“I believe I’m at the biggest and best club” - the words of Graham Arnold when taking over Sydney FC in May 2014.

Arnold wasn’t the first to invoke that hyperbole at one of the A-League’s so-called glamour clubs, and he surely won’t be the last.

But if Sydney FC truly are a “big” club, then they must expect and accept the attention - good, and bad - that goes with that label.

As things stand, the Sky Blues are 7th in the Hyundai A-League table. True, it’s the first time under Arnold’s reign that they have slipped out of the finals spots, and it was only last May they came within one game of being champions.

But that was then, this is now - and a win over Guangzhou Evergrande, as thrilling as that was, won’t be enough to paper over the cracks of an increasingly brittle domestic campaign, if results don’t improve.

Arnold doesn’t like the scrutiny his team is under at the moment. He won’t like this article. That’s unfortunate - but it can’t be helped. He feels it’s unfair to magnify Sydney’s failings when - for example - his old club, Central Coast Mariners, are enduring a woeful season, with just three wins all season.

Arnold believes there is a campaign to drive him out of Sydney FC. There isn’t. I haven’t heard one call for his dismissal from any fan, or facet of the media - perhaps for the simple reason that last year (and his previous triumphs) have bought him some time. Generally, Arnold is well-liked, respected, and has enough credit in his coaching bank to have earned him the right to try and correct the current malaise.

“Sack Arnie” agendas? Laughable. The truth is, Arnold has more friends in the Australian media than most. That’s not a slight against the Sydney FC coach - it’s a smart move on his behalf to have made allies down the years. Terry Venables and Harry Redknapp cultivated similar relationships in England. Relationships which - in the end - every coach needs when the inevitable sticky patch arrives. Just ask Holger Osieck.

Graham Arnold. Source: Getty Images

But not every journalist can be expected to toe the party line. The fans who pay their money every week want answers, and the media is duty bound to critique a self-styled big club, when it is underperforming.

There are mitigating factors to Sydney’s slide this season. The departure of Marc Janko and Bernie Ibini stand out - as does the mid-season flight of Alex Gersbach, plus the injury to the influential Alex Brosque. Filip Holosko hasn’t quite worked out as hoped as marquee, while Milos Dimitrijevic has been a shadow of the player who cleaned up at the clubs annual awards last season.

There have been plus points too. Especially the emergence of Brandon O’Neill, the improvement in Matt Jurman, and the gradual increase in output of Milos Ninkovic.

Still, the fact remains that Sydney are winless in seven, and have beaten only three clubs this season - Newcastle Jets (three times), Central Coast Mariners (twice), and Western Sydney Wanderers (twice). Four of those wins came by virtue of goals in the 82nd minute or later, and the team hasn’t won outside New South Wales all season.

But Sydney FC isn’t having any of it - insisting they are the victims of an insidious campaign.

The persecution complex started in earnest in late January, when they bristled at criticism of their defensive display in the Big Blue loss to Melbourne Victory. The club circulated an email the following week, containing statistics that proved (in their opinion), that the Sky Blues had actually played an attacking game - by courtesy of having made more entries into the final third, more penalty area incursions, and a similar number of total passes (to Victory) in the opposition half.

Personally, I didn’t buy it - but whatever. Defensive tactics are a perfectly legitimate part of the game, so long as it achieves the desired result - and therein lies the problem.

Sydney are not achieving results, even though they have tempered their approach of late. They will point out that, in their last seven games, they have played Victory (twice), Brisbane, City, Perth, Adelaide and Wanderers - all of the clubs now currently above them in the top six. They have lost only two of those games by more than one goal, and they should have beaten the Wanderers a third time. Fine margins and all that.

But that’s the measure of a big club - you have to win. Sydney FC hasn’t won a title in six years.

Imagine the coach of Manchester United or Real Madrid (some of the clubs that Sydney FC have been compared to - in an Australian context - down the years), being let off lightly with a similar record? No chance.

Constructing conspiracy theories simply doesn’t wash - the media doesn’t put rosters together, select the team, or pick the tactics.

That job belongs to Graham Arnold. At the Mariners, where the spotlight is less intense, a bad run doesn’t draw the same attention. At Sydney FC, they must live with that pressure.

The next two games - against Wellington and Central Coast Mariners - shape as season-defining, and with Roar, Adelaide and Perth to come after that, they must win both.

Because when the heat is on, that’s what big clubs do.