Can the “Arsene knows” crowd now please give it a rest? Can the rest of us now all stop kidding ourselves? If we can then maybe we might all acknowledge what should have been apparent for some time now, and that is that we are the third best team (at best) in the country and have the third best manager.

If we can all realise this is the situation then maybe we might be brave enough to ask Mr. Wenger some very overdue difficult questions. Allow me to get the ball rolling…Mr Wenger, Where did it all go wrong? At what point did we take the left turn from winning the league so comprehensively three years ago?

Was it the fact that you failed once again to instil enough hunger and passion in your team to retain the Premiership the following year? Was it the fact that you failed to invest in that team? Was it your incredibly short-sighted policy of not offering great players over the age of 30 anything more than a 12 month contract, thus forcing their arm to seek employment elsewhere?

Or was it your decision to appoint a sulking “captain” whose character is not that of an Arsenal skipper purely to help keep him at the club whilst massaging his enormous ego at the same time? Is it the fact that you overlook players from these islands of ours that we lack the grit and passion when our backs are against the wall to turn a situation around or kill a lesser team off?

The questions could go on and on and if I thought that any of them would get answered I would keep writing, but the fact remains there are questions to be asked… I just wish that someone was asking them. Maybe the boos that I have heard around me recently are the fans’ way of raising the subject. Maybe that is their way of getting the message over to Mr Wenger that our inconsistent results against less talented but more determined teams over the last couple of years should have made perfectly clear, and that is that style over substance will get found out in the end and character will always win through. Sadly it’s character that this team lacks in abundance.

(Ed’s note – Please remember that onlinegooner is an open church that prints a wide variety of views before shooting the messenger. Posts on the site such as this one are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily The Gooner.)

(Ed's note 2 (Monday evening). We had an email from Gerard Gould this afternoon stating, "I have just found out that an email was sent to you this morning by one of my unfunny Arsenal supporting work colleagues using my IP. I am not an Arsenal fan and therefore would not like my name attached to any letter that may be printed." We've responded asking for the real name of the prankster. We will change the credit on this piece once we get notification of who actually wrote it. However, as the views may be genuine, we'll leave this post in place for the time being.)

(Ed's note 3 (Tuesday morning). Gerard Gould has emailed with the real identity of the sender. Paul Grayson seems to know what he is talking about, so until he gets in touch with us to say he didn't mean the words above and that this was all some kind of a stupid wind up, the post remains, on the assumption that the sentiments expressed are genuine)