Thomas Vermaelen started the season very well, our defensive shape looked good and he was a big part of that. In recent weeks he has been a mess. Error ridden, nervous and the complete opposite of what you expect from your captain. I do not want this to come across as knee jerk because it isn’t as I wasn’t comfortable with this from the start but Laurent Koscielny was head and shoulders our best defender last season and in my eyes, it was always Koscielny plus one. He has had a bit part role this season and is now out of sorts

I have been given stick in the past for generally leaning towards a more positive persuasion, for picking out good things to talk about. This hasn’t been a deliberate ploy, it is just how I tend to try and enjoy football, I figure, if you cannot gain any joy from associating yourself to Arsenal FC then what is the point but there are times where digging through a display in search of what you want is an almost impossible task.

Something is wrong with this Arsenal squad and many people will have their versions of what that/those problems are. Manchester United were head and shoulders the better side yesterday and you will not get any argument against that. In fairness, a team at home, with the investment they have had both in terms of transfer fees and wages are likely to be the better side. Many good teams will go to Manchester United and lose football matches. It wasn’t so much about how good they were but just how bad we were.

It felt like we had transported the Norwich display, upped the commitment just a tad and landed at Old Trafford. We are completely out of ideas, no imagination, zero creativity and I just do not understand why this is.

When I look at the players on the pitch I cannot help but see a very good squad of players. You cannot tell me that a midfield of Arteta, Wilshere and Cazorla is not full of quality both on and without the ball. We have a German who has an incredible scoring rate for Germany and his previous clubs along with a physical presence who finished his league season with Montpellier as top scorer. Yet, none of this is at all visible.

When you are so incredibly blunt, the last thing you need after a couple of minutes is your captain miskicking a simple clearance straight into the path of the best striker in the Premier League. His first touch of the fooking game and he hits it low past the diving Mannone.

Thomas Vermaelen started the season very well, our defensive shape looked good and he was a big part of that. In recent weeks he has been a mess. Error ridden, nervous and the complete opposite of what you expect from your captain. I do not want this to come across as knee jerk because it isn’t as I wasn’t comfortable with this from the start but Laurent Koscielny was head and shoulders our best defender last season and in my eyes, it was always Koscielny plus one. He has had a bit part role this season and is now out of sorts. He held what was an overall poor defence together at times last season and was on an upwards curve, he should be starting for Arsenal.

When Chamakh was playing well, Arsene brought back van Persie because he was a better player, the same should be the case with Koscielny. But that wasn’t the issue yesterday, the issue was a group of players trying to play Arsene’s brand of football but whether it is because they are adapting, out of form or not good enough are not playing that brand of football. Couple that with coming second in most duels then you are looking at one outcome.

Arsene’s brand of football continues to be our strength and weakness. Something I have said a few times in the last few weeks. It is what has kept us in the top four while repeatedly selling our best players every season yet it is what costs us time and time again.

Other teams do not have to play well to get results from games, other teams can grind out results because they have an automatic. Defend as a team, keep shape, win duels, score from crosses, long shots or rebounds but Wengerball only has on or off. When it is on we can beat anyone but when it is switched off we can lose to anyone.

The trouble is, nobody knows how to fix it when it isn’t working. It has to mend itself and nobody knows how long that will take. Or how long the fixed version will go on for. It could be Manchester United, Schalke or Norwich, if Wengerball isn’t working then winning football matches is a bloody tough task.

We were not playing collectively with enough aggression, we were second best in so many of the battles. Only Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna played with the required passion needed in a game this big and that is a concern. Andre Santos asking for van Persie’s shirt at half time just does not look good at all. If we were playing well or indeed, he was having a blinder it would still be frowned upon but in that situation with that player is just absurd. It shows a complete lack of awareness to a situation. He must know how Arsenal fans feel about the player and the way he left, he must have known that we were going through a very disappointing first half. While it means nothing on it’s own you cannot imagine that a team desperate to fight for a result running over to claim an opposition shirt half way through the match.

George Graham would have gone berserk if that was during his time.

Jack Wilshere was sent off correctly for a rash challenge on Evra, one that could have done damage. He was warned earlier for a late one on van Persie. He is young and naive, he will learn to control his aggression but at least he has fight in him. If more players approached the game with the same passion then maybe we would have seen a better contest.

Manchester United missed many chances and looked like cruising in 2nd gear for much of the match. We looked like Aston Villa yesterday, Manchester United treated us like we were Aston Villa at Old Trafford and that is not much fun.

I don’t really want to go into anymore points on the game, too depressing really but I do want to say that I do not buy the guff that we are of midtable quality, I think that is hyperbole.

We are currently not on the level of Manchester City, Manchester United and to date, Chelsea. But beneath that we are not worse than any other team in the league. That is not the level that we wish to be at but there is no point in pushing us down the league pretending that we are one of the worst. We are not worse than our combined transfer and wages spend. In fact we have often done better than our spend but what is almightily frustrating is the continued need for transition. We are stuck in limbo, developing our players and then losing vital components of that team.

So is this the board’s fault, are they simply not wanting to spend to improve the squad? Then I read this article from the Daily Mail perhaps they already know what is around the corner while we are all hysterical.

I simply do not know. What is for certain is that we have to address the short term issues with the squad. We will lose at Schalke if we play like we have done in the last few weeks that is for sure. January is too far away to talk about it seriously right now so London Colny is the only place that matters. The only place to improve.

Let us hope that the management team as well as the players all pull their fingers out.