This season more than any I have found it very difficult to be positive going into any game no matter who we’re playing.  However, even I thought I could relax and enjoy some footie when I saw that we had drawn minnows Bradford in the League Cup.

A statement of intent

This feeling of relaxation increased even more when I saw the team Mr Wenger decided to put out.  The team was effectively our best eleven with the exception of Arteta and perhaps Walcott.

By playing this team Arsene made one very simple statement.  We are going to win this game.  At least, that’s what I assumed to be the case when you compare this team to the usual flock of youngsters Arsenal fans are so used to seeing trot out in these ties against lower opposition.

Face the fact

What transpired over the course of tonight’s match cannot be hidden from.  We should not try and find the silver lining or look at the Brightside.  Already I’ve heard ‘it was only the league cup’ or ‘Bradford deserved it’.

While I accept that the competition isn’t our biggest target and that Bradford worked their socks off, to embark upon ever of these lines of argument misses the elephant in the room.  We just lost to Bradford, a team 3 tiers below us, with close to our strongest team.  This is simply not good enough; any championship team would have regarded a loss tonight against the Bantams as embarrassing.

Who’s to blame?

I don’t intend to do any Wenger bashing in this article.  I’m not going to suggest he leaves or plead he stays, because there’s simply no point.  He’s not going anywhere.  All I will say is that the board doesn’t pick the team or tell them how to play.

Whilst I agree to an extent with some of the anti-board feeling in some areas of the club, it doesn’t explain how tonight’s travesty unfolded, only the manager and the players can be held responsible for this.

Why did it go wrong?

Although I find it rather painful to discuss the game itself, there are obvious problems that we encountered.  For once I wouldn’t blame any defensive errors, the one goal Bradford did score was a very good goal from a set piece with a wonderful finish.

Our attacking force on the other hand, left a lot to the imagination.  Rambo didn’t have the greatest game and neither did Podolski but this was not the route of the problem.  If tonight proved anything, it is that Gervinho might simply not be good enough, at all.  He was woeful from start to finish and he has been for some time.

When one of the relatively bright sparks Coquelin was replaced with Chamakh a wave of sorrow hit me.  I won’t say that he isn’t good enough; it’s obvious and has been for as long as I can remember.

Chamberlain brought with him the first shot on target of the game in the dying embers forcing me to remind myself that we were playing a League 2 side.

As for the penalties, yes they weren’t great, but it should never have come to that and that’s what’s important.

Important to remember

Off the pitch in blogs, on marches or in the press, of course it is ok to show our unhappiness with the team.  We are the fans and we have every right to get our feelings heard.  However, for 90 minutes against Reading on Monday the team needs full vocal support from the fans in the stadium.  That goes for every game, because any negative feeling in the stands will rub off on the players and that wont solve anything.

Well done Bradford, I for one would love to see you win it now but I don’t see any other Premier league side giving you such a terrible contest as us.

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