After the Upton Park incident which was blown totally out of proportion football – and Arsenal fans in particular – needed a laugh and good old Roy Keane didn’t disappoint today.

He’s gone and blasted the Premiership because of ‘conmen’ who dive and try to deceive the referee:

“I see lads I’ve played with dive, and going down like they’ve been shot. It drives me crazy.

“I’m glad I’m not playing in the Premiership anymore.

“Trying to get another player sent off is cheating. And a lot of players are trying to put one over on the referee.”

Not like Roy Keane would ever do that eh? Especially in the Premiership!

Well take a look at this video of Roy Keane in his United days… [video]

Every Arsenal fan falls into the trap of looking for reasons behind the ‘problems’ the team might be having – is it because Henry is captain? Do Arsenal over-play? Do Arsenal shoot enough?

It’s easy to look at the negatives this season (I should know – I’ve done it enough!) but looking in perspective, things aren’t actually that bad are they? While Arsenal aren’t firing on all cylinders, we have lost 2 games just like Chelski and Liverpool have already lost 4. Manchester United have only lost one game but only a fool would predict that they wouldn’t lose another game before the season ends.

Statistically, Arsenal are in great shape – with the 2nd lowest number of goals conceded the league, and the 3rd highest number of goals scored.

The problem is according to this table, Arsenal top the table for the highest ratio of points dropped per goal conceded – the six goals we have let in has resulted in 12 points being dropped, which is a huge total.

On the postive side, Arsenal have played some pyrotechnic football (notably against CSKA and Reading) and we have had important players out injured to comeback, including Clichy, Senderos, Lauren, Diaby, Baptista and Freddie – when they come back Arsenal will have a really strong squad.

As I see it Arsenal can only get stronger as the season progresses.

Over the last couple of seasons, Chelski have made The Premiership such a result-orientated league that after a couple of defeats and a few draws fans will start to panic. And I’m one of those who have been sucked into it.

The attacking group of Hleb-Van Persie-Rosicky-Fabregas-Henry will be as devastating as the Bergkamp-Vieira-Pires-Freddie-Henry combination of a few seasons ago but like the latter will need time to gel and get into gear.

The signs shown at Reading are just a taster of what is to come and with Toure, Senderos and Gallas at the back things can only get better!

Something from the West Ham game troubled me. It wasn’t the tired display or Arsene kicking off at Alan Pardew – or even the late goal by Marlon Scarewood. It was the fact I knew Arsenal were going to lose before the game even kicked off.

Hence the lack of a preview for the game at Upton Park – I can hardly preach and say we’re going to lose!

Myles Palmer has touched on it and the problem Arsenal have is that Thierry Henry is Arsenal captain. I asked the question back in February and I still think Titi as captain is a big mistake.

Even Wrighty made the point on MOTD2 last night – Henry was joking around with Reo-Coker in the tunnel instead of being focused and ready for a fight. He wasn’t in the mood and when that happens Arsenal struggle.

Fighters make the best captains and that’s why Chelski have John Terry, Liverpool have Steven Gerrard, United used to have Roy Keane (and now Gary Neville) and why Tony Adams and Paddy were successful at Arsenal.

But with Henry as captain are we capable of winning anything?

Is it a co-incidence that we had our worst Premiership season in the Wenger era with Henry leading the team?

We struggled last season and the same seems to be happening again.

Thierry Henry is the anti-captain. Captain’s are supposed to rally the team to victory, encourage their players and give every game 110% even when they’re not playing well.

But Henry is the nice guy of football.

Nice guys can’t be captain no matter how gifted they are. Look at Ronaldinho for Barcelona for example.

Arsene went mental yesterday not because of the late goal or Alan Pardew celebrating – Wenger has experienced worse goals against Arsenal like in the Champions League Final or the FA Cup Semi-Final replay against United.

It must have been something Pardew said, but Arsenal fans know it had more to do with Arsene’s frustration at his own team and the way they were playing.

Only the following things can happen.

The first is that Henry will stay as captain for the rest of his career. Arsene can’t strip Henry of the captaincy because that will be admitting he made a mistake, and could be more damaging to the team in terms of moral. Henry losing the captaincy would be in the headlines for weeks!

The only way that Arsenal will get a new captain is if Henry leaves.