Over the past two weeks there has been setback after setback, its not just rubbed salt in the wound it’s really stuck the knife in to such an extent our season is hanging by a thread – its only a few weeks ago it was hanging by four. We are you could say, in a spot of bother.

This team has a remarkable capacity to give you belief when you should know better, then later on leave you kicking yourself for believing. We believed we would win the Carling Cup, believed we could beat Barca, knew we could beat Man United at the weekend. The thing is we didn’t, was the faith misplaced? In some cases, it probably was looking at recent history.

What I don’t see from the squad players at Arsenal is the desire to give Wenger a selection dilemma, they know they will get gametime so don’t worry about it, don’t seek to earn their chance as much as they probably should. Diaby, Denilson, Arshavin, Bendtner, Rosicky are just a few who know they will play, regardless of where they sit in the managers plans.

When we see the spirit and desire to win, it usually comes from three sources: Jack Wilshere, 19, Cesc Fabregas, 23, Samir Nasri, 23 – Where are the likes of Rosicky and Arshavin, using their considerable experience to pull the team through? It is like going to secondary school, being in year 10 and letting  a year 7 scare the bullies off. Stand up and be counted for once!

One thing I have noticed is that when we are getting beaten we don’t go down in a blaze of glory, its is just same old same old… when it comes to the crunch our natural game rarely works. How many times have we failed to score against the big clubs? For an attacking side we don’t score considerably more goals than the more defensive sides around – for all the looks, under the surface our football is far from effective.

It would be stupid to blame this all on the manager, however, he needs to look at himself and his philosophy. Arsenal has to come first – I appreciate all he has done for the club and always will, he is a legend. What we have to face up to is that things do have to chance, there is money there and they are putting ticket prices up once again this summer without actually doing anything to justify it. The cash that the price rise will net them is on par with the money they will have got from progressing past Barcelona – so in effect we are paying for failiure.

I for one, am not happy. I’m not a season ticket holder, I can’t afford to be – I go to as many games as I can get to, afford and get a ticket for with my membership. The club are leeches at the best of times in trying to get the fans to bridge the gap for their own shortcomings on the commercial scheme; are you telling me that a top drawer commercial team can’t find a way to make this money elsewhere? If they can’t then we have gone very much off-course.

Success is vital to the commercial success in the future – Liverpool can live on their past, United and Chelsea can focus on the present… we can’t do either. Hitting new markets with no trophy appeal presents an uphill task and investment is needed for long-term commercial success, the thing is the chances of the club investing is small. There is at least £30m sitting in a bank account JUST for player signings, go out and get us a player that will get the fans attention – now isn’t the time to talk about signings – but this brief mention is wholly relevant.

It has got to the point where we know what will happen in those games against United, we play the nice stuff, have  good amount of possession but we don’t do a whole lot with it. On paper we have the best squad, yet a mediocre United team can still beat us twice in two games this season – they have been comfortable wins as well, we are also yet to register a goal against them. Not good enough.

Somehow we are still in with a shot of winning the league, win against Spurs at WHL and we are level with United providing that we win every game, or at least match any United result, up to that point. It will come to the crunch when Liverpool and United visit the Emirates – Can we turn up and play in a way that is effective enough to beat them?

I guess now is the time for the supporters to get behind the team, yet again. I will always support Arsenal and get behind them when adversity strikes – it is just what you do, isn’t it? However, my backing of certain members of the playing staff is starting to wear thin. If a player gives 100% and plays badly that is not a problem, any less than 100% and still playing badly? Huston, we have a problem here.

Prove them all wrong, Arsenal. The ‘I told you so’ brigade are out in force and at the end of the season I want to rub their faces in it – I will support of course, but expect and hope? It is starting to get a little weary.

We are the Arsenal though, and that is good enough for me.

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Lose and I think United will do the double, win and we most certainly can. But do forgive me for being more than a little twitchy today given our recent record at Old Trafford and against United as a whole in the recent past, it is time we won.v We turned a massive corner a few months back when we comfortably beat Chelsea and in doing so we ended a horrible run of losing against them and United – one half of that run is still going and it must be extinguished today.

Many people point to the game at the Emirates in a month and a half as the acid test but whoever wins today will just get the feeling that it is their year, United have already beaten us this season and it would arguably deal a bigger hit to our belief if we lose than theirs but it doesn’t subtract from the need to win.

This is quite possibly the biggest game for us in the FA Cup since the final nearly six years ago now, we defended that day but today we have to go out and score, and get the first goal. We know we can defend well and proved that midweek against Barcelona for the most part and a similar quality may need to be produced today to stop what I think will be a very strong United side.

The midfield is where it will be run and I would start with Denilson instead of Diaby, partnered by Jack Wilshere and then Samir Nasri – to replace Nasri on the left Arshavin should start and Eboue may just get the nod on the right to back up Sagna when Evra comes forward.

Maybe I am lucky that I can’t watch the game live and am recording it due to work, I am very nervous already and it won’t be getting any better.

We really need to win this.

Arsenal 5-0 Orient

Last night was timely, the replay was never a bad thing due to squad players getting a well needed run-out and it also gave our forwards a chance to get some goals under their belt. Marouane Chamakh opened the scoring and then the much maligned Nicklas Bendtner scored three in a row, with Gael Clichy putting the cherry on the top of a much needed cake.

There was a debut from Connor Henderson and Miquel made his first start at the Emirates and had nothing much to do for the majority of the night. Henderson is a decent youngster, technically very good and works hard – chances might be few and far between for him in the future but the best compliment you can make is that you didn’t notice he was there, he didn’t stand out for any bad reasons.

Marouane Chamakh grabbed his first goal in three months but even after scoring his confidence just didn’t look improved, he always works hard but doesn’t have that cutting edge that would take him to the next level. Bendtner on the other hand, stole the show. Even after grabbing a hat-trick people find a way to criticise him and it is thoroughly wrong, he is continuously played out of position but nobody seems to notice this. When he does get pulled off the bench it is usually with hardly any time left and people expecting him to perform miracles. Nicklas should get a good run of games now much like he did towards the end of last season – if you remember that far back, he scored a fair few vital goals.

Whatever people say to this; I rate Nicklas very highly. He has everything to be a striker of the highest quality and if Arsenal are not careful they will lose him, people around him are always looking for a way to move him out and from my point of view it would be a massive loss. If he was English he would be worth £30 million in the current transfer market.

Some of the criticism he receives is entirely correct, other criticism is way over the top. Just look at how many goals he has scored for us in what has been a third striker role at best – he isn’t bad at all. Last night I still heard some criticism against him but you have to ask yourself what more he can do? He scored three and is still slagged off.. Maybe when he ends up somewhere else (which I think he will), we will realise the player we have lost.

Tomas Rosicky seemed to enjoy the game yesterday until he got smashed in the head and went off with concussion, he was pretty lively and played a key part in the first goal. He is held in high esteem at the club and despite nearly moving on in the summer, is thinking about life after his playing career. Until then though, he will surely only be a squad player after what has been a remarkably poor season from him.

One thing I did notice again last night was just how poor Sebastian Squillaci is, I am hoping that we bring in Mamadou Sakho in the summer and get rid of Squillaci (who Lille are interested in).

Most importantly we are now through to the quarter-finals where we will have to travel to United in ten days-ish time. Another massive game but hopefully we will have a fit Cesc Fabregas and a close to fitness Theo Walcott.

Last night would have done Bendtner the world of good, he tends to score in bursts – much like this time last year with vital goals against Hull, Stoke, Wolves and of course netting against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. We would have been struggling for the top four 12 months ago without him. Just please, give him a chance without slagging him off.

So, another game down and another game close to some silver, we hope.

Onto the next one…