1. Tottenham were very, very lucky

We might not have played well but Tottenham were very lucky. The first goal was a big mistake by Ospina and the turning point in the game. Before that Tottenham weren’t in it and Arsenal were comfortable.

The second was like the Danny Rose goal a few seasons ago – a goal which 9 times out of 10 would have gone wide.

Added to that, two big chances that we had could have changed the game – Koscielny had a powerful header go straight down Lloris’s throat, and the same happened again with a Tomas Rosicky’s fizzing shot from outside the area – either side of the goalkeeper and it’s a goal.

2. Santi Cazorla and Mesut Özil can’t play in the same team

Santi Cazorla has been fantastic this season, and was the clear man of the match against Manchester City in a game where most of our players played fantastically. However, Arsene hasn’t worked out how to accommodate both Santi and Özil in the same Arsenal team.

Against Brighton, Özil was excellent but remember Cazorla was rested. Against Aston Villa, we played a team that was ready for the slaughter and Cazorla was noticeably unnoticeable. Today, Özil scored the opener but after that both Santi and Mesut showed nothing. They can’t play in the same team.

3. Arsenal were too complacent

After a winning run Arsenal didn’t have the same intensity against Tottenham. They thought today would be a routine win but it was anything but. Tottenham were not the best team we’ve played in 2015 yet we let them win.

4. Arsenal’s tactics were wrong

We’ve been impressive recently, especially against Manchester City, and shown we are a team that can be compact and defend when required. But after the first goal we were too negative and if we managed to nick a second then it would have been a different game.

5. David Ospina isn’t necessarily Arsenal’s goalkeeping solution

After Szczesny’s horror show at Southampton, the Pole has been dropped to the bench, with the Columbian stepping in. With an impressive run in the team (and a string of clean sheets to his name) Arsenal fans have been touting him as a real, bonafide solution to Arsenal’s goalkeeping problems. Today however showed he is prone to a very bad day at the office.

Unfortunately – and I hate saying this as I’m a big fan – he was shockingly poor today. He consistently managed to palm away shots into massive danger areas, and eventually Tottenham capitalised with Kane’s first goal. After that, we were up against it.

6. Arsene’s got his starting line-up wrong

If you take into account Arsenal’s midfield and attack, the only player with any real pace was Danny Welbeck. Ramsey, Coquelin, Özil, Cazorla and Giroud all lack pace and it was clear throughout the game we struggled to keep up with Tottenham’s runs from midfield.

Which brings me to…

7. Arsene needed to start Rosicky or Theo

With no real pace in the team, the game was crying out for either Theo or Rosicky to start the game. Rosicky has been excellent this season, especially int the big games so why he didn’t start baffled me. Theo I understand as he’s just back from injury but still, he’s managed to score some goals since his return.

Rosicky was our brightest player in the second half, and that would have been much handier when we looked to build on our early goal in the first half.

8. Arsene Wenger doesn’t know how to use his substitutions

After Tottenham equalised on 57 minutes, Arsene didn’t respond until 68 minutes when he bought on Rosicky for Cazorla. That was the wrong substitution and Walcott for Welbeck was the wrong call as well – but that’s because….

9. Arsene is scared of bringing off Mesut Özil

Who should have come off was Mesut Özil. Apart from the goal, he was barely noticeable and his only real contribution after scoring was falling over and moaning about being fouled. Arsene needs to man up and make the right substitution for the team. Özil at times is a luxury player who puts Arsenal at a disadvantage – especially when you’re in a scrappy game where the opposition are fighting against us.

10. Arsenal are not actually having a good season at all

The winning run Arsenal have been on for the majority of 2015 has masked the real problems – mainly that we are having a very poor season.

After 24 games we sit in 6th place in the Premier League. How is that good?

Southampton, Manchester United and Tottenham are all in much healthier positions in the league and if we’re not careful we won’t just miss out on Champions League football but might not qualify for Europe at all!

Arsenal needed a central defender and unbelievably, it seems that they have signed one!

With Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker our only real center backs, we’ve had to rely on Callum Chambers who is relatively inexperienced to fill the void when we’ve had injuries, as well as Nacho Monreal and Mathieu Debuchy who are full backs. So an extra number in central defence is a massive boost for Arsenal.

And the chosen one (well, the one Arsene has decided to buy) is 24 year old Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista. The fee is rumoured to be around £11.3 million and he has been granted a work permit by the Home Office.

But who is he? And is he any good?

Villarreal have been doing okay this season and he’s already notched up 19 games in La Liga, as the Yellow Submarine sit in a very respectable 6th place.

So he can’t be that bad.

But if you listen (and to be fair, I haven’t listened too much to the “expert” opinions) to the pundits, several are apparently saying he’s raw and not that much of a player. But from seeing a couple of clips he seems quick and aggressive, and I’m sure he’ll develop at Arsenal.

I’ll wait until he puts on an Arsenal shirt and shows us what he can do before making a sound judgement, but the question remains:

Will be be a Pascal Cygan, or a Laurent Koscielny?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

At 4pm today, we face Brighton in the FA Cup. They currently sit in 19th place in the Championship, only 6 points above the relegation zone. Arsenal however are in 5th place in the Premier League after beating the reigning champions last Sunday.

But the Seagulls are high in confidence after beating 3rd place Ipswich on Wednesday.

Yesterday we saw Chelsea lose 4-2 at home to Bradford, and Manchester City lost 2-0 to Middlesborough.

And that’s the beauty of the FA Cup – it has no respect for team reputation and league position – the team that simply wants it more on the day will end up being victorious.

So that’s why Arsenal have to be very careful this afternoon.

As I’ve already mentioned, Chelsea and Manchester City are now out, Liverpool and Manchester United we forced into an unwanted replay and even Tottenham and Southampton are out after losing to Leicester City and Crystal Palace respectively.

If Arsenal were every going to retain the FA Cup, then they won’t have a better chance than doing it this season.

So what are we going to do this afternoon? Well we don’t have another game until next Sunday when we face Aston Villa at home to their is absolutely no excuse for dropping too many big players and risking the chance to go out. The Falmer Stadium will be buzzing and they will be praying for a big cup upset, so we need to make sure we don’t give them what they want.

It will be a tough game today, but if we’re focused and disciplined as we were at Manchester City, we should come away with the win.

But after what happened yesterday, I’ll be very wary of the threat Brighton can pose today!

I always look forward to watching the big games – those against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur – because these are the games we live for. But the fact is when we visit these teams we’ve struggled, badly.

We don’t need to go through the disasters we’ve faced recently (especially last season) but even this year it seemed like we hadn’t learnt our lesson – against Chelsea we we never really in it and got beaten 2-0. At Liverpool last month, it looked like we learnt some lessons but it was the same old story as we found ourselves 2-1 up with about 40 seconds to go – but then predictably blew it.

So onto today. Before the game, the line-up didn’t fill me with confidence. We had Monreal at left back, who I always feel can make a mistake, and the inexperienced Bellerin. Alongside Ramsey we had Francis Coquelin, who also lacks match experience. I was surprised that Rosicky was on the bench after his performance against Stoke last week, and I thought Theo may have started (to come off later, but I suppose he’s not match fit yet).

The Manchester City side (Yaya Toure apart) was a full strength, with the deadly Kun Aguero upfront for his first start in 6 weeks.

But once the game started, it was clear to see how Arsenal were setup.

We were disciplined, focused and executed the game plan perfectly. Every single player knew their role in the team, and we defended from the front. Olivier Giroud was hassling the Manchester City defence, and Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla (the two more attacking midfielders) were chasing and tackling like mad men. Francis Coquelin was outstanding, marshalling the midfield and making many important tackles and interceptions.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey ran tirelessly for the team, but their performance levels were just a bit short. They gave it everything but their passing and timing was off – Aaron Ramsey had a great chance to score a second when put through by Giroud but he fluffed his lines and fired high and wide. The Ox was full of running but couldn’t pass to a team mate – but both couldn’t have tried any harder.

The makeshift back four (and that’s what it is) was really fantastic. And it makes you wonder how a defensive line with two second-choice full backs can perform so well and look extremely solid – perhaps it’s been Arsene’s naive tactics and not the players who have let us down against the big teams over the last few years.

And David Ospina, who wasn’t called upon much because of the solid defence, did well when needed. He had a couple of crossed he had to deal with and dealt with them well, and he put his case forward for getting a run in this Arsenal team.

Overall, a brilliant match to watch and a game where we could have won by three or four and it wouldn’t have flattered us. Manchester City, the reigning champions, looked tame but that was mainly because of our solid performance and excellent tactics.

Today we showed that we are capable of travelling to one of the biggest teams in the Premier League, customising our tactics and getting a well deserved point. At Liverpool, Arsene tried a different approach and it almost worked (although the performance itself was disjointed) but today we executed the perfect game plan.

The six million dollar question though is can Arsenal replicate this again against another top side, or is this result and performance a flash in the pan?

After the transfer deadline in September I boldly posted on this blog that Falcao will flop at Manchester United, and Welbeck will be a success at Arsenal. What followed was a lot of abusive comments – those in the United camp taking the piss, telling me that I was having a laugh, and those in the Arsenal camp who lambasted Arsene Wenger for signing a Manchester United reject and missing out on the Columbian striker.

Well in the end the United fans were right, I am having a laugh, a laugh at them!

As it stands, Danny Welbeck has proved to be a major asset to Arsenal, scoring some important goals and despite having competition from Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez, he’s managed to score 7 goals, including 3 in Europe in 4 games.

Radamel Falcao on the other hand has scored 3 goals.

A “world class” striker, who was coveted by the biggest teams in world football, has scored 3 goals this season.

Please wait a moment while I go into the corner and piss my pants.

I made the point that Falcao will struggle with injuries and that has proven to be the case. The guy had 3 major surgeries in his career and Arsene Wenger knows all this. Yes, on his day he is a very special player but Arsene knows more about him that we ever will and that’s why he went for Welbeck, who is a far better investment and someone who can give us something in the long term. Falcao is a mercenary, plain and simple.

And now Falcao’s agent has said he may leave at the end of the season.

Well there’s a surprise…

Anyway, let me leave you with a joke tweet I posted and which was retweeted over two thousand times by gullible United fans:

Just ordering my new @FALCAO @Arsenal shirt for the new season! #Excited #AFC #WelcomeToArsenal pic.twitter.com/fxvngUVjCK

— Mike (@afc4life_uk) August 29, 2014