In the end, the biggest game of Arsenal’s season came to nothing. Almost unbelievably, it had fizzled out after a mere 11 minutes. Even before kick off, it was a game made all the more difficult by Arsenal’s failure to score a vital away goal at Old Trafford last week. In case you need reminding, despite our woeful performance in the first leg, we were lucky to leave Old Trafford just a goal down. So although we were still in with a chance, the second leg was always going to be difficult.

Our biggest problem was trying to stop Man U from scoring at The Grove, but such is their array of firepower that it was almost inevitable that they would get on the scoresheet. We just had to hope that we would get off the mark before them. But the simple fact is this – over the two games we deserved nothing and we got nothing. Which begs the question “why?”

Sad for a Gooner to say, but Man U have more quality across their squad. Never mind the players on the pitch, you only had to look at the faces on their bench – Berbatov, Giggs, Scholes, Tevez. And ours? Bendtner, Diaby, Denilson, Eboue, Silvestre. It says it all really. I don’t know how many decent goalscoring chances they created over the 180 minutes, but what I do know is that we created ONE decent effort (RvP) over the two games. Yes, just the one solitary effort! No matter how much or how long Arsene pours over the stats, it was blindingly obvious that we were outplayed in every department and it was hard to see where an Arsenal goal was coming from. How ironic that it came from a dubious penalty.

Just for once it was actually re-assuring to see Arsene looking thoroughly dejected at the post-match press conference and admitting it was the most disappointing night of his career. So presumably, as well as wrestling with the problem of how to lift the players for Sunday’s tricky game with Chelski, he must be asking himself “where do we go from here?”

Surely he must realise that as things stand, if we retain our current squad for next season, the best we can hope for is fourth place again and a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Is that what the fans want? Just as importantly, would Ivan Gazidis and Stan Kroenke be happy to settle for that? Hopefully not, and we can but hope that pressure will be put on Arsene to strengthen his squad during the summer if we are to realistically challenge for honours. You only have to look at the impact Arshavin has made since his arrival several months ago. After all, it’s not as if we need a major clear-out of players but it is quite clear there are some who have failed to deliver during the course of the season – Adebayor, Eboue, Diaby, Denilson.

We still have the nucleus of a good squad, but we need to add the quality of depth that our main rivals have. And let’s not forget that we also have some talented youngsters knocking on the door – Kieran Gibbs, Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey. Yes, last night was disappointing but hardly unexpected. So let’s get behind the lads and see if we can’t get three points off Chelski on Sunday. After all, we need to make amends for the woeful performance against them in the FA Cup semi final. Come on lads - play for your pride!!