For the past week, all I’ve heard is “Arsenal are in crisis” and Arsene Wenger’s career at Arsenal is at an “all time low”.

What a load of rubbish.

Despite “playing some of the worst football under Arsene Wenger” and “having the weakest squad we’ve ever seen”, we are sitting in 4th place in the Premier League.

This, despite the humiliating defeat at Old Trafford and losing 4-3 at Blackburn at the start of the season.

We are still above Chelsea, Liverpool and surprise package Newcastle United.

And that’s with crippling injury problems, to Wilshere, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs, Santos, Djourou and countless others that would usually be in our first team.

Added to that, we lost key talents Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in the summer.

So all considering, we’re doing pretty well.

The 4-0 defeat to AC Milan was disastrous, but not as lethal as everyone is making out. We’ve seen some shock turnarounds on the Champions League before, and a 4 goal deficit is not impossible to overturn. The most famous being Deportivo’s 4-0 win against AC Milan in 2004 to overturn a 4-1 scoreline in the first leg.

And call me insane, blindly optimistic, whatever – I believe Arsenal can get 4 goals at The Emirates. They may not, but with nothing to lose Arsenal can just go for it, hammer and tongs, as it were.

I’ll be putting a cheeky fiver on Arsenal to make it to the next round anyway.

That fact is that no matter how much people speculate about Arsenal’s financial situation, and whether they believe Arsene has money to spend, the bottom line is he hasn’t. If Arsene had this so called “war chest” then he would have used it. I don’t see why people moan that Arsene doesn’t spend because he obviously has his arms tied. And he, nor the board, are going to admit there’s no money for transfers.

Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur have spent far, far greater sums of money than we did over the summer (and previous summers) yet we’re still just about in 4th. Chelsea spent in excess of £84 million this summer and we’re still above them. We know about Liverpool’s spending recently (mostly on shite it must be said) and we are above them. So when you put things into perspective then it’s hardly a disastrous season is it?

If Arsenal finish 7th come the end of the season, then I’ll retract everything I’ve said.

My last post was just over 4 months ago and that was after those shocking defeats against Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers.

Since then however, we’ve got our act together, that is until the last 3 games. Defeats against Manchester United, Swansea and Fulham have left us on the same number of points as Newcastle United and Liverpool. Not really where we would want to be after 22 games.

Let’s start with the positives however. Wojciech Szczesny has been a revelation. After years of suffering at the hands of dodgy goalkeepers, we finally have a commanding, confident and above all quality goalkeeper. Mikel Arteta has been excellent for us, giving Arsenal that experience in midfield which is vital for players such as Alex Song and Aaron Ramsey. Alex Song has been outstanding, fantastic at protecting the back four and for me is the most underrated player at the club – his superb vision and assists (to Henry and Van Persie in particular) have been an integral part of Arsenal’s recent upsurge in form.

Koscielny has really stepped out this season as well, with some truly outstanding performances this season. And Van Persie of course has been excellent as usual, that goes without saying.

Aaron Ramsey has also been very good, but we rely on him far too much and the poor kid needs a rest now and then.
But how about the negatives? Unfortunately there are quite a few of those.

Mertesacker just doesn’t cut it for me. I would be far more confident with a central partnership consisting of Koscielny, Vermaelen and Cahill. It’s not that Mertesacker isn’t a good player, I just don’t think he can do  it in the Premier League.

Gervinho and Walcott have also been very disappointing. The Ivory Coast international just not adapted yet and Theo’s good performances are not regular enough.

But the biggest talking point (still) is the performance against Manchester United.

Walcott for me should have been the one to make way, and not Oxlade-Chamberlain. Walcott had been completely ineffective and after flashing a decent shot just wide and setting up Van Persie for the equalising goal The Ox deserved to see out the game. I don’t think anyone buys the excuse that he was tired.

But as if Arsene didn’t make one cock up with taking off Oxlade-Chamberlain, he brought on Arshavin.

How Wenger persists with Arshavin, who quite frankly couldn’t care less, is beyond me. We had Benayoun on the bench who is a complete professional and gives 110% whenever he gets into the pitch. For me, he was the far more logical choice to replace Oxlade-Chamberlain, if you had to take him off.

We’ve got a set of “winable” fixtures coming up against Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn and Sunderland and anything else than decent performances and results could mean a disastrous hit to our season. And a simple match against AC Milan beckons after that.

I can’t see Arsenal making the Top Four anymore. Maybe a couple of weeks ago yes, but our frailties are too obvious and we are deep into a slump.

Maybe a season out of the Champions League would be a good thing – Arsenal could rebuilt and re-evaluate how the club is run.

I rarely read the newspapers but from yesterdays news it seems like we’re in a crisis.

We’ve played 5 games so far this season and currently sit just above the relegation zone in 17th position, amassing 4 points. Of those 5, we’ve  only managed to win one, which was a nervous 1-0 victory over Premier League new boys Swansea City.

The other games include an opening day draw against Newcastle United, a defeat at home to Liverpool and that drubbing against Manchester United. A 4-3 defeat at Ewood Park completes our opening 5 Premier League matches.

But are Arsenal in a crisis?

Generally speaking, 5 games into the season is hardly enough time for any manager, nevermind a great such as Arsene Wenger, to be judged upon. The problem we have is that it seems to be the same old story season after season.

Our defending is shambolic. There’s no other word for it. We can make all the excuses in the world but the fact is we can’t defend. We’ve had some really poor defenders in our time, Pascal Cygan and Igor Stepanovs come to mind, but this weekend really summed up where we are.

Against Manchester United, we were ripped apart and it could have been 14 or 15 if they didn’t feel sorry for us. But at the weekend, the severity of the situation really showed.

Arsenal are a team that are always capable of scoring, that’s one side of our game which has never really been questioned over the last 15 years. But at the back, it’s a disaster. The fact is Blackburn Rovers, whose fans were so upset with manager Steve Kean, intended to protest after the game. Blackburn Rovers were rooted to the bottom of the league and their fans were not happy at all. They had scored 1 goal at home all season, yet against Arsenal they filled their boots.

That’s the context you have to put this result in. Bottom of the league, struggling to get a win under their belts, their fans on the brink, yet they scored 4 goals against us. If Blackburn Rovers, a team with the manager who the bookies have favourite to get sacked first can score 4 goals, what are the rest of the league capable of doing to us!?

With al due respect to Steve Kean, he is hardly the most experienced or talented manager in the league, yet he easily worked out how to beat Arsenal. The idea is simple really, Arsenal’s defence is so fragile that and balls played in behind or in the air will result in goals. Making Blackburn Rovers look like Barcelona is quite a feat yet we managed to do it.

And where is the blame?

There is no blame at Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger is the only one at the club that expresses and opinion. The board are never come out with any intentions, and of course we have Silent Stan. At clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City who all have foreign owners, we understand what their intentions are. But not at Arsenal.

What does Silent Stan want? What is his vision for the club?

For me, Arsene Wenger has his hands tied and is not the one to blame. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes at the club and ever since David Dein left the club, Arsene hasn’t had any real support within the football club.

The board are the ones who are seemingly only interested in making money rather than winning trophies. Many that drubbing at Old Trafford was Wenger’s way of telling the board he’d like some proper investment into the club, but instead we brought in some last minute deals which were blatantly not Arsene’s kind of signings.

Players like Mertesacker, Santos, Young and Arteta are ones that have experience but are not world class, nor players you would see at United, City, Chelsea and even Liverpool or Spurs, with all due respect.

While the media turn up the heat on Arsene Wenger, it would be sad for Arsenal to sack a manager that has brought so much success to the club and someone that has put Arsenal on a steady footing for generations to come. When you think of the disgraceful sacking of Peter Reid by Peter “I ruined Leeds United” Ridsdale then that is not the way we want to go.

On August 4th, before the season had started, I predicted and explained that Arsenal would finish 5th in the Premier League.

I received a few abusive comments for that from the AKB and here we are. 6 weeks later and 5 games into the new season, we currently sit 15th in the table and have a solitary victory against Premier League new boys Swansea City. And that was a shaky 1-0 win.

If you didn’t already know, in the other 4 games we’ve played so far include a draw against Newcastle United, a humiliating defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford, an “unfortunate” loss to Liverpool at home and then yesterdays 4-3 defeat to Blackburn Rovers, who are doing so well this season their own fans are calling for Steve Kean’s head.

So where does that leave Arsenal now?

However you want to look at it, we are a shambles at the moment and strangely, I’m not that bothered.

I’ve supported Arsenal since I was 5 years old which is coming up to 24 years now, followed them through thick and thin and I love the club. They have brought me so many highs, so many lows and I have Arsenal in my veins. When I think back to some of the football we’ve played, matches we’ve won and trophies we’ve lifted, they are some of the best moments of my life.

And when I believed and predicted we would finish 5th in the league (which even now looks like a distant possibility), it wasn’t to cause controversy or upset, it’s just where we are as a football club and for me that’s perfectly fine.

We all have unrealistic expectations for Arsenal at the moment and sometimes you need to have a fall before you can build yourself up again. Arsenal are currently a million miles away from competing in the Champions League so finishing 5th might change the ethos and attitude at the football club. Liverpool are an example of how a football team can miss out on Champions League football and then rebuild the foundations.

As Arsenal stand we’re not going to win the major trophies – we are far too comfortable settling for 4th every season and that has made us complacent, and that’s why you see performances like you have this year. Arsenal need a kick up the backside and not making the Champions League positions might kick start that.

It could spark changes at the club, whether it’s with Arsene Wenger at the helm or not. I truly believe that if Arsene accepted help in certain areas then we would be a much stronger force than we currently are. Can he change though?

That’s the million dollar question.

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