Well f**k me how poor have the past 135 minutes of action been in the land of all things Gooner?

Shall we all give up the chase and accept that we currently have the worst team on the planet or is it all just a blip in the bigger scheme of things and were be dancing in the streets of N5 celebrating an open top bus ride around Islington as champions come May?

I would hazard a guess the true answer is somewhere in the middle as it nearly always is.

I for one have found a few things strange over the past four or five days as being an avid Gooner I like to take note of things people say around the club from time to time and one thing as stood out beyond even the recent results as they have been well written about in other articles already.

On Monday we were told Clichy, Van Persie and Arshavin would not be making the trip over to Portugal for the Braga game. Clichy had a back injury, Van Persie it was thought would benefit more from working on the training ground in his bid to recover full fitness (this bid for fitness is a permanent one with RVP and will happen all over again within two months at best) and most worryingly of all Arshavin was rested after his recent exploits have obviously been too much for him (I know he played for Russia last week but come on, has he really played for Arsenal at all over the past 18 months?).

Why would you rest a player? The only plausible excuse that springs to mind would be the thought process that the player will benefit from the rest and come back enthused and refreshed, his performances would need to pick up as a result of the rest for it to be deemed a worthwhile exercise.

Arsenal played Spurs away a couple of months ago and won 4-1 after extra time in the middle of the week. We rested players as we always do in the League Cup even though we do seem to be taking it a little more seriously this season (desperation?). Most of the players that turned out against WBA on the Saturday after the cup tie had played little or no part in the League Cup win, yet we were 3-0 down with 15 minutes to play. What good did giving the first choice XI a rest do in that game? Answer, none.

I feel that this wrapping up in cotton wool style handling of our players helps to make them feel all the more precious which is just another word for weak in my eyes. They are not quite as good as they like to make out and certainly do not have the mentality to go with any talent they may have. Arshavin perfectly sums that point up, a talent to match any I have seen in the last few seasons at any club in Europe, maybe not quite Ronaldo standards but bloody close to most other top names you could care to mention. But look at the effort he puts into games and compare that with any pub team player and you’re sadly coming up short.

Arshavin is without doubt the laziest player that I have ever seen in an Arsenal shirt and I have been supporting the club and attending matches on a regular basis for the past 22 years. He hardly ever completes 90 minutes of a game and during the time he is present on the pitch he makes less runs than the subs who keep themselves warm with a half hearted jog every 15 minutes. He played for no more than 65 minutes against Spurs and was dire for 64 minutes and 50 seconds of that time. His assist was a gift as Hutton the Spurs right back was injured and out of the play at the time. There is conserving energy and then there is taking the p*ss.

Do we expect to see a bright faced, fresher Arshavin come Saturday afternoon at Villa Park, one that will rip up a Villa back line and win us the game single handed after a much needed rest? Or will we get more of the same half hearted frustrating lack of effort that we have come accustomed to over the past 18 months? I know where my prediction would lie.

In short I feel our players are well too pampered after and treated with kid gloves by our leader. Chelsea have played a very similar team week in and week out over the past five or six seasons, Lampard and Terry have been a set fixture even in their League Cup teams when fit and that certainly doesn’t seem to have hindered their personal performances one jot. We used to take the League Cup seriously every season when players like Lee Dixon and Ian Wright were regulars and I don’t remember them being rested to often if at all.

This attitude is what makes us as a team nothing more than a dumb blonde, pretty on the eye but absolutely nothing to keep you coming back for more, zero substance. As soon as things start to go wrong it is game over as there is no-one to rally the troops, no-one making sure people are pulling their weight. We have no leader and we have no balls.

Stop pampering up to players that don’t give a sh*t and buy in some new ones that do, otherwise we will all still be saying the same things in another few seasons and by then our stadium will be even more of a depressing place to visit than it was leaving it on Saturday afternoon.