Me, you, and the team are all delighted and relieved after our turnaround against Villa, but we need to keep our feet on the ground and acknowledge the following:

This is our worst stint under Arsene Wenger.

This is one of the weakest, if not, THE weakest Arsenal team we’ve had under Arsene Wenger. Yes, Pascal Cygan was better than Squillaci. Francis Jeffers was better than Chamakh. Limpar had a better work ethic than 90% of our team, need I go on?

The Invincibles happened eight years ago. It was amazing, I loved it, we all loved it, but we need to stop going on about it.

Three years ago we were gunning for first place, now we’re praying for fourth.

The above is not me saying Arsene Wenger is a bad manager, not at all, but, despite his arousing speech at half-time against Villa, he has lost his magic touch. Some Gooners don’t seem to be able to accept that fact so they blame the board instead. In some ways, the board are to blame, and in others, Wenger is to blame. Let’s weigh up the argument: Wenger is the one who picks the team, makes the substitutions, gives the team talks, controls and motivates the players.  On the other hand, the board control our finances and are mainly responsible for executing transfer deals – Yes Ivan, I’m looking at you.

Now let’s focus solely on Wenger. He is as stubborn as they come, nobody can deny that, not even the “Arsene Knows Best” army. His lack of movement in the transfer window is worrying, but that shouldn’t be the main focus of this post. The main point is our play style: where has it gone? We used to be an unpredictable, fast-moving, dynamic, clinical side; we are far from that now. I’m not even referring to The Invincibles; I’m referring to the Arsenal side of four years ago, if that. Our play style is becoming more and more predictable; our movement off the ball is less and less energetic.

Fans need to wake up and realise we aren’t the largely intimidating side we were five years ago. A change in manager (in the summer, not mid-season) might do us some good; after all, we are Arsenal FC, not Arsene FC – although the correlation is frightening.

It’s being reported in the Daily Mail that Arsene Wenger is on a two-man shortlist to succeed Mourinho at Real Madrid, could a swap be on the cards? Don’t be silly, if Wenger wants to go, he will go. As for the board hiring a mercenary like Mourinho – I think not, even they have their standards, in other words: he’ll want really high wages (plus really high bonuses) and then leave after 2-3 seasons. I’m not saying I want Mourinho at Arsenal; I’m just touching on last week’s news.

No matter what happens in the window this January, we need to get behind the team more than ever. Yes Wenger deserves criticism, and so do the squad, but booing? That’s not helping, but it does send a message. As I outlined at the start, this is one of the worst spells we’ve had under Wenger, and it has been made clear to him that we, as fans, are not happy, but we need to show our support, help the players, be the twelfth man and all that jitter.

As the great Dennis Bergkamp once said: “I really like Arsenal. But you, do you really like Arsenal? Or just Arsenal with trophies?”

Do you still like Arsenal? Obviously you do, buy you’d be much happier with trophies, wouldn’t we all. But it’s clear we’re going to have to wait – so just get behind the team. I’ll end with one last quote from The Dark Knight, which may just help you: “Sometimes, people deserve to have their faith rewarded”

We can be those people.

Keep the faith, paid off against Villa didn’t it?

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