A big change is needed

Sigh. So, another Sunday afternoon, another evening of post -match frustration and another defeat for Arsenal, which makes our chances of a top four finish this season all the more unlikely. It has also been another missed opportunity on a weekend where all our top four rivals have dropped points. And it's another weekend where there are more questions than answers at Arsenal football club.

You would have thought that the glaring faults of last Sunday's defeat at Swansea would have been eradicated against Man Utd, given the faults were mainly mentality problems. But they weren't. After a good opening ten minutes, we fell into the present routine of sitting back and letting the opposition dominate the game and we just attacked when we had to.

The defending was sloppy, the tactics were non- existent and the amount of bodies going forward was embarassing. It was a first half performance of a lack of ambition, a lack of quality and a lack of solidity.

But, to be fair, we came back in the second half and got much better, created a few chances and eventually scored (oddly at the point of the second half where we looked least likely to score up to that point). Great play from Koscielny set up Rosicky, who played a lovely pass and Chamberlain controlled it beautifully before cutting into to slot in Van Persie, who finished excellently. But apart from that goal, and the performance of the exciting Alex- Oxlade Chamberlain, there wasn't much to cheer today as we still went on to lose.

This was largely down to the most bizarre substitution I've ever witnessed, as Wenger took off our star performer on the day, in Chamberlain, for the ever- increasingly useless Arshavin, who came on and made no effort, looked dis- interested and was largely at fault for Welbeck's winning goal. Unless he was actually injured, this was the most stupid substitution I've ever seen. He was our most creative player, it was at a time we looked like we could go on and win the game, he was the player troubling Man Utd most and we took him off, for Arshavin as well!

Not only did it have attacking consequences, but it had it's defensive ones too. Arshavin's pathetic attempt at stopping Valencia on the right allowed him to come inside and set up an easy tap in for Welbeck. Two points lost, all because of this rubbish player and our manager, who looks like he has lost the plot.

For Wenger, it's either time to go or spend some money. He's got a week now in which to do so, we don't have a game in midweek so it's a great opportunity to get busy in the transfer market. We NEED players if we are going to finish in the top four. We need a striker and a centre midfielder. Wilshere might solve that, but we still need at least one attacking player and another defensive player, probably a left back or centre back. And that's just for now. We also need to keep Van Persie fit and keep playing Chamberlain.

If he isn't going to do that then he may as well go. Because I genuinely think he is costing us more than he is benefitting us. Many problems are still there, we need players and he's refusing to buy them, his defensive acquisitions are an absolute joke and they've been holding us back for 7 and a half years, and the defensive frailties will always be there as long as he's in charge because he refuses to coach his defence and use tactics to make it better, and make us a more solid unit.

So time to spend some money on bringing in new players, which we need to do, or go. If it costs a lot, then so be it. It would cost more to miss out on the Champions League.