Hello there,

I am Mean Lean and it is nice to meet you. It certainly feels like my first ever post such is the length of time since I last wrote a blog. Before you hammer me for hiding away when the going got tough, I would like to point the finger at my lovely hosting company. They decided to suspend my account without informing me that a renewal was due. Ok, mistakes happen. I shall just pay it and then I can get back to waffling about the Arsenal. No, not so simple. They thought it would be fine to take my cash and then disappear off the face of the earth without putting the site back to live.

As you can imagine, Mean Lean turned into Meaner Lean and I was not at all happy especially when I had plenty to say.

For those who can be bothered to revisit the match, I have scribbled down (with my computer) my thoughts here.

It has meant that I have missed what is I think my first ever Match preview which isn’t much on the face of it but it slightly messes up my head as historically the site is now incomplete maybe in the summer I will be disturbed enough to write one and sneak it into the site without newsnow and twitter finding out. That would be a little worrying and sad wouldn’t it? *ahem*

Oh and don’t worry my prediction was incorrect once again. I went for a 0-0 draw so nothing changes there then. I look at my predictions as a Robin Van Persie free kick. Used to be good and still hope that it will come good only to see it horribly fail.

I remember the good old days when I got the score correct and even predicted that Van Persie would score his first free kick of the season and I got them all right. Perhaps I have lost my prediction making confidence.

Which actually brings me onto something I wanted to say a few days ago when Arsenal Vision was wrongly locked away in suspension prison.

I want to talk about the confidence of the team and the Carling cup final defeat. Many have pinpointed the final defeat as the turning point, the point where our confidence has vanished but the more I hear that the more I scratch my head. Personally I didn’t think we were anywhere near the level we should have been at from the start.

The last time we sparkled was the home tie against Barcelona 11 days earlier. Domestically it was against Wolves four days prior to the Barcelona game. Something happened after that Barcelona game because our performances were not the same again afterwards.

We drew away at Leyton Orient with a second string side then scraped through against Stoke at the Emirates. A performance that had worried me a little. Cesc had gone off injured and the team lost their fluency, lost the urgency, lost the pace in our football but most importantly lost the fight.

Why did this happen?

Once it went then that was pretty much it for the season. We almost lost the hope of silverware by beating Barcelona at home.

After that defeat, these were our following results.

Arsenal               2 – 1      Barcelona     (CL)
Leyton Orient      1 – 1      Arsenal        (FA)
Arsenal               1 – 0      Stoke          (PL)
Arsenal               1 – 2      Birmingham   (CC)
Arsenal               5 – 0      Leyton Orient  (FA)
Arsenal               0 – 0      Sunderland    (PL)
Barcelona            3 – 1      Arsenal         (CL)
Man Utd             2 – 0      Arsenal         (FA)
West Brom         2 – 2      Arsenal         (PL)
Arsenal               0 – 0      Blackburn      (PL)
Blackpool            1 – 3      Arsenal          (PL)
Arsenal               1 – 1      Liverpool       (PL)
Tottenham          3 – 3      Arsenal         (PL)
Bolton                2 – 1      Arsenal         (PL)
Arsenal               1 – 0      Man Utd      (PL)

I would go as far as to say that we didn’t look anywhere near our best until the first 45 minutes at White Hart Lane. That is 12 games without the usual sharpness and fluency in our play. Perhaps the huge amount of fixtures that we had to deal with in such a short space of time took their toll. Perhaps the energy of the players went down to empty at the crucial time but I refuse to believe that a Carling Cup final defeat can destroy a season.

I cannot fathom how a player would think during a match ‘oh I cannot put in the effort to close that player down because of that CC defeat’

No team in Premier League history had as many games to deal with in such little time and that could well be the reason for the slump. If that is the case then perhaps the manager deserves a portion of the blame as clearly the rotation of the squad was not adequate enough.

Wenger will strengthen the squad in the summer and I understand that it needs reinforcing but I truly believe that we had more than enough to win the league this year. I believe we are the best equipped squad in the league and should have been successful this year.

A team that has beaten Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea at the Emirates as well as the best away record in the league clearly has what it takes. With an average age of 23 years, I am honestly astonished at the anger by Arsenal fans but I clearly understand the frustration at dropping the ball in such a good position.

I totally agree with absolutely everything that Wojciech Szczesny says today.

“It’s ridiculous really,” (Criticism of Wenger) he said. “If you ask any of the players they will stand by the manager. He built this team from nothing and I believe he is the best manager in the world.

“We are a young team, we still believe we have a lot of years ahead of us and a lot of trophies to win. Let’s be patient and show that we are good enough.

“We all take individual responsibilities for our mistakes. Everyone has played their part in this season’s disappointment and I think we have to take it as a team. You can’t blame the boss because he stood by the team the whole season and supported us.

“Next season, we need to prove that we can step up. I believe we are good enough to step up and win the league. Let’s show everyone that we are capable of doing it.”

I think everyone needs to shoulder some blame this season but the foundations are clearly in place. That sounds as if it is the beginning so I will change that. The building has been erected for use of a better word, the foundations are more than solid and the mortgage has been paid unlike many other clubs who have crumbly buildings that are falling apart whilst they struggle to pay the rent.

Anyway on another note, what do you make of the new kit? I quite like it and even the badge is pretty good. People don’t usually like change and I am the same but I actually like the leaves.

Ok, I am off. Enjoy your day.

Back tomorrow.