We are going to hear from every man and his dog on how our defence is a mess, how Wenger could have bought Cahill or Vidic or gone back in time to bring back Tony Adams but what we keep forgetting is that the best defenders would suffer in our team if we don’t do little things right because its the little things that are punishing us emphatically

Gutted!!! That’s the feeling of every Arsenal fan at the moment. We took 2 steps forward from the past week, then 5 steps backward this weekend.

Blackburn away wasn’t going to be an easy match but we are The Arsenal and we should be winning games like this.

I didn’t watch the 1st half so I can’t say much about the half but I know we were the better side and we went into the break leading 2-1. I also know we should have closed the game up and entered the break at 3-1 or 4-1 had our dominance played off.

We came back from the break with a slim advantage to build on which I would have given my arm for before the start of the game yet we ended  up losing. It is shocking how all 4 of their goals were preventable.

1st goal – Andre Santos played Yakubu onside when we were trying to keep an offside trap.

2nd goal – Song scores an own goal

3rd goal – Yakubu scores an offside goal

4th goal – Djourou makes an harsh of a challenge and allows Olsson through who puts the ball into the 18′ and with bad positioning, Koscielny puts the ball into his own net from little or no pressure.

We keep banging on about making our dominance count and dash that ‘glimmer of hope’ most of our opponents have when they face us.

In our last 3 matches, our opponents have had that ‘glimmer of hope’ – Swansea couldn’t nick a goal, Dortmund nicked a goal to level the score at the death, Blackburn took full advantage and punished us taking all 3 pts. These are matches that we were leading but still there was a chance to steal it from us.

We are going to hear from every man and his dog on how our defence is a mess, how Wenger could have bought Cahill or Vidic or gone back in time to bring back Tony Adams but what we keep forgetting is that the best defenders would suffer in our team if we don’t do little things right because its the little things that are punishing us emphatically.

Defending is an act all our players must master, it shouldn’t be left for the back 5 to do all by themselves. Our front 3 should know that by pressing hard it puts the opposition in a tight corner to make that odd mistake in their own half. Creating at that point is always very easy like we saw against Dortmund when Theo put in a through ball for RVP to smash home. That was the only time we did it in that game and it paid dividends.

We also saw what a pressing game can do, two seasons back when we hit Everton with 6 goals or last season when we beat Chelsea 3-1.

The pressing game makes life easier for a team like us who are always on the offensive. Don’t give the opposition time on the ball because they would walk their way into our defence leaving our back 5 vulnerable to that odd and ugly goal.

We are not a team and never a team that can invite pressure so why not do the right thing and build a brick wall from the front.

Another thing I’ve noticed in our side is our lack of options. This season is just 6 weeks old yet I’ve seen UTD’s boss start games with a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. There isn’t a chance in hell that an opposition would go into a game against them with a concrete game plan.

We shouldn’t be going into games with our traditional formation, we have real good options in the squad where Wenger can play with formations, it gives the players a sense of belonging.

Why hasn’t RVP and Chamakh started a game together? Why haven’t we tested Theo as an out and out striker? Why has Arshavin not been tested in the hole just behind the striker? Why haven’t we played with 2 wingers, with 2 CMs in a 4-4-2 formation? These are patterns that would surely keep the opposition guessing our next move.

Our next 3 games in the league(Bolton, Spurs and Sunderland) aren’t going to be an easy ride, failure to take at least 7 points from these games will further push us into a position a team like ours shouldn’t be in. We should pick our selves up, dust ourselves and stop feeling sorry for ourselves. The time is now, we shouldn’t let this problem continue cutting deep else we would be in a precarious position come end of season.

We are The Arsenal, time to start acting like The Arsenal of old!!

C’mon You Gooners.