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It feels like you can speak to a person for hours, explaining to them that we choose not to take the route of a sugar daddy, we stuck to our principles and our aims have silently been lower than usual. We've had to wait and we're just now seeing the benefits of the situation, it would have taken any team 2-3 years (with the availability of players) to go from being a 4th competing squad to a sound title winning squad. You can come out of that conversation feeling nothing you say will get through, because when a set of bad results happen, people ignore the context of our situation and look at the last 9 years without a trophy as a succession of failure upon failure. They look at the last 9 years without a trophy as a failure, yet if we win the F.A. Cup this season, it will somehow, still be seen as failure by many due to our late performances in the league and so on.

One could put this down to changes in personal but for more than one player to make the same mistake over and over again, you have to wonder if they even bother looking into fixing the increasing number of things currently going wrong. Of course, once you establish defensive stability with a settled back four, it might be difficult for new players to come in and maintain that. Although, this is an argument that is countered by the fact Everton have, in recent weeks, been forced to field John Stones at the heart of their defence. Against Arsenal, the 19 year old with less than 20 Premier League appearances to his name looked far more assured and far more comfortable than any one of our own back four on the day. Stones has manfully stepped in for the injured Phil Jagielka in a way Thomas Vermaelen cannot seem to be able to do for Laurent Koscielny.

Finally we have Wilshere, the main reason I don’t think we will dip into the transfer market for a midfielder. Wilshere has been heralded, by some overeager fans and a hyperbolic media, as the future of Arsenal Football Club and the savior of English football. I don’t necessarily agree or disagree as he certainly has the potential to do it but also has a great number of flaws in his game. With a suspect injury record it is hard to place too much burden on a player of his fragile frame; in addition I think flaws in his current game include his decision making, reckless tackling and a propensity for giving away possession in key areas; but it is his raw, unrefined talent for picking the ball up, riding challenges and orchestrating attacks via intricate flicks and sublime pieces of control that make him such a mouthwatering prospect. Ozil is clearly our number 10 and Ramsey has nailed down the box to box position in midfield; I think if Wilshere is looking to play centrally, which a player of his ability should,

Our goal-scorer on the day was a revitalised Matthiu Flamini who got on the end of a Lukas Podolski low cross (see!) to hit home a well-deserved equaliser. Our tenacious Frenchman went some way to making amends after his gut-wrenching late own goal last Tuesday, not simply by scoring, but an-round action man like performance in the middle of the park. So much so, City's in-form and usually terrifying midfield beast Yaya Toure was uncharacteristically subdued. Seemingly taking it upon himself to play in a slightly more advanced role, Flamini helped Arsenal gain a foothold on a game that was in danger of running away from them before the break. Having already found himself in the box to score a rightly disallowed offside goal in the first half, he then encapsulated what was a far braver team

Equally disappointing by way of ‘response’ was the feeble showing going forward for much of the game. Aside from a 60 second blitz to temporarily turn the game in our favour, it was a poor display from a limp forward line that barely put the opposition defence under any serious pressure. Olivier Giroud may have scored (and of course, that is a good thing) but his overall performance was both infuriating yet predictable. Constantly out of position, continued failure to provide an outlet and being easily muscled off the ball are unfortunately all things we come to expect. Dare I even say that some people actually expect too much from the Frenchman. An average centre forward playing very much like you’d expect an average centre forward would do. When fans get angry and waste

They have frequently been found wanting, lacking the requisite collective mental and physical edge needed to see off the opposition. They have too often this season, been bested in dramatic fashion by their top four domestic competitors.  Perhaps there are too many footballing passengers in this team hoping a few fellow players will carry them to a win. Some fans and pundits have criticised Wenger for being stuck in his ways. But perhaps he should revert back to his previous winning model of power and precision and abandon this feint-hearted tika-tika football experiment. Perhaps he should build a new team based on his previous proven winning formula of power, speed, clinical finishing and defending and in addition to the possession and triangular passing football he craves.

Going into this game, the manager had never beaten Jose Mourinho and afterwards, never looked further away from doing so. Of course, the usual talk of not being able to compete with their spending/squad/whatever will be levied but when you think that they are coming off the back of a defeat at Villa & the likes of West Brom have given them more of a scare at their place this season, Arsenal's pathetic surrender becomes even more inexcusable. Painting Chelsea as some sort of unbeatable, unstoppable force falls foul in the face some of their results against teams far further down the pecking order than Arsenal. This was the first time they had scored 6 goals against anybody this year and also the first time in two spells under Mourinho - statistic that unfortunately says more

Anyway Arsène's impact was instant I mean, winning the double in your first full season is taking the piss, especially when you consider that the club had not won the title since 1990/91. To be honest it must have been a piece of cake to a new man who came into a league where post match pints was the norm. Also the technical level of the league was poor considering the limited amount of foreign imports in the country at that time. It must have been like walking into a race where all your competitors were off their faces after an all night bender and you are one of the few sober runners. This isn't to down play Arsène's early success but he was a man way ahead of the opposition. The only club Arsène had to deal with was Alex Ferguson's Manchester United who were ahead of the opposition themselves not down to foreign methods but down to

In the North London derby, ludicrous, fantastical notions of ‘playing the Tottenham way’ or ‘Wengerball’ essentially go out the window as simply securing a victory is all that matters. Nothing reinforced that fact more than the latest tête-à-tête between Arsenal and Spurs. Arsenal took an earlier lead but failed to capitalise, spent much of the game on the back foot and ultimately, looked second best. However, for all their possession and positive approach, our rivals could not find a way through and still found themselves on the receiving end of defeat. While there may be a worry or two over the way the team played and struggled to get a proper foothold on the game, the end result was the only thing that mattered. It may well have been one of the least enjoyable matches to watch

I love Olivier Giroud, I think his contribution to the team is often overlooked by those who favour pointing out he isn't as ostentatious as previous incumbents of his position. However, when isolated up front whilst the rest of the team defends, he can often be maddeningly ineffectual. Today he looked a touch lethargic and his control, which is usually very good, let him down on numerous occasions. Also, The Ox was jarringly profligate in front of goal, and I'm still yet to decide what he was trying to do when put clean through. A crafty dink? A pass? It was bloody awful. I know that much.