted Arsenal down the pack as they found themselves perennially battling for a top four finish rather than the grand prize.
Arsenal’s new place in the food chain meant that, as the club continued to pay for their move to the Emirates Stadium, their best players were cherry-picked by richer sides.
Manchester City, in particular, looked to north London and used the financial might of their Abu Dhabi owners to poach Arsenal’s better players with inflated transfer fees and sky-high wages.
Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure moved to City in 2009 for a combined £41 million and were followed two years later by Frenchmen Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy.
Bacary Sagna trod the familiar path in 2014 after his Arsenal contract expired - but Wenger feels he is now in a position where he does not have to worry so much about feeling the pain of losing his best players to rival clubs.
“It was difficult to take but we had to survive financially and we had to live with it,” Wenger said.
“But we are in a much stronger position today. I cannot say it will never happen again because you never know, but we are in a position today where we don’t have to give in.”
City were not the only club to benefit from the weakness - both financial and in football terms - at Arsenal. The Gunners’ lost their captain in two consecutive years after Cesc Fabregas joined Barcelona in 2011 and Robin van Persie left for Manchester United in 2012.
In the past, there would be a concern that Ozil or Alexis would leave the club next summer and force Arsenal back to square one, especially with their contracts winding down and an expectation on their parts that their contributions to the cause be handsomely rewarded.
Now, though, only the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, and perhaps Bayern Munich, could lure Arsenal’s best players away from the club.
Even then, Ozil was signed from Real Madrid for £42 million in 2013 after being told he could leave and a year later Alexis arrived from Barcelona after being forced out by Luis Suarez’s transfer to the Camp Nou.
Both were second tier players in Spain when compared to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi - but in the Premier League they rank among the very best.
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