Jack Wilshere came into the team the following year and played a duel role with Alex Song. Both players having the licensee to join Cesc Fabregas in a bid to create chances, especially against more defensively minded opposition. This season Mikel Arteta has made the Wilshere position his own albeit in a different way. Arteta who has played as a defensive

I couldn’t face watching Match of the day, Football first or any other highlights after the match on Saturday. I only could manage reading a couple of blog’s so writing my views on the draw with Norwich was just not going to happen. I thought it may well be better to write something after the fixtures on Sunday.

At the full time whistle at the Emirates, I was utterly convinced that Tottenham would beat Aston Villa and then go on to brush aside Fulham at home on the final day of the season but this seems to be the season where pretty much every side in the division are struggling to hold their nerve.

Manchester City proved too strong for Newcastle but with a trip to Goodison on the final day, I couldn’t imagine them being the threat to our Champions League position.

It turns out that our biggest threat to third place is ourselves and we have been our toughest opponent for the last few years.

The team looked totally unrecognisable from the team that battled at Stoke for a point the week previous. Yossi Benayoun had given us a perfect platform with a fantastic curling effort into the far corner only seconds into the game. The team looked disjointed after that point, our midfield looked as if it hadn’t played together and Norwich exploited that.

In 2009/2010 Arsene switched from a 4-1-2-3 to a 4-2-3-1. The previous season we were punished on the counter attack on far too many occasions. Alex Song sitting in front of the back four was left exposed by the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.

Jack Wilshere came into the team the following year and played a duel role with Alex Song. Both players having the licence to join Cesc Fabregas in a bid to create chances, especially against more defensively minded opposition. This season Mikel Arteta has made the Wilshere position his own albeit in a different way. Arteta who has played as a defensive midfielder for Everton in the past was fantastic at dropping back when Song pushed forward.

Aaron Ramsey has tried to replace Arteta in the team and Ramsey has played for the most part as the most attacking midfielder this season so I am sure his instincts are to push on and support the front. He is not dropping to cover Song’s runs and Song is not proactively adjusting his game to compliment the more attacking Ramsey.

Why Arsene or Song himself did not address this as the game went on I just do not know. The second Norwich goal was just criminal. The away side running at our defenders with not a single midfielder to get through before Holt deflects his shot over Szczesny.

Had either Song or Ramsey communicated correctly or been alert to the potential danger then that goal may have been prevented. Especially given the fact that Vermaelen had pushed forward to join the attack.

It was certainly not one of Alex Song’s best games in an Arsenal shirt. He lost possession a few occasions trying to keep hold of the ball when the simple first time pass was on or he attempted a final ball that simply was not on.

At 2-1 down we had fought back to 3-2 wonderfully well. Gervinho had stepped up a gear producing some great direct running and van Persie had found his shooting boots. His movement for the equaliser was classic Robin, Song chipped another one of those passes over the top and the first time finish was top quality.

For Robin’s second goal he got a lucky break but it made a huge difference to have men in the box. Chamakh came on and made an impact along with Chamberlain who had stretched the game. I was convinced that Chamakh and van Persie could not play together. I thought that the two did not compliment each other but in the short time they were on the pitch, they looked good. I wonder what might have happened had the two been given a run of games together. That is unlikely now.

Robin van Persie’s celebration had worried me. When he scored, I glanced up at the time remaining and we had a full ten minutes to hold out, the players were celebrating on the floor as if we had won the game.

With less than ten minutes remaining, for some strange reason we did not attempt to keep the ball. We kept trying to make defence splitting passes and gifted possession back to a Norwich City side who had no fear in their game. The Norwich City equaliser was yet another continuation of errors. Alex Song gave away the ball needlessly, Norwich attacked and a chipped pass over the top caught Thomas Vermaelen square on with Morrison. Instead of avoiding the risk and going with his man, he risked the offside call and his gambled failed.

Szczesny would have been better served coming out to narrow the angle but instead decided to stay in his goal. Morrison’s finish across Szczesny and into the far corner was wonderfully executed. If Morrison was being marked by Laurent Koscielny then the Norwich forward has the ball taken off his feet and another attack is started. Arsenal win 3-2. While Vermaelen plays with heart and leadership, his defensive awareness is nowhere near as high as his defensive partner.

With Szczesny, Vermaelen and Song all out of sorts, the team did not function well enough defensively. Still we had chances to win the game. van Persie was clean through with the keeper to beat but failed and he should have had a certain penalty which was ignored. In fairness to Norwich City, they also should have been awarded a spot kick when Laurent Koscielny held a Norwich City shirt in the box.

Credit must go to the visitors who performed better than most away teams at the Emirates. They had a collection of very good chances that they could and in some cases should have scored from. A 3-2 defeat would have been harsh on them but our organisation on the day was nowhere near good enough for our level.

Even so our competitors failed to better our result so we remain in third place, a point above Tottenham with one game left. While it is easy to look at our own failings in recent weeks, it looks as if the Premier League is a very inconsistent place to be right now.

We currently kick ourselves for failing to put Tottenham to the sword, imagine how Manchester United are currently feeling, flying at 4-2 up against Everton at home, only to be pegged back to 4-4 and the title looks to be heading to their noisy neighbours. Liverpool continue to lose at home to pretty much everyone who turns up and Tottenham after finally halting their run of poor results fail to capitalise on our draw.

We are not currently alone in the frustration stakes. It is back in our hands, a victory against West Brom next week will see us in third but and it is a big but. A Kolo Toure sized but, we will need to put in a much better performance than we displayed on Saturday.

The team are still yet to win without Mikel Arteta and that has to be put right if we are to guarantee a Champions League spot. We shouldn’t be in this position after gifting Morrison the equaliser but we are and the players will have to understand that another gift is highly unlikely.

I hope that Francis Coquelin plays alongside Alex Song to shore up our midfield and Carl Jenkinson replaces Bacary Sagna who unfortunately suffered from yet another fracture of his leg. Coquelin will sit when Song pushes forward and he will press when Song drops. It might be a risk considering he hasn’t played in midfield for Arsenal since our 1-0 defeat in the Carling cup at the hands of Manchester City. Still I find it could be less of a risk than playing Ramsey and Song together where they lacked any cohesion in their previous game.

One last game to get our act together. It is now or never.