A woman two seats along from Danny Fiszman in the directors’ box sported a huge red handbag. This thing was massive. Perhaps she was giving a few wads of Arsenal’s reputed £56 million profit a taste of the matchday experience on a day away from the usual suffocating coffers of their bank vault. I’d rather have seen it used for players on the pitch myself.

Arsene Wenger’s starting eleven for the game against West Brom included six of his seven first choice defensive players, by which I mean the keeper, back four and two holding midfielders. Vermaelen wasn’t fit, but aside from that, this is as good as it gets, in the manager’s view. Arsenal will not win either of the two pots the manager values so highly unless he accepts the reality that the defensive side of Arsenal’s game needs serious attention. It was interesting to read in Ian Tanner’s piece on refereeing inconsistency during the week in which he mentioned that the last time Arsenal kept a clean sheet away from home in any competition was back in January. That, sadly, is a damning statistic.

Arsenal did not play particularly well in the first half. Andrey Arshavin hit the post, but aside from that the main incident of the first half saw Manuel Almunia hare out of his goal and concede a penalty. Fair play to the keeper for saving it, although in a sense he was simply righting the wrong of giving it away. Abou Diaby was having something of a shocker, often giving the ball away and contributing little to the team. I could understand his inclusion ahead of Jack Wilshere. There is no doubt Wilshere would not be best served by playing every game this season at his tender age. However, he does, already, look like a much better player than Diaby, so one hopes the imminent challenge for a first team starting place would spur Diaby on to play out of his skin. Nothing of the sort. By the time Wenger admitted how badly the number 2 was performing, his men were two goals down.

Although the goalkeeper was pretty culpable for the second and third goals, neither full back covered themselves in glory for the first two. The idea that Kieran Gibbs is a better option than Clichy on the left is a popular one, and a view I certainly agree with. Sagna on the other flank, does on occasion play well, but ultimately, like Clichy, I no longer see him as a title winning defender. The pair of them are not quite good enough. It should be remembered that both lined up for France recently, with Diaby in front of them. They are international players, but maybe that says something about the standard of France’s national team these days. They are no Thuram and Lizarazu. Capable players, but not top, top quality.

The keeper I do not need to write about. That the manager wanted to recruit an alternative during the summer says it all. He calls both Almunia and Fabianski ”world class”. There’s talking up your players and there’s talking complete and utter bollocks that insults the intelligence of the supporters. But what is of greater concern is that the problem was not successfully addressed during the summer. Someone at the club has failed to do their highly-paid job competently. We are witnessing Cesc Fabregas’ final year at the club. He’s seen enough, often enough, to know, and enjoys widespread sympathy for his desire to tolerate it no longer.

However, it is a concern that in positions where no-one felt the team needed attention, the club seem to be lacking. Perhaps this will be rectified if Gibbs and Eboue are given a run in the defence, although Eboue’s defensive abilities have been questioned as much as Sagna’s. But there is no doubt that, positionally, these players are not receiving good coaching. The offside trap seems to get some work, but there are too many simple errors the full backs are guilty of. The manager has refused all offers of help from concerned former Arsenal defenders who have volunteered their services to do a bit of coaching. One assumes that Pat Rice is not doing very much except saying ‘Yes boss’ at the appropriate moments.

So we end up with the shambles we witnessed against West Brom. It had been a decent start to the campaign until the visit to Sunderland. Last season saw a similar good beginning until two consecutive games in Manchester. The inconsistency of the team does not augur confidence. Chelsea beat West Brom at home 6-0. Who is going to play in goal on Sunday next week? The manager certainly hasn’t got the balls to play the one prospect on his books who hasn’t been found wanting yet, but Wojciech Szczesny’s contract apparently expires next summer, and on the basis that he hasn’t yet been offered an extension, we can assume he is not in the manager’s long term plans.

Of course, it is only one defeat, but how often have Arsenal failed to make up lost ground on those above them when offered the opportunity by those sides dropping points? We’ve seen it all before. Even in games they win, Arsenal often present chances to their opponents which would result in more dropped points if said opposition were more composed in front of goal. The team is not solid enough often enough. They can flatter to deceive one week, but it is like a house of cards awaiting collapse. I thought I would be writing off the side’s title chances next weekend rather than this. Arsenal can usually be relied upon to win their home bankers.

However, they failed to establish an advantage yesterday due to sheer complacency. The players thought they just had to turn up to win the points. Football doesn’t always work that way. Some highly paid individuals need to ask themselves what they are doing to justify their salaries at the club. Because yesterday, the failure to strengthen the squad adequately – specifically in a goalkeeper and a top notch holding central midfielder to partner Alex Song and add authority in the middle - meant some chickens came home to roost. Still, look at that lovely fat wad of cash in the bank.

On which note, it has been confirmed to me that the reason the manager will be taking the domestic cups more seriously this season is that he has been told by the board that he has to. The reason? Trophies? No – the club played five less home games last season due to early cup exits, so overall matchday profits were down! Remember, this isn’t a football club whose priority is the winning of silverware, oh no…