We all know that he rates himself very highly (I think he’s a very good finisher, but Adebayor’s all round game is a lot better)

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR VISION ARTICLES ARE SENT IN BY READERS AND ARE NOT WRITTEN BY ARSENAL VISION WRITERS.

We are in a crisis guys and you better believe it. This is the time when we, the fans, need to get behind the team EVEN MORE, in order to help them out of their current situation.

I was at the Villa game on Saturday. Despite Mike Riley playing a major part in our downfall, due to his poor performance (two fouls were committed on our players in the build up to their goals, yet he didn’t proceed to stop play), Villa were fully deserving of their win.

Villa showed all the skills that we have been lacking this season, desire and commitment, never say die attitude, the willingness to fight for each other, to defend as a whole unit. All of these skills were shown in abundance from us last season.

This team is really baffling me this season. The inconsistency is very, VERY bad to see. Why is it that the team can raise their game to beat the likes of Man United, yet be below par when it comes to playing teams like Stoke, Fulham, Hull and Aston Villa (we all know Villa are a decent team, but we still should be beating them at home)?

Another thing which happens in a crisis is that we, the fans, tend to pour our frustrations out on the manager and on certain players in the team. In case of the players, Denilson and in particular at the Villa game, Nicklas Bendtner.

Let me start with Nicklas Bendtner. We all know that he rates himself very highly (I think he’s a very good finisher, but Adebayor’s all round game is a lot better) and that he feels he should be starting ahead of Ade, but the amount of abuse he’s received in our last two league games have been absolutely shocking! He has been asked to play as a lone forward, a position he is clearly not used to playing in and yet people have been coming out and saying that he’s lazy (fair play, he should be running around a lot more, chasing down defenders, hence why I feel Ade’s all round game is a lot better) and that he’s overrated.

Bendtner’s best position is playing off the main striker (Bergkamp/Van Persie role). He is not good at playing at his back from goal and holding the ball up, hence his first touch being poor and his frequent losing of the ball. I felt he done a good job against Man United, considering we had Adebayor injured and Van Persie (stupidly) suspended. Don’t forget, he’s only 20, so there’s plenty of time for him to improve his all round game. Instead of booing him, we should be getting behind him & encouraging him.

In regards to Denilson, I feel he has been one of our best performers this season. The problem I have got with him is that he is NOT a defensive midfielder. He is an attacking midfielder in the same mould as Fabregas & Diaby. How Wenger doesn’t see it, I just don’t know and this particular judgement of Wenger perceiving Denilson to be a defensive midfielder is REALLY starting to worry me.

I’m not going to go into the skills required to be a defensive midfielder, because I have mentioned it on so many occasions now, but by continuing to play two attacking midfielders in the heart of the midfield will only result in one thing, our defence being constantly exposed by unmarked runners from the opposition. If anything I’m surprised Fabregas hasn’t been on the receiving end a lot more from the fans frustrations, because he has been well below par this season. My feelings on him being below par are as follows:

• No recognised defensive partner to play alongside him, which means him, having to concentrate of defending a lot more than he was previously used to.

• Burnout from Euro 2008

The sad thing to come out of all of this is that we were all aware of the problems within the squad in the summer and that they would come back to haunt us if key signings weren’t made in certain areas (goalkeeper, tall dominating centre-half, replacement for Hleb and a defensive midfielder), yet despite Wenger replacing Hleb with Nasri (who has proved to be an excellent signing), sadly he hasn’t strengthened the other three key areas, which are essential in order to having a chance of being successful and mounting a challenge for the four major trophies on offer.

I see more doom & gloom ahead to the extent that I can see us losing around 8-10 games, but I tell you one thing, I’m not (and I never will) going to boo any of the players who are underperforming, I’m going to carry on backing this team to the hilt, cheer the boys on even more when I attend their games and most importantly back the manager and the team throughout our current crisis. I sincerely hope you guys will do the same & give them the support, which they DESPERATELY need.