Two defeats home and away to both Chelsea and Man United is not good enough. 12 points thrown away when the minimum should have been four points from four draws. Think how different the table would look now with four draws.

Throwing the FA Cup and not bothering about the League Cup is also not good enough. Telling us that having players come back from injury is like having new signings is similarly not just not good enough, it is stupid. It insults the fans, the fans Arsene who pay your wages.

Naively I thought this team could beat Villa and draw with Man U and Chelsea, and then beat Liverpool. Eight points out of twelve would be pretty good and would have kept us in with a shout of winning the league. I think a draw on Wednesday v Liverpool is the best we can hope for just now.

Even with Torres out I can’t see this defence preventing a Gerrard free kick or a lucky tap in from Kuyt. And as for our current powder puff attack scoring at least twice, well I know I need new glasses, but I can’t see that happening even through the rosiest of rose tinted spectacles.

During the Chelsea game, Sky flashed up how at one point Arsenal had 70% possession. Maybe so – but how many saves did Cech have to make? One from Arshavin (who should have scored) and one from a Cesc free kick which just needed the faintest of touches from Gallas to go in. But apart from that? Nothing. Rien. Nada.

What really depresses me is the defending. It is so bad. It is so naïve. It is so undisciplined. Can someone at the club tell us what happens in training? Many people wonder if they practice defending. Based on the first goal Chelsea scored, the answer has to be no. However, the first goal also told us everything that is wrong with Arsenal’s defending, or lack of it:

1. Clichy jumps into Anelka who is going to head the ball into no man’s land – he had no chance of winning the ball, but concedes a pointless free kick. A corner results.

2. From the corner, Terry rises unchallenged, Diaby having given up tracking him.

3. Drogba arrives unchallenged at the far post to tap the ball home, someone (I think Song) having also given up tracking him

4. And to cap it all, Clichy, who started the corner on the post where Drogba scored, had moved across the six-yard box almost reaching the other post. Had Clichy stayed at his station he could have blocked the shot from Drogba, but instead his complete lack of discipline cost us, again. On his recent displays I would rather have Silvestre who, being so slow, might well have stayed on the post.

Don’t even get me started on the second Chelsea goal. Clueless, headless chickens is the most polite way I can think of describing the attempts at countering the breakaway. It isn’t rocket science, but if the strategy is to commit so many players so high up the field, then you have to have a strategy for dealing with counter attacks. Trouble is, I suspect, this is not even a passing consideration in Arsene’s mind.

The thing about management is planning for a variety of eventualities. A former Prime Minister was once asked something along the lines of what was the most difficult thing about his job – to which is his reply was “Events, dear boy, events”. The difference between being Prime Minister and being manager of Arsenal is quite simple - the most difficult thing about managing Arsenal is Didier Drogba. Arsene, for however many years now that Drogba has been in England, he has been your nemesis. Your failure to devise a strategy to deal with him will be your undoing again this season.

So, one point from nine means that Wednesday’s match v Liverpool is crucial. Win it and I believe the confidence should return and third place could be secured. Draw it and we will be in a four or five team battle for the 3rd and 4th. Lose it and we will finish outside the top four. And if we finish outside the top four Arsene, what will you say then? That finishing 5th is better than winning the League Cup? Not in my book it isn’t.