I did not make the journey to the wastelands of the North West but my niece Maz did and she says that filing out of the ground after the game the general consensus was that we have handed the title over without much of a fight. It's true that Chels' are playing well but if we played to our best we would have at least made a fist of the situation and there would not be a ten-point gap with just over a third of the season still to play.

There will be plenty of people talking over the next few days about where it's all gone wrong and how we are over as a major force in English football but I don't buy into that. No team in history wins everything all of the time and we do not have a divine right to the Premiership and we haven't become a bad team over night. What is upsetting is how far we have slipped from the wonderful team we were watching last year. I don't know why, but the harmony does not seem to be there. Did the team achieve too much last year and are now find it hard to live up to expectations? In 'Rocky III' Apollo told Rocky that the reason he would not win was because he did not have the 'Eye of the Tiger' - the hunger to succeed. Last season we wanted to win the Premiership more than anything else after the season before, when it was felt that we had let the title slip from our grasp, and I am hoping that we will want to prove all our critics wrong next season. Wining things is all about belief, the belief that you will not lose, the belief that the opposition will not score against you, the belief that you are always going to win no matter who you are playing; we for some reason seem to have lost that belief.

We have gone into the last couple of games on the back of a Chels' win which has extended their lead from 5 to 7 then 10 points and it looked like the players were saying "why bother?," the desire seems to be lost in them. Who is to say what may have happened if Chels' had dropped a couple of points in either of those games, would we have been more determined to win our games?

Who knows? There will be plenty of time at the end of the season to discuss the rights and wrongs of the this season, the Vieira fiasco, the goalkeeping situation and our strength of squad, but who is to say that we cannot achieve something historic this season by going on to win the Champions League -it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

So let's hold our heads up high and remember we still support one of the best teams in England and Europe and count yourselves lucky that but for the grace of God you could be supporting Sp*rs.

Transfer Window
Arsene says that he does not like fishing in the 'Transfer Window' as the price of fish tends to go up during January. So we can only presume that there will be no bids for the Chelsea pair of Claude Mackerelele or Carlo Codicini and neither for Sean Sprat-Philips or Ledley Kingfisher, but he was hoping to finalize the contract of Lemon Dover Sol Campbell.

I Heard It Through The Grape Vine
We will be signing a midfielder this month.

Life After Arsenal
Chris Whyte left us and had success with Leeds winning a championship medal. He is now a chauffer.

Spotted out and about
Gael Clichy in 'Game' a computer shop in Enfield buying 'Pro-Evolution 4'. I wonder if they play as themselves.

Players We Have Been Linked With This Week
Gabor Kiraly (C.Palace) Tracksuit wearing Hungarian shot stopper.
Mickael Essien (Lyon) Linked almost everyday with the Ghanaian, too expensive and will end up at Chelsea.
John Ruddy (Cambridge) Add to keeper list
Alexei Eremenko Jnr (Lecce) Finnish playmaker
Christian Abbiati (AC Milan) Another keeper, this is getting boring
Andrea Caracciolo (Brescia) Forward

Useless Arsenal Trivia
Since the 1930's one of Arsenal's traditions is that they have flowers in the colors of the visiting team placed in the boardroom and VIP lounge.

Celebrity Gooner
King Olav V, former king of Norway.

This weeks 'Totally Irrelevant' link to Arsenal
Back-up keeper Stuart Taylor is currently on loan to Leicester City. Contrary to his surname he could not make a suit for you, unlike my farther who was a qualified tailor (I know it's spelt differently).

All the best,
Teabag