On the way to the game yesterday my Dad and I were discussing the match and he was very much of the opinion that we would lose. Normally a very upbeat supporter I was surprised by his attitude but ultimately he was proved right in everything he said. I saw our esteemed editor on the way out of the ground and he looked as dejected as I felt. As the tube rumbled out of Arsenal I said to Dad “we have been done here by a magician’s sleight of hand.” What did I mean? Allow me to explain.

It is a widely held and accepted belief that Arsenal play the world’s most exciting and pretty football and that we have a young and promising team. It is also widely known that we don’t like it up us. Only one of those statements is true – we don’t like it up us, or rather we have no desire or stomach for the fight. We are in danger of going the way of people’s boxing champ Frank Bruno.

So let’s explode the two myths.

1. We are a young side with a great youth academy.

Totally false. Going through the starting 11 yesterday you have Almunia, 32, bought. Sagna, almost 27, bought, Gallas, 32, signed, Vermalen, 24, bought and Gael Clichy, 24, bought.

Onto the midfield. Song, 22, bought, Denilson, 22 in a couple of weeks, bought. Fabregas, almost 23, stolen from Catalonia.

Up front. Arshavin, 29, bought. Rosicky, 29, bought and finally in case you were wondering to complete this wonderful line-up of homegrown young players, Samir Nasri, almost 23, bought.

Oh well, I hear you say, the bench was full of young homegrown talent. Ramsey, 19, bought. Walcott, almost 21, bought. Eboue, 26, bought. Fabianski, 24, bought (but not considered good enough). Bendtner, 22, bought in at 16 from FC Copenhagen. Traore, 20, bought in at 17 and finally, Silvestre, 164, found in a bin outside Old Trafford.

Not one of these players was at Arsenal on their 15th birthday.

Yeah, yeah but what about the players who weren’t there I hear you say? Vela, bought, Van Persie, bought and so on and so on.

It is a myth, a magic trick. A bit of PR that Wenger and / or the board are happy to have touted about because it hides our, oh so obvious frailties.

The next myth is that…

2. We play great football.

I don’t know about anyone else but I believe this to be a myth. Great football means being great at everything - headers, crosses, corners, set pieces, defending, grit, tackling, long balls – need I go on?

After the Villa game our manager did his usual moaning and accused Villa of being a long ball team. The key point that he forgot to mention was that, yes they may have played the ball long against us, but that is what good teams do, they frustrate the opposition and they play using the tools in their kit that will do the job most effectively. Villa do not play long ball against weaker teams, they simply have it in their armoury to use if needed against the likes of Arsenal.

What do we have in our armoury other than overpriced tatty memorabilia?

Watching Arsenal week in week out is like watching soft porn. All promise and no end product. Sideways balls followed by playing it out of defence and 180 pass moves that end in nothing.

A final point on Denilson. I have always been a supporter but yesterday told me all I needed to know. The guy is at best average and at worst lazy and weak. He almost gave away a penalty for Almunia’s, sorry, Nani’s goal and almost headed into his own net to give Utd a goal.

It was rank bad man management by Wenger not to substitute him at half time and spare the poor chap the ignominy of being ironically cheered off the pitch by his own fans. Even his Denil… (announcer) Son (crowd) chant at the beginning is frankly embarrassing!!

Too much respect was shown to United yesterday, who will rarely have had an easier game against us in London. It was obvious to anyone watching in the crowd that we were giving them too much room and this was as early on as 10 minutes into the game. What we needed was a bit of niggle, some spite, a touch of the Laurens, if you will. Instead what we got was half-baked, half-arsed lame attempts at winning the ball, let alone the game.