Well the Premiership weekend is finally over and Arsenal have a maximum of 3 points.

All of the so called ‘Top 4’ looked less than convincing; Manchester United were held to a nil-nil draw to a resilient Reading, Liverpool left is as late as Arsenal to nick the win and Chelsea won against Birmingham who still managed to score twice at Stamford Bridge.

I suppose for Arsenal fans we saw it all.

The good was the determination to fight until the end and get win our possession deserved, the bad was our general finishing and the ugly… well let’s just say Lehmann never surprises me anymore!

On the balance of play Arsenal should have won comfortably.

While Tony Warner made some good saves for Fulham some of the chances Arsenal created really should have been converted and we made life more difficult than it should have been – and on another day – Fulham could have been 2 goals to the good and we wouldn’t be sitting here with 3 points.

Watching the game, it was the same old story.

Creating many chances but not hitting the back of the net. Hopefully Eduardo will prove to be the man ruthless enough to score the goals Arsenal need at the vital times of matches.

Arsenal at times looked to lightweight in the middle with Flamini and Fabregas in midfield – Gilberto’s return cannot come soon enough with tougher games coming up. On the plus side though Sagna looked solid at right back, although we were still prone to defensive lapses.

Can Toure and Gallas play together?

With Gilberto out it would be an idea to play Toure alongside Fabregas in the middle and Senderos next to Gallas. That would certainly add more weight to the team and give Senderos some needed playing time before Kolo leaves in January but obviously I can’t see that happening.

As I’ve said a few times the first ten games are vital to Arsenal’s season.

I see the first ten Premier League games as cup ties. We basically have to fight to win every one because the standard of the league is so high now that any sort of blip would virtually rule us out for challenging for the Premiership. A great start would also give us that ruthless winning mentality we seem to have lost over the last few seasons.

The big positive from the weekend was the ability to dig in and come from behind, yet again. This Arsenal team may be many things but they’re stubborn as anything and never know when they’re beaten.

At least it’s never boring with Arsenal.

Well today Arsenal had a golden opportunity to beat Chelsea, especially in the 43rd minute when Baptista got on the wrong side of Boulahrouz and got fouled in the box. The Dutch defender was rightly sent off and Gilberto comfortably scored the penalty to give Arsenal the lead.

From then on you expected Arsenal to dominate the game with the extra man but that didn’t happen. Chelsea, seemingly galvanised from the dismissal, stepped up their game in the second half and could have arguably won the game at the death.

As could have Arsenal, when Eboue’s excellent shot beat Petr Cech and smashed the bar.

But the game ended in a draw which on the balance of play was probably a fair result. Arsenal suffered yet again from not taking their chances with Baptista, Adebayor, Hleb and Cesc scuffing tames shots against Cech – who to be honest didn’t have a real save to make.

Chelsea were dangerous in attack and clinical while Arsenal never looked like scoring that second goal. People will point to the absence of Titi and Van Persie but we can’t expect those two to score all our goals – simply put the rest of the squad just don’t contribute enough.

The draw confirmed Manchester United as Premiership Champions and Chelsea as runners up.

But how far are Arsenal from competing for the title?

Since winning the Premiership last in 2003, Alex Ferguson took 3 seasons to find a new team that is capable of winning the league. He lost Van Nistelrooy, Beckham, Keane & Sheringham and replaced them with Saha, Ronaldo, Carrick and Rooney.

When we lost Adams came in Toure, and Seaman was replaced by Lehmann. Football is ever changing and the challenge after any success is to do it again with a new team.

But the biggest players we have lost in recent seasons are Bergkamp, Vieira and Pires.

The problem is that Fabregas is currently filling the Bergkamp and Vieira roles by himself – and a goalscoring midfielder like Pires just hasn’t been replaced by either Rosicky or Hleb. Rosicky’s second season next year will be the real test, while the jury is still out on Hleb.

Next season will be a stuggle if the wide players don’t start scoring. Gilberto is our highest scoring midfielder despite being a defensive player!

I’m not sure about our defence with William Gallas.

I know that’s stupid to say considering he is a fantastic defender and more importantly a winner, but on more than one ocassion he hasn’t looked that great next to Kolo.

Maybe it’s because they’re so used to being next to a leader. When Toure was playing alongside (a fit and focused) Sol Campbell they were awesome, but it was clear Sol was the organiser at the back – and Gallas has always been alongside John Terry who is a born leader.

Or maybe as a team we just don’t concentrate defensively?

Whatever it is, Arsenal’s defence doesn’t look water tight like it has in the past and we’re prone to conceding sloppy goals.

In my opinion, Arsene has some real thinking to do in the summer about the currently squad at his disposal.

Well what can you say about that?

After going a goal down from a Robbie Keane header on 31 minutes, Arsenal reacted in the perfect way by dominating the rest of the game – which was mainly due to the introduction of the simply superb Cesc Fabregas just before the break.

The first half was scrappy but once the second half started Arsenal were bossing the game and put Spurs under so much pressure with attack after attack.

But poor finishing looked like it could come back to haunt Arsenal yet again.

Toure had a header from a corner smash against the post and Adebayor also had a header hit the bar after a superb cross from Clichy.

But Arsenal got what they deserved on the hour mark when Toure stole in behind the Spurs defence and converted one of many excellent deliveries from a Fabregas free-kick.

And with the equaliser Arsenal kept the pressure on and another Fabregas free-kick found Adebayor in the centre who finally got his goal when he headed right into the top corner.

At 2-1 Arsenal looked comfortable and it was no exaggeration to say that Lehmann did not have a single save to make until the 94th minute when Jenas scored Spurs’ undeserved equaliser.

After Game Thoughts?

The problem is that with the way Arsenal dominate games they create a lot of very good chances but fail to finish them – which is the story of our season really.

Adebayor, Gilberto and Baptista in particular missed golden opportunities to kill off the game when it was 2-1 and as long as the opposition are only a goal down then they’ll always have a chance to steal something.

I’ve had sympathy for Baptista but today just confirmed that he has absolutely no chance of being at Arsenal next season. He missed two very easy chances and you wonder if he practices finishing at all! It doesn’t really matter when you’re 4-0 up but when you need to kill a team off you’ve got to find the back of the net and the free header which Adebayor setup for him was such a poor miss.

A defence has to be a bit of a concern at the moment as well. With Eboue, Clichy, Toure and Gallas we had our first choice defence on the pitch – but somehow we concede sloppy goals. There’s just isn’t that belief we can keep a clean sheet and especially this season you just expect the opposition to open the scoring!

But there were a few positives from todays performance. Fabregas and Gilberto were outstanding and stepped up their game in the second half. Clichy and Eboue were also excellent in helping Arsenal’s second half revival and Diaby looked decent in the middle of the park.

Toure and Gallas did okay but I’m not sure if they can actually play together. There seems to be this uncertainty whenever the opposition attack and we are susceptible to giving away that first goal that makes things so much harder.

Hleb and Rosicky (along with Baptista) looked lost again. If it wasn’t for Fabregas and Gilberto in the middle we wouldn’t have got back into the game. Adebayor did well on his own up front running for every cause but needs to be more clinical in front of goal.

It looks like 4th place has been secured now with only 3 games left so I guess all eyes will be on the Chelsea game, where we can help decide the destination of the Premiership title.

Arsene Wenger has come under a lot of pressure from Arsenal fans recently but after watching today’s performance against Newcastle it’s hard not to see that some of the players who put on an Arsenal shirt are just not upto it, or worse believe their own hype.

The only player who I thought had a decent game and tried to make things happen was Gael Clichy – and he’s our left back!

We know Arsene won’t throw tea cups or even shout at his players but it’s clear this current Arsenal squad doesn’t have enough winners. Players who will fight on the pitch and have that fire inside them to win.

I’m not sure that a lot of these players have this winning mentality.

Too many off these players have no problem in motivating themselves for games against Manchester United and Chelsea but they’re not interested if it’s against Everton, Newcastle or Sheffield United.

They only perform in big games because they know that’s where the glamour is. There’s no attraction or headline-making stories when you beat a Watford or Charlton Athletic.

Okay, we’re fourth in the table and don’t have anything to play for but Bolton Wanderers and Everton aren’t exactly a million miles away in threatening the final Champions League spot.

And if Arsenal don’t start winning then our fears of playing UEFA Cup football alongside a team like Spurs could become a frightening reality.

Wenger has installed a beautiful football ethos throughout the club, from the youth teams to the reserves and straight through to the first team.

We know what Arsene will and won’t do.

He won’t buy big name players with reputations.

He hasn’t changed his style of play for ten years and he won’t start now.

But what Arsene will try and find is players who fit his system and style of football. Unfortunately the players he has brought in and he has at his disposal don’t look like being enough.

But what can Wenger do once the players enter the pitch as start the game?

He has to hope that the players listen to him and perform like they can do.

Unfortunately over the past few games the players have let him down.

The away performances against Liverpool, Everton and Newcastle were lacklustre and absent of any urgency, motivation and passion.

And despite a poor result against West Ham at least the players looked motivated at the Emirates but the players have to perform – or at least try – in every game.

There’s not much Wenger can do looking on from the touchline – the players have to put their acts together and start performing.

After defeat at Goodison Park and Anfield could Arsenal get things back on track against West Ham?

Well the only small positive we could take from this season was the unbeaten record at the Emirates.

But this afternoon at team who started the day second from bottom ended that run.

Could things get any worse?

I could go into detail about how Arsenal dominated the match but in the end wastefulness in front of goal cost Arsenal yet again. Although credit to Arsene, he dropped Aliadiere and Baptista to the bench.

But Adebayor was supported by Rosicky, Freddie & Hleb – hardly prolific in front of goal this season!

The ironic thing was that despite the injuries to Henry and Van Persie, you would say that Arsenal had the strongest possible team out on the pitch against West Ham.

The starting line-up was:

Lehmann, Eboue, Clichy, Toure, Gallas, Fabregas, Gilberto, Freddie, Hleb, Rosicky & Abebayor.

You couldn’t get any stronger than that really.

Arsenal had 25 shots and 11 of those were on target, while West Ham had 5 shots in the entire game.

But I suppose that’s been the story of our season.