I can understand why Wenger kept Cesc on the pitch even though he was well below his usual high standards. Wenger knows that one moment of vision or timing of run into the box could lead to a goal but it just did not happen

I have so much to say, so many emotions and thoughts swimming around my head after another Arsenal defeat at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.

I have gone from anger and upset to frustration and hope. Hope that we can turn our slump around, it was a slump that has jumped out at us from pretty much nowhere. I have my own views as to why we are going through yet another November slump.

Much of the post match reaction has been about how the players do not care, how they are continuing to show complacency and I cannot sign up to that way of thinking, at least not yesterday. It was certainly the case at Shakhtar Donetsk a few days ago but I am not so sure that the same problem remained over the weekend.

In my pre match preview I said that I would change my predicted line up to a team that I would like to see playing instead of one that I thought Wenger would play, well I certainly got my wish. Probably the strongest squad we have had at our disposal for a number of years. Our first eleven had plenty of creativity and combinations, speed, incisive passing and goal scoring. If the worst came to the worst we had a bench full of international quality who could make a difference for most teams in world football.

Instead we were witnessing a team who looked as if they had been thrown together, clueless in the final third, lacking imagination and invention. Why was this? How could a team who had previously scored goals for fun at the Emirates look so lacklustre?

Personally I believe it is down to the rotation of the squad. Given the way our team is built and structured, we require momentum, rhythm and confidence. We play a different brand of football to most, especially in the Premier League and our way of playing means that everything has to be correct for the Arsenal machine to run smoothly.

The Carling Cup, the Champions League and International football has meant plenty of rotation, plenty of resting thus turning off the engine of momentum. We are a momentum side who when purring are irresistible and very difficult to stop, when our players have a break then we come back cold, stuttery and out of sorts.

In my mind it is why we come back so poorly after International football whilst others seem to take it in their strides.

At the start of the season the players who played had the whole of pre season training plus the pre season games and after gaining some match sharpness at Anfield we scored 6 against Blackpool, beat Blackburn away, 4 against Bolton and then another 6 against Braga in the Champions League. Those same players had played through pre season and had played continuously.

In October-November we have players who haven’t played 2-3 games in a row or players just coming back from injury and this disrupts the whole team especially when it is more than one player.

Cesc Fabregas started the season at Ewood park and was below par but was carried by the rest of his team mates who had played since the start of the season. Yesterday Sagna, Koscielny, Cesc and Song all did not start in the Ukraine, if they had and had played well then I am sure that it would have been a different performance.

It is no surprise that a strong Arsenal team blasted five past Shakhtar at the Emirates then played fantastically well against Manchester City scoring three more only to make mass changes for the Carling Cup, then once the first teamers came back in we struggled to find our game against West Ham at home.

This was not the first time. A couple of seasons ago a youthful vibrant Carling Cup team destroyed Sheffield United at the Emirates then the first team came back a few days later to produce dross against Hull City. I am sure I could find some more examples if I think long enough.

Arsene Wenger cannot play his strongest side in every game, that would be impossible but a balance needs to be found.

It would be all to easy to point the blaming finger in the direction of Lukasz Fabianski who should have done better when attempting to collect the ball at the head of Carroll but the defending was far worse than Fabianski’s error. Chamakh was detailed to pick up the forward but let him go Carroll was unmarked at the far post and shouldn’t have been. It would be easy to forget his recent run of form and his contribution to saving us points at Manchester City for one.

Fabianski would always be a target if a mistake came his way, especially if it lead to a goal. I am sure Pepe Reina and Van der sar could sympathise with our Pole after dropping their own clangers against us and West Brom respectively. Goalkeepers make errors, it is how they respond and how few they make once they have had a run of  games which Fabianski has finally had, so only time will tell, if he reverts back to the frequent error prone keeper of the past.

Credit must go to the visitors who were very calm in their execution of their game plan. They passed the ball very well and worked hard to stop us playing but the idea that they were head and shoulders above us is ludicrous. A team that has one attempt on goal isn’t all of a sudden Barcelona but that one attempt was all they needed in the end.

I remember watching Tiote in Holland when we faced FC Twente a few years ago and he looked a good player along with Eljero Elia. He did a Michael Essien job on us, or more accurately Cesc Fabregas. Cesc was already below his usual level but the work from Tiote made it harder for our captain to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

Tim Krul in the Newcastle goal made up for his Carling Cup own goal with a breathtaking stop to deny Samir Nasri following a Cesc Fabregas cut back. How he saw that shot through a crowd of bodies remains a mystery to me.

Theo Walcott lashed a snapshot against the bar from a difficult angle. The second time in two games at the Emirates where Walcott has been halted by the woodwork.

I was disappointed that Theo did not use his second greatest strength enough during the game. His off the ball movement had disappeared, instead choosing to hug the right touchline. He might have been asked to do that to stretch the pitch, I do not know but when Newcastle players are playing deep and he is up against a quick full back then Theo’s options are somewhat limited.

He was swapping with Chamakh during times in the game, taking up central positions but Newcastle players had him marked. Theo is at his most dangerous when he makes timed diagonal runs from right to center with the likes of Cesc or Wilshere on the ball easing it inside a center back and full back. I cannot remember one attempted pass to one of his runs. Those runs have helped Theo score so many goals already this season.

I can understand why Wenger kept Cesc on the pitch even though he was well below his usual high standards. Wenger knows that one moment of vision or timing of run into the box could lead to a goal but it just did not happen. I have never seen Cesc give the ball away so frequently before.

I thought Jack Wilshere was having a better game than the captain and would have liked to have seen Wilshere play as the creative forward in the second half. His dribbling with the ball would have opened up the well organised Newcastle defence, Theo could have found more room to operate with Wilshere gliding past Tiote and exchanging passes with Van Persie.

Our game very much ended when Wilshere and Nasri came off. Our football was already below our required level with our two most creative players on the day, on the pitch but when they went off we had no chance. Watching our players lumping it long into the box was beyond frustrating. I would rather we played our game and failed to penetrate than lump the ball onto the head of Coloccini and Williamson.

Koscielny was sent off late in the game for a tangle of legs with substitute Nile Ranger. It was an unfortunate sending off from the position of the pitch and the type of challenge. It was more a coming together than anything else but I can understand the decision. Nile Ranger is very quick and would have been through, he would have got to Fabianski before Squillaci could have gotten to Ranger.

The late Emirates goal that we are so used to didn’t even look like arriving. It hadn’t even left the last train station. The final whistle blew and a second home defeat of the season was very much a reality.

Conclusion

Are we good enough to win the league? Without wanting to sound like Arsene Wenger, I am convinced that we are. In our current form we are also likely to finish fourth or fifth. It all depends on what Arsenal we see over the next few months. The Arsenal of yesterday, West Brom, West Ham or even Birmingham are not good enough to prize the title away from Chelsea but an Arsenal team purring full of Cesc, Van Persie, Nasri, Arshavin, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Denilson, Song, Walcott and co all having steered clear of injury and with 10 games together are capable of going 10-15 games undefeated.

In 1997/98 we lost at Highbury to Blackburn Rovers and then went on an unbeaten run, the core of the side remained fit and we got caught on the wind of momentum. I see no reason why this squad cannot do the same but before any of that we have to find our game again. We have to find that sharpness that swept Braga aside, the steel that dug out a result at Ewood Park and the Eastlands.

Liverpool and Fernando Torres kept the distance between Arsenal and Chelsea the same as it was before this weekend. Mathematically nothing has changed between the two sides apart from one extra game being played and one extra goal difference in our favour.

Chelsea lost to Liverpool and Manchester City, Chelsea thumped West Brom. Who had beaten us. We gained a point at Anfield which basically tells us that everyone can beat everyone else. Our rivals are not unstoppable. Manchester United were outplayed in periods against Wolves at Old Trafford and were lucky to have found an injury time winner from Park.

The good news is that we have no injury excuses, we have our players available and the rest are on their way. But time is ticking, form and consistency is needed and is needed fast. Our domestic season could fall away by Christmas if we fail to win some very tricky games coming up Wolves away on Wednesday, Everton away on the 14th November followed by the North London derby on the 20th November. Make no mistake if we do not improve from yesterdays showing then we could easily be facing 5 straight defeats in all competitions.

The training ground from now until Wolves could well decide our future.

Fabianski (6)
Sagna (7)
Koscielny (7)
Squillaci (7)
Clichy (7)
Song (7)
Wilshere (6.5)
Cesc (5.5)
Walcott (5.5)
Chamakh (5.5)
Nasri (6.5)