First of all, let me wish you all a Happy New Year. It may be a Chinese one in advance and let us be happy that we have succeeded in some activities in the transfer market. Yet, in making his signings, perhaps Wenger should be reminded of Einstein's words. 'Our thinking creates problems which the same level of thinking can't solve.' Before turning to this, my last article came ahead of the Wigan away game in the League. I have to be honest and confess to seeing only seven Arsenal performances since. We have only scored in one of those, romping Middlesboro for our second 7-0 win in successive seasons. Spending Christmas in a blizzard-like Québec City meant I had to follow Charlton and Portsmouth online. Outside of Boro, in all the other matches I have seen since Wigan, I have not seen one legitimate Arsenal goal: Bolton in the League, Aston Villa and Manchester United, Everton and Bolton in the Cup and our first home League defeat of the season. Alas, baby-sitting duties on Tuesday afternoon mean I did not see the Wigan Lager Cup match and seeing Liverpool away and the Real Madrid first leg seem in great jeopardy

What's the correlation between Wigan and Middleboro? Winning away to Wigan we thought we had turned the corner. Alas, no. Thumping Middlesboro was another fine indicator that we were turning the corner, only to be followed by a mediocre display to lose 1-0 away to Everton, whom, strangely, we thumped 7-0 only last season at home. How delightful it was to get out of bed at 6.50 in the morning, walk twenty-five minutes in a chill factor of –24 Celsius (and back) to see this woeful display. Otherwise, the nearest we came to a goal, apart from several woodwork scrapes, and the officials decided to allow someone other than Arsenal to follow Manchester United in doing a back-to-back Premiership, so the Chequebook Bully Boys won the day.

This is what irks me. "Supporters" of the Chequebook Bully Boys gloat everywhere that Manchester United and Arsenal fans cannot cope with someone else taking over from the two-team dominance over the past eight years, calling us whingers, some even wish relegation upon us. With no note of apology, not even all of their owner's money would make us go down on them. That's style, that's class, that's principle. Why is this all so irksome? When pundits like Alan Hansen a couple of seasons ago could not say that Arsène Wenger's Arsenal were one of the great teams after our unbeaten season as, to be a great team, one has to do back-to-back Premierships, is annoying. Why he included Leeds of the 1970's in that category then, beats me. Perhaps, as with Scottish philosophy, Adam Smith's invisible hand – this time of logic - was invisible because it simply did not exist. One more cleared header, one more scar to the head, Alan, and I'd hate to think what you might have come up with next. However, the current "let's buy our way to a trophy" incumbents are likely to do a back-to-back and, thereby, be judged one of the great teams. Even Sir Alex Ferguson said that they had not raised the bar, were just plain consistent. He failed to add to that their mundane football approach is equally consistent.

Harken back. Arsène Wenger, unluckily robbed of a back-to-back double in 1999 when Giggs scored that FA Cup semi-final goal, restoring United's belief that they could still push on to win the Premiership, next understudied Ferguson's tactics to finally pull off our Double of 2002, narrowly missing out on the UEFA Cup in 2000 and, in 2001, the FA Cup, yes all in successive seasons. That Giggs goal is one of the great counterfactuals of our times, the 'what-if', that if Giggs had not scored, we would have moved on, heads high over United's imploded self-belief, won a back-to-back double and their treble would never have happened and, maybe, we would have won the next Premiership title as well. Instead, by 2002, we were forced to raise the performance bar, setting in train for three seasons a level of football touched on briefly by Brazil's 1970 World Cup winning squad. I cannot vouch for the glorious Arsenal of the 1930's, who gave World Champions, Uruguay, a footballing lesson one evening at Highbury.

Only one other English team has won silverware in four successive seasons. Not Manchester United, not Liverpool, not Leeds, but, Arsenal in the 1930's. How fitting it is that we should have won five trophies in four successive seasons. Hansen does not think this counts as a great team and Ferguson does not think we will ever be as big as United. One thing is for sure; the next team to raise the bar of footballing standards will be Arsenal. To do so, however, requires us to change our thinking. For example, when have we actually been outplayed? Apart from Bolton in the League, which required two defensive howlers on our part in the absence of our favoured left-backs, plus two strikes off the post to defeat us, we have not, from what I can gather, been outplayed. Apparently, in a match I could not see, only Tottenham otherwise outplayed us, but for forty-five minutes. Newcastle went unpenalised while Gilberto was sent-off for the first time in his life.

I must apologise to all faithful Gooners out there, having been heavily involved as press at the UN Climate Change Conference, I returned home at 8.30 on the Saturday morning after the final all-night long negotiations and press conferences, so it was more than I could bear to go and watch the Arsenal - Newcastle match when I pulled myself out of bed after only two hours' sleep. So, if we have not really been outplayed, where is it all going wrong? Quite simply, the story lies in our movement and passing. The lack of actual shots on goal compared to our former days is poignant. We are not scoring with any player from every part of the pitch anymore, except against Middlesboro. The movement is simply not there, it is hardly a shadow of its former self. Too much time is spent on being caught in possession instead of visionary first-time, line of sight passes. No one finds the space to support the man in possession unless we hold a small-sized diamond or triangle in our desperation to keep possession, hoping then to walk the ball, à la 2000, toward the penalty area, but ultimately into a line of defenders and back into open play.

We have little line of sight passing meaning the ball ends up with the opposition or our being robbed on the ball which, without Vieira, our Hector of the Flashing Helmet, to lance his bronze cubit, means the whole team has to track back and start passing from defence all over again, limiting our once counter-attacking flair. Is this the Arsenal we have come to know and love? The individual performances are as lukewarm and wooden as the chips at Champs Bar here in Boulevard St Laurent. Let's watch our central defence without Touré suffer against the long ball. Our central defence is becoming a laughing stock. When next time our defence finds itself alongside a forward who is outpacing them, remember; this is the time to lunge into a tackle.

Now we are almost out of the January transfer window and the rumours remain tedious, around Thierry Henry and Ashley Cole. It is great that we have signed three players and I hope a match fit Diaby will start to shine. As yet, he seems a cardboard cutout of Vieira. Keown will need to help him polish that flashing helmet, assuming it was left behind in the marble halls, not placed alongside the Shroud in Turin. However, I can see the merits of having 'Abou Diaby' playing in an Emirates shirt. How appropriate.

As for captain Henry, he seems too often to rest on his past laurels. I don't feel that handing the captaincy to someone else would be so bad, perhaps an incentive for Ashley Cole to stay unless we wish to swap him for the Beast. Is Henry like English cricket captains, whether Peter May, Tony Greig, David Gower or Ian Botham, the individual performance and contribution tails off – all too significantly while middle order collapses run rampant?

If Arsène Wenger is to solve the problems we have, he will have to reach a different level of thought. It is not good enough to replicate the halcyon days by finding the closest carbon copy to great players we have lost are about to lose. Vieira's gone; Bergkamp's on his way, Pires one season soon, Henry and Cole, too, maybe. Rethinking movement, thinking spatially, this is how we must move on. Then we can raise the bar. Maybe then, I can ask Champs Bar to rethink the menu and kitchen so those chips, as did Arsenal, melt in the mouth.