As I work abroad, I watch all Arsenal games on the TV and then re-live them through my dad who uses my ticket and who then Skypes me so we can play dad Hansen and son Shearer.

After the United game, I began to trawl through the usual Arsenal blogs to help me dissect what people had to say about our most recent abject performance against our greatest rivals. What struck me was how calm people were about this latest mauling. Is it because everyone is punch drunk or is it because we are now so used to this kind of display at this time of the season?

Truth be told, I was expecting us to lose, not because I am a pessimist, I’m not, but for two years now, I have believed that the development of our team is hindered by the man at the helm, and this latest car crash of a game was nothing short of an embarrassment and just serves to strengthen my belief.

There’s no doubt that the one takeaway point from the game is that United highlighted the now massive chasm between our two clubs. And I suspect Chelsea will seek to widen that gap even more next Sunday. Both clubs demonstrate that player-investment works.

What hurt the most is the manner in which we were beaten. Gone are the times where this game was a pressure cooker waiting to explode, with yellow and red cards, spitting blood and tears until the end. Instead, after 50 minutes, it was more like watching a testimonial game.

I must confess I have been on the Dark Side (critic of Wenger) for some time now, and I have often been too sheepish to admit this as so many Arsenal fans remain loyal to the core. It seems he is without question and this sentiment seems to be shared by the board.

At first, I thought I might be biased because I happen to work for a French company, and I know they can be arrogant and stubborn. More recently, though, I think it’s because my opinion of Wenger has changed. I used to see an intelligent man who respected the fans and now I see someone who seems hell bent on fulfilling his dream of winning without breaking the bank – in my opinion, this is a pipedream.

Whilst there is no doubt that Wenger brought a brighter future to our club, and whilst we had great success early in his tenure, there is little evidence which supports the premise that the club is moving forward. In fact, we might suggest we are moving backwards, especially considering the way other clubs around us are muscling us for the Holy Grail that is a place in the Champions League.

Wenger is a manager and so by definition his job is to manage his players to succeed. This is his sole responsibility. Whilst his duty is to manage within board guidelines, the board should remain ever present to keep him in check and also to devise strategy for the future. This is not Wenger’s job. It therefore seems odd that he is involved in this and increasingly, these two roles are becoming more blurred than ever before. For me, Wenger has way too much influence on the actual business of football, rather than running the team. In other words, when the board state that you have cash, then you should spend it. You don’t tell them you want to save the cash.

Like many others, I am a paying fan and have endured numerous years of excuses surrounding the lack of cash to spend on recruiting well needed players. Like other fans, I accepted this as I was glad to enter into the 21st century with a brand new 60,000 capacity stadium. And I was prepared to accept a few years of hardship as we sorted our finances out, even if it meant that we ran the risk of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man United, Villa, Manchester City and even Spurs challenging our Champions League spot. So far we have been lucky, but I don’t think we can hold them off for much longer, especially if we don’t invest in talent.

So it was music to my ears when I hear from the manager that there was money to spend in the January transfer window, as I expected that we’d buy. But rather than investing in needed players, we are again at the end of a barren transfer window where common place for this club is a perennial lack of investment in new players, and mind boggling contract extensions for existing players, making our wage bill one of the highest in the entire league. Surely this is mismanagement? Why do Vela and Eduardo need contract extensions? Why is Almunia still the first choice goalkeeper? Why are we playing without a striker? Is a sign of how desperate we are as a fan base that we were excited to see Bendtner coming on against United?

Post match interview, Wenger identified weak links in the team and this was clearly designed at deflecting from the real reason for our poor performance, as players can only do what their talent allows them to do. If they are not good enough, that’s not their fault. Rather, blame should be directed at Wenger as he is the architect of this fragile, dilapidated, patchwork team. I read between the lines and rather than the usual “spirit” dross he uses, I heard a man that must surely know that he is to blame and that yes, the squad is too lightweight and too small, yes we need a goalkeeper, yes we have too many samey midfielders with no end product and yes, it was truly idiotic for a top three club to go into the most important part of their season without a true centre forward, especially when we have money to spend.

It is also unforgivable to play a reserve team in the FA Cup, a cup with over a hundred years of tradition and history, and a cup that fans love to win. Not only is it disrespectful to the fans who travelled there, it is utterly arrogant to assume that we don’t need to win this cup because we have a larger prize to chase. Well one of those prizes has all but disappeared and I would venture a guess that no team has ever won the Champions League with a Division Two goalkeeper, and with no centre forward. It also got me thinking how the older players like Gallas feel about throwing a cup game – as this may be their last chance in their careers to win some silverware?

This arrogance has almost certainly left us in the same position as last year - with no chance of silverware and no time to do anything about it. We are stuck with players the fans know are not good enough, all because nobody at the club is willing to have a proper discussion with the manager about what their expectations are and what his responsibility is.

So this was supposed to be the year when we won something? Well, we all fell for it again didn’t we? I think Wenger has to be reigned in. Fans need to be respected, since we indirectly pay the wages. A nice gesture would be for Arsenal to refund all the away fans for traveling to Stoke only to find that it was an Arsenal reserve team - stands to reason, if they are reserve players, then the price should reflect this.

I wonder how many Club Level season tickets will be renewed. Remember, these are the bread and butter for the club. I know that I am really considering my options before the start of next season.

Sorry dad!