I have purposefully steered clear of reading around too many places, I dread to think what has been said in certain quarters but I can understand the frustration of our supporters. That being said, I can imagine similar conversations being said amongst the Arsenal staff. When the players really needed the

The weather this morning completely reflects my mood today, especially my mood relating to the Arsenal. It has been raining and the sunshine has disappeared from a few days ago. I feel lethargic and unmotivated as my mind fights between playing football this evening or staying in and hopefully watching Real Madrid spank Tottenham. I should not be banking on our neighbours losing to pick me up, that is what Tottenham supporters have been doing for years.

The last few weeks have been very painful. The Carling cup final defeat left a large crack in our season and instead of cementing that crack,  the holes have just got bigger and bigger until the players are left holding onto the sides with their finger tips, we can indeed let go and fall in or climb the hell up.

Questions are being asked of the players, do they really want to put that effort in to get back up or are they just willing to fall?

I have purposefully steered clear of reading around too many places, I dread to think what has been said in certain quarters but I can understand the frustration of our supporters. That being said, I can imagine similar conversations being said amongst the Arsenal staff. When the players really needed the support, the fans were absent, instead using all their energies in sarcastically jeering Manuel Almunia, a goalkeeper who is trying his best but is currently below the levels of confidence that he needs to be at.

I am not shifting all the blame on the supporters, far from it. But it is ironic that so many people have accused the team of lacking back bone and giving everything until the end when a bit more support may or may not have made a difference to the team when it mattered.

Support or no support, the team have no excuses as to why they failed to up the gears in a match of such importance.

I have said several times that we are a momentum team, a team that works when injected with confidence. A team that can fly in September and October but is this feasible over the course of a whole season?

When our momentum is broken and we lose games then our confidence suffers which in turn prevents us from playing at our highest level. This has happened to us since the defeat to Birmingham City and then losing Cesc, Song and Theo Walcott.

Half the games Manchester United have won, they have not played well but they do not need to purr to win games. We have had a few exceptions but generally when we do not play well, when the ball is not moved quickly then we struggle.

Our 4-3-3 midfield has offensively been built around Cesc Fabregas and like the make up of our team, when he plays well then often our attack plays well but without the eye of the needle passing of our captain then Van Persie often becomes isolated and our supply dries up.

How do we fix these problems? That is for the manager to address. Should Arsene continue to manage the squad? That has been a question uttered by many and I am sure it is asked again as I write this but for me this is not even a sensible question.

While our recent failings has been difficult to stomach and our failures are in our face loud and clear, the bigger picture is sitting prettily and proudly in the background, behind all the screaming and wailing.

We are getting frustrated about our team not taking the all important last step. A very important last step that for whatever reason, these players have not been able to make.

My issue is that winning trophies hasn’t just been one step, it has been a long distance trek that many clubs haven’t been able to make before collapsing to the floor.

While fans are screaming for the money to be spent on players or else find another manager who will spend. Ask yourself the question.. where has that money come from?

Arsene Wenger has consistently bought players for cheap and then sold them on for huge profits when the time has been right. Kolo Toure, Nicklas Anelka, Emmanuel Adebayor are a few examples of that. Our managers ability to pick out rough diamonds and then help them fulfil their potential will not continue at that level without him at the club unless somehow the club could find a similar manager with that management gift.

While we all want that next step and for the manager/squad to address the short comings, let us not forget how we got to where we are today. I have been watching the likes of Rafa Benitez, Harry Redknapp, Mark Hughes, Martin O’Neill and many others spend far, far more than Wenger and none of those managers have achieved what Wenger has. Where would we be if we had a reactionary manager pissing all our money up the wall?

Our last long term manager left us bouncing around in midtable with an old squad and no youngsters to speak of coming through the ranks. Today 2nd is not good enough for us and that shows how far our manager has brought us.

This is not to say that Arsene does not have any weakness or can do nothing wrong, we all know that everyone makes mistakes. Even the supporters who list player after player to come in would make far more mistakes than they think they would. The same applies to Wenger.

The Blackburn match for me was strange. I look around the pitch at the outfield players and ask, which player would I replace? Nasri, Van Persie, Walcott, Wilshere, Song, Arshavin, Sagna, Koscielny, Clichy have all been outstanding at many points during the season. Whether you want to add leadership or dribbling ability, energy or goals, who gets sacrificed?

The abilities of the squad players are subjective, but what about the main core of Wenger’s team? What or how do you improve what we have?

Many of those players are not at their peak. Many of those players have levels to go up and they will get there but how do you fix the problems that the squad have?

For what it is worth I think the team lack more fighters like Jack Wilshere, players who leave everything on the pitch. For that reason I would let Arshavin go this summer and replace him but then I go through our first team and I cannot say that player x just does not have the heart to win.

Players like Vieira, Parlour, Ljungberg, Wilshere, Rocastle, Winterburn, Adams, Wright, Frank McLintock and many more fought on the pitch and gave everything they had and I get a sense that part of that is missing from this squad. Sagna, Vermaelen and Wilshere have it every time they step onto the pitch but at times it seems like the rest pick and choose when they have it and it might explain why our defending from the front flickers on and off during the season.

I am not the expert, the manager knows the character of the players more than I do, especially given the last few weeks. So I am sure changes will be made at the end of the season.

It will be interesting to see how the players respond at Blackpool. I like many Gooners are not really interested in hearing the ‘we will fight until the end’ speeches. They should save that for the dressing room, the players need to prove that on the pitch and nowhere else.

Anyway, I shall continue with my doom and gloom but by the time the Arsenal come around, I will be supporting the team and hoping for the best.

Through good and bad, always Arsenal.