Joe Fitzpatrick 
Fortes fortuna adiuvat.
The phrase means that Fortuna the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those who take risks or action. Its first recorded use is by the second century BC playwright Terence in his play "Phormio". The phrase was shouted by Turnus in Virgil's Aeneid just before he was utterly destroyed by Aeneas Trojans.
Some will say Arsenal were unlucky not to have converted at least one of their chances on Saturday and that Manchester United were very lucky with some of the decisions that went their way against West Ham but, Turnus the king of the Rutuli would say "Fortes fortuna adiuvat."
Manchester United had their fair share of luck but they also had players with clearly defined roles carrying out their jobs with zeal and passion in abundance. Vidic could easily have been sent off for a number of fouls he committed during the match, most notably when he hauled over Ba in desperation denying him a clear run at United's goal. Say what you like about Vidic but he clearly is prepared to do anything he can to prevent a goal being scored against him and was screaming at Chris Smalling all game to try and get some organisation going at the back.
Wayne Rooney's much publicised four letter word outburst at the Sky TV cameras was in my opinion a display of pent up emotion and raw unbridled passion. What better way is there to respond to the West Ham fans’ chants of "You're just a fat granny shagger!" than a hat trick away from home?
I would give anything to see Arsenal players displaying the commitment of Vidic or the firey passion of Wayne Rooney as that has been the main difference between us and them this season in my opinion. Where is our Turnus? Where have all of our heroes gone? Who amongst our current squad are able to summon up the testicular fortitude required for a battle and inspire others around them?
The answer based on Saturday’s evidence and the case built up throughout the entire month of March is that sadly, none of them are. Some will point to Wilshere as having a certain amount of fight in him but at just 19, he is no leader yet and he only serves to show up the lack of effort put in by our more experienced squad members.
There is no organisation at the back, no one is shouting either instructions or encouragement to their team mates. Our only decent defensive midfielder thinks that changing his hairstyle has magically transformed him into Steven Gerrard and our goalkeeper is about as commanding a presence as Gunnersaurus would have been. Arsenal did not look like a team on Saturday let alone a team fighting for the title, but where do these problems come from?
As a recovering AKB-aholic it is very difficult for me to admit that the blame must lie with the manager and the manager alone. He has built a team full of captains but strangely enough there isn't a single leader to be found among them. Rosicky, Arshavin, Ramsey, Nasri, Chamakh and Van Persie have all captained their countries but none of them will ever inspire or motivate like Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane or even John Terry.
A lot of Arsenal fans have said that Arsene Wenger does not encourage his players to be vocal on the pitch and I must agree with them, as the lack of communication between the full backs, centre backs and goalkeeper is there for all to see. Arsene Wenger admitted earlier this year that Alex Song was being asked to bomb forward to surprise the opposition but surely this leaves our leaky defence exposed?
Gooners everywhere are praying that Vermaelen returns unscathed from his injury battle from hell as he is the only obvious candidate to replace the Barcelona bound Cesc Fabregas as captain. We would have been better off with Gallas and Campbell at the back against Blackburn but both were allowed to leave for nothing in the summer. The fact that they would now be welcomed back with open arms by most fans is a sad indictment on our current defensive situation.
I am not joking when I say that I would have rather seen Gunnersaurus in goal for us than Manuel "the Spanish Waiter" "the Vampire" "the Morris Dancer" Almunia. When Almunia nearly fumbled a deflected Olsson shot into his own net the stewards standing to my left must have thought I was a Tourette’s sufferer due to the stream of expletives that I found uncontrollably spewing forth from my mouth. When he completely missed his punch from a long free kick from Paul Robinson I almost lost the will to live as I watched Nzonzi's header fly narrowly wide of the post. How many more times are we going to have to bear witness to the criminally inept performances of Manuel Almunia? What is the goalkeeping coach being paid for? If anything Almunia seems to be getting worse from game to game.
Finally in the interest of fairness I must say that while we did somehow manage to keep a clean sheet, in attack we must be the most wasteful team in the Premiership. Before the game I was watching our substitutes playing a keep ball exercise where four players surround the man in the middle and must keep the ball away from him. Surely Chamakh and Bendtner in particular would have been better off with a bit of shooting practice? As Alan Shearer rightly pointed out on Match of the Day Arsenal were shockingly wasteful in front of goal and did not get enough bodies into the box.
Alan Shearer has forgotten more about goalscoring than Chamakh and Bendtner will ever learn and I have to admit that I'm really upset with Wilshere for missing a very good chance early in the game too. The glaring difference in the fans’ reaction to Wilshere's mistake is due to the fact that we can forgive Wilshere because he clearly gives us 100% every single time he pulls on his Arsenal shirt. If all of our players could show the heart, passion, determination and mental strength that this young man has shown us this season we could have been looking at winning at least one trophy this year instead of again looking at an empty trophy cabinet. Arsenal are lacking a top class goal keeper, organisation at the back, leadership, heart, passion, commitment and barring Van Persie a striker who can actually score.
I was talking with my father after the game and he is not going to renew his two club level tickets next season and I'm wondering for how much longer I'm going to be able to justify my two seats in the west lower to the missus as I only seem to be in a bad mood when I come back from the Grove these days.
Wenger sort it out or please get out as I don't know how much more I can take. We wouldn't want to see your shiny new stadium half empty in a couple of years now would we?
