Arsenal put in the most shamefully abject 45 minutes of their season yet somehow had Chelsea hanging on for dear life at the end. The second half was an almighty improvement but really only served to highlight the first for what it was: unacceptable sabotage.

Serious questions need to be asked about a team that is so clearly its own worst enemy.

Slow starts, defensive embarrassment, missed chances: these are what Arsenal’s defeats look like. In the worst ever season under Arsene Wenger, the shortcomings of how the squad has been built and the team prepared have never been so apparent.

Fans and pundits will understandably scream for reinforcements but there’s something else going on here. From defensive drills to set piece routines to getting his players focussed before kick off, the buck must stop with the manager.

Constantly slow out the gate

A couple of weeks ago I saw a tweet that was unbelievably illustrative: Arsenal have won all five Premiership games in which they have lead at half time. Twenty-two games into the season and we’ve held a half-time lead in less than 25% of them.

The first half against Chelsea was possibly the starkest example yet of Arsenal’s first-half failings. Chelsea have three dangerous players – Oscar, Hazard and Mata – and all were given the freedom of West London to provide a constant threat in the first half-hour of the game.

There was no snap in the tackle – there was seemingly no desire to get anywhere near a tackle – and once again players played like each trains in isolation. It would not surprise me one bit if there were problems in the squad such is the lack of cohesion and understanding.

Will someone please return Bacary Sagna?

No player has come to epitomise the derailing of Arsenal’s once-fine machine more than Bacary Sagna, who was until his leg break last year the best right back in the country by miles.

Maybe injuries have caught up with him, maybe the lack of contract means he’s distracted, maybe it’s something else entirely but he has been a shadow of his former self this season. His crossing is laughable, his pace non-existent and his positioning scary.

Not that he’s helped by Per Mertesacker’s mobility issues. The BFG has been our best defender this season but Sagna seems to always ‘cheat’ left in case Mertesacker gets stranded.

Trouble up top

At the other end of the pitch, Arsenal are facing up to what happens when their only centre forward loses form. Olivier Giroud has had a mixed start to his first campaign in N5, but while his aerial threat gives Arsenal an outlet from deep, he has spurned a series of eminently scoreable chances in recent weeks that would have been pivotal.

Running on to a perfectly weighted ball from Walcott, he should have beaten Cech and put us one up seconds before Mata’s goal. At the start of the second half he completely mistimed a header after beating Ivanovic in the air and anther great chance went begging.

All this would be less problematic had Arsenal a semblance of depth up front. Lukas Podolski would have been a natural choice from the bench, and Walcott showed he has become a genuine goal threat but these players are part of the first XI anyway.

Demba Ba may not have been a perfect addition – and once Chelsea got involved I doubt he’d have chosen us – but Arsenal’s second-half charge foundered on the rocks of a bench insufficiently stocked with attacking reinforcements.

Do we believe anymore?

The horrific first-half performance was illustrated by a 38% possession rate. It’s unthinkable that an Arsene Wenger should keep the ball for so little time against a team coached by Rafa Benitez.

We improved to around 55% after half time but the damage had been done by a 46-minute period in which Arsenal looked completely convinced they could not win.

More often than not the ball was punted forward aimlessly, while players sat off as if they were waiting to be scored against.

Our performances against traditional rivals this season have been poor, and there’s little to suggest that things will change.  There needs to be rethinking of the Arsenal way because this way is not good enough. Is that a personnel issue or a coaching issue? You tell me.

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