The players seem scarred. I’m hoping to tap into the reader’s memory. Do you know any team that has been held to the fire, from fans, from the media, from within, for as long as this team has. Every result since October has been annouced to signal the death of this team

Arsenal didn’t play too well at home to Fulham. To a certain extent it is to be expected. The Gunners played a hi-tempo game in midweek against Roma. They will play again on Tuesday night so they would certainly have had that in mind.

The result was inexcusable. Arsenal started the game with 4 strikers. To be more accurate, it was 3 strikers and one forward playing the support striker position. And the chances were there to win the game. 18 shots on goal, 9 of them on target.

In the last 4 successive goalless draws that Arsenal have been involved in, they’ve made 74 shots on goal. 74 shots on goal, and no goal.

You simply can’t sanely blame Denilson and Song for this. We all know they’ve been the fashionable scape goats. But it’s clear the strikers and front men are misfiring.

It’s not all Bendtner’s pink boots either. In the last 3 home games, Robin Van Persie has missed 1-on-1s when scoring would have signalled a rout. Of course Bendtner hasn’t strongly proven his case. Arshavin hasn’t hit the ground running either. He had his chances too.

This has very much been a miserable season. Understatement, you’ll say. But who would have ever thought in October, while we were scoring goals for fun, but leaking goals, that the situation would be completely upturned in 4 months.

What’s most frustrating is that this team is close. Whatever you might say or want to say, it is telling that we have not lost in the league since mid-November. It is telling that teams can’t score against us, even if, to be fair, we’ve had an easy run of games recently.

Something is blocked in the team. We’re not on the way down. One can say we’re definitely on the up but we’ve plateaued. We’re one emphatic performance away from creating a good run that turns our season around. But something is stuck. I am personally convinced it’s psychological. The players are traumatised by the stick they’ve received this season, a lot of it wild, ridiculous, disgusting and vicious.

The team has been fighting for their lives since September. They’ve been rubbished. They’ve been hounded. They’ve been wrung through 30 million dryers.

It is hard to know what to expect from this team now. We know the league is gone. Even winning all the remaining games would not win it. We know that they can win big games and edge out the bigger teams at home and in Europe. They still have an easy path to the FA Cup.

The players seem scarred. I’m hoping to tap into the reader’s memory. Do you know any team that has been held to the fire, from fans, from the media, from within, for as long as this team has. Every result since October has been annouced to signal the death of this team. They’ve been wrought and perhaps, they are now fraught.

And your friendly blogger, Ole Gunner? Me, I am just exhausted. Emotionally drained, but incapable of stopping to will the team to success.

COME ON YOU MIGHT REDS!!!!!!!