Great result for the Gunners at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night with United losing their second league game of the season to the faltering Blues. Poor result for United as they did seem to dominate the entire first half from where I was sitting.

I had the feeling that the second 45 minutes of the game would go a long way to showing us how much chance we have of lifting the title this season and I saw nothing to make me change my mind away from my belief that it will us be lifting the trophy that all teams want the most season in season out come the end of May.

The simple facts are that United are not that good. If they were they would have gone away with all three points no problem at all. Chelsea seemed there for the taking in the first half as the United midfield trio of Fletcher, Scholes and Carrick seemed to have too much energy and power for their London counterparts. But come the second 45 and things changed around and United were the ones being overrun and outplayed.

With Liverpool to come over the weekend and with the current league toppers having to go to Anfield without the services of the vital Vidic at the heart of their defence I for one can see a second defeat of the week in the distance for Fergie’s men and if that proves to be the case we could easily see ourselves a point behind them with a game in hand by Monday morning.

The sour note of the past week for me hasn’t simply been the loss of the very winnable cup final at the weekend against a very limited Birmingham side but also the loss of RVP all over again for the next few weeks. Judging the guy on recent seasons it does make you feel like we would be lucky to see him again this season as AW said a ‘minimum of three weeks’. This has been more like six months in recent times where RVP has been concerned. Such a pity that such a world class talent seems to be destined to spend most of his playing career in the treatment room.

Looking ahead to the big one in Spain next week it looks pretty sure that we will be without the services of RVP and Theo. This for me is a big blow as playing against such a class outfit you need to have all your big guns blazing to have a real chance of progression. I for one feel that we could possibly do without Theo as when Arshavin is on form he seems to have more of an impact in terms of an end result then our faster than fast winger. Let’s face facts if our Russian midget hadn’t had such a dip in form Theo would not be a first choice player anyway. So if we can manage to rev up the Russian magician’s engines before the trip to the Nou Camp we can do without Theo, but in my opinion the loss of RVP is a massive one and impacts on our chances by a fair way.

Who do we have to replace him? Well with Theo injured the options are limited to Chamakh or Bendtner. For me you can toss a coin as to who the better option would be to lead our line in Spain. Neither offers enough for the top table of European football in my opinion. They are both back up players, the likes of which you might get away with playing against very mediocre opposition. But rely on them to take on the top teams in world football and you had better get ready for some frustration. From what I have seen over the past few months my slight preference would be for super Nick as he seems slightly less like Bambi on ice to me. The sheer level of wax in our man from Morocco’s hair should make him a non-starter for me. How can you head the ball properly with that amount of grease attached to your head?

We need to make sure that we don’t end up in a situation which sees Rosicky starting in Spain as if we do we may as well not bother paying the air fare and give Barcelona a bye into the next round. I mentioned the fact that Rosicky offers nothing a few months ago in an article written before the masses cottoned onto this fact and I got a lot of abuse for it at the time. I do not need to give my reasons all over again as the games don’t lie. Get rid.

I would also like to see some renewed energy levels over the coming weeks from the likes of Song and Nasri. Both of whom I felt offered us very little over the weekend at Wembley. Maybe tiredness has something to do with it. Sammy has seemed to have had a longer season than most the squad as he has had to be more involved than most due to injuries to other creative parts of the squad, mainly Cesc and Theo. I feel for us to reach our targets this season we will need players like Nasri pulling more strings than he managed last weekend.

Apart from the Barcelona game I feel we should be able to manage without RVP as long as the three week period of absence isn’t greatly extended. The league games we have to play in that time period are not overly challenging and we should be good for a fair number of points in them as long as we don’t keep losing key men every game as has been the case recently. One or two here and there and we should be fine, five or six and that becomes another matter altogether.

Looking ahead at the league fixtures for us it looks to me that our trip to WHL in late April will be a massive game for both sides. I can see Spurs needing points to try and secure a place in next season’s Champions League and us genuinely challenging for the title. We should be bang in the hunt at that stage and could find ourselves ahead of United before we come to play them at home at the start of May. It goes without saying that game will be a massive one. It could literally be a title showdown. If we can try and get into a position where a draw will suffice then all good and this should be our aim over the next eight weeks as far as the Premier League is concerned. If we go out of the Champions League then so be it, we need to focus on the Premier League right now as that is a very winnable trophy and it is a big one.

I still feel we can pull progression out the bag against Barcelona but maybe without RVP pulling the strings upfront I would have to reassess our chances and lower them slightly to maybe three in ten. Not an impossible task but harder and let’s be honest when you are playing Barcelona away you do not need anything making it any harder than what it already is.

As far as the FA Cup goes after last night we now go to Old Trafford for the quarter final. One point may be worth considering. When we play them United will not have played their second leg against Marseilles in the Champions League until the following midweek. Two points on this fact. Fergie will prioritise the second leg and put out a weaker team against us than he would if the second leg had already been and gone. Also if we fail to progress against Barcelona will AW decide to take the FA Cup a little more seriously now that we have lost the Carling Cup and remain without a trophy for six years? One would have to imagine that he would not want to risk another trophyless season and at that possible stage the Premier League would be the only other winnable trophy still to aim at apart from the FA Cup. The combination of us losing to Birmingham and United not playing Marseilles until after our quarter final showdown could see our chances of progression against Fergie’s men rise considerably. Could losing out last Sunday perversely make us more likely to pull off a domestic double this season?