The defeat against Spurs was nothing more than a shambles, our players were completely outplayed, our talented Fabianski has never looked too confident and a heavy defeat like that will not help unless he can have the self-confidence that Lehman and to a lesser extent, Almunia seem to have. Our seventh choice centre back Justin Hoyte was exposed as a seventh choice centre back, Gilberto's poor form continues, we created little, two of our strikers began fighting and most would say Walcott was once more quiet, only managing to set up our woodwork hitting effort and earlier forcing Cerny, who once he has been given a run in the side has done well for Spurs, into conceding a corner. We were outplayed for both legs by our local rivals, after nine years they have finally put one over us and nobody can argue that the win wasn't fully deserved or that we were fortunate to survive the first leg.

So I understand the doom and gloom, the wish for more players and the feelings things will get worse now. However I have to disagree, there is yet hope. We are joint top of the league, though our habit of drawing away does worry me a little, and our much dismissed second string got to the Carling Cup semi finals, beating Premiership teams like Newcastle along the way before losing to Spurs who, if not for the board's mess, would be challenging for fourth place with Everton, Liverpool and others - though probably finishing sixth to eighth due to bad defending. Our team is young and can only improve, we are showing the ability to adapt to the game and win, we may not win the title this season but we can push Man U all the way. Our weakest out and out striker is Bentender yet he has more goals this season then Saha and any Man U striker below their first choice two, Voronin, Pizarro, is equal with (and cheaper than) Bent while not far behind first choice strikers of Liverpool and Chelsea. We do undervalue our own players while not realising they are as good or better then the players like Sissiko, Alex and O'Shea that the other clubs have in reserve.

So we have stronger depth then perhaps we think we do, we also have a great manager - as frustrating as his willingness to only buy Dudus and not Shevchenkos can be for some, we actually make our own money and the only people we owe money to outside the club are those we borrowed from to pay for the stadium. None of our money goes into paying back for the honour of being bought or trying to pay off huge debts as Man U must meaning we have a transfer budget the envy of everyone outside of Chelsea. Then there is the board, custodians of the club, men and a woman who do not take money out of it and put everything Arsenal makes back into the club. They are stable at the moment, unlike Liverpool, they know not to interfere with the manager - unlike at Chelsea. We are in good shape on and off the pitch, it isn't perfect, there are positions I would like to see strengthened while off it we still have David Dein lurking if the board get sloppy. There is one factor that makes me positive that others seem to dismay at: our young English winger/striker who has fallen out of favour with the Arsenal faithful with only four goals and ten assists to his name overall while his performances this season has been inconsistent, so many seem to fear he will not be good enough.

Nobody can claim they have a 100% prediction rating but my feeling is that Walcott will come good. Why? Well for one, Arsene is a better judge of a player's potential then most and for another, his performances have done enough for me. When we signed him from Southampton, all I knew was he was a young player, supposedly very talented who never seemed to get a game for us. He was on the bench for one or two games but I only saw him play when Sven took a gamble on a lad he had only seen train. Sven, despite the journalists thinking he fluked all his titles and that he would lead Man City to relegation, is a very good manager who is proving himself again and took England further then most managers could and certainly with an amazing degree of consistency, only one qualifier lost and three consecutive quarter finals.

In a way, Sven's lack of faith in the other England strikers has been vindicated by complete failure of the others under his successor, only Owen, Crouch and Heskey (and to a degree Rooney) emerging with credit. Walcott was a gamble and seen as an exciting move by a manager (mocked for his caution) when he played against Belarus and Hungary as a substitute. While neither team he faced were of the highest level, Walcott acquitted himself well. Sven seemed to have seen enough, taking Walcott to Germany 2006 which the press made a huge deal about. We all remember the fuss as Walcott was never used, Owen was injured and Rooney got himself sent off with Crouch left stranded up the field. Sven and Beckham were blamed but Walcott also came under some pressure for the crime of being not picked, a situation not helped by Gerrard. Yet Walcott had caught the eye of Arsene and Sven while playing well enough for his country in the two friendlies.

I was looking forward to the new season, sure we had only just clung onto fourth due to Spurs implosion but we had reached the CL final and Walcott was bound to get a chance or two. There was affection for Walcott among Arsenal fans, young and being picked on unfairly, his name was sung out as he came off the bench to help break down a stubborn Villa defence and it is what he did, running at them and setting up the equaliser with a good cross to Gilberto. In his next sub’s appearance, he set up Flamini against Zagreb in the dying seconds, providing two vital assists and while his red hot form didn't continue, he was a useful presence in that first part of the season, a welcome sight coming off the bench. The best game for me during that time from Walcott was our 3-1 defeat at Bolton, Walcott ran poor Fortune and Campo ragged on the right, he was a constant danger whenever we could get the ball up the pitch, he was showing good passing, good awareness, good dribbling and as always the speed.

For England, he was dropped to the U21's under Taylor and like at Arsenal, he was in hot form, scoring against Maldives on his debut with a header, the opener against Switzerland from twenty yards, England picking four points from those two games. Their reward was a play-off place against Germany and their highly rated keeper Michael Rensing of Bayern Munich. Walcott started the first leg on the left but Rensing made save after save to deny England till the 77th minute, a Baines screamer eventually beating the Bayern man. Walcott did not have the best of games, did well enough but it was the second leg that made everyone sit up and take notice. Walcott was placed on the bench.

England struggled, fortunate to see Germany missing a penalty before Taylor got himself sent off, England were defending as best they could but with Carson looking shaky, I was hoping we could hold on to our narrow lead. Then on came Walcott, first crossing for Reo Coker to force a save from Rensing and then taking matters into his own hands. Baines hit a fantastic ball but Walcott, having drifted behind one defender but cleverly just kept himself onside, still could easily have missed but he calmly slotted it into the bottom corner. Six minutes left and the tie was over but not Walcott. Two minutes later he picked the ball up in his own half and drove past the right back, past the centre back and from a tight angle, struck it past the unfortunate keeper and into the top corner. Once more, his name was on everyone’s lips and things looked set for Walcott’s debut season to be a great one.

Unfortunately in a season where so much went wrong, Walcott picked up a shoulder injury that he never shook off, performing poorly in the Carling Cup. Some fans turned against him though most stayed loyal and eventually he had to have surgery that ruled him out of the U21 championships. Even so, against one of the two best defenders in England, Walcott would get with his first goal for the club, playing a one two, bursting past the defence and firing beyond one of the best keepers in the world. We lost that final against Chelsea and Walcott wasn’t at his best but he had shown that he could do things against the best defenders in England as well as versus both merely good and superbly talented young players for the U21s.

It has been a year since his great run of form, not five, not even two and already fans forget what he could do. At seventeen years old, he had shown great talent - why can we not see it again? How can one of the best managers in the world fail to bring that talent back to the fore? Is there no faith in the judgment of Arsene or Sven as well as the ability of Walcott to find his way back to his pre-injury days? Has he suddenly become a bad player? I believe he can come back and show what he can do, like we needed to be patient with Hleb before everyone saw his greatness, we need to be prepared to wait sometimes, he is now just eighteen. Has he been close since his return? He has shown glimpses of what he can do certainly.

This season has seen niggling injuries and many times were he has just vanished or, as against Sheffield United, his finishing and his crossing have deserted him. Yet we have seen glimpses of the in form Walcott. Against Sunderland he came on and after a wild hack in front of an open goal, he went on to tear the Sunderland defence apart, hitting the post after one mazy run and setting up chance after chance for his team mates. Coming on against Bolton, he set up ‘Mozart’ after a good run and pass. Of course he scored twice against Slavia and probably should have had a hat-trick. Sunderland on their day are a formidable side, they had us at 2-2 and held Man U at Old Trafford for a long while, Derby under Megson have clambered up the table and were again causing us trouble in terms of breaking them down while Slavia didn’t beat Ajax by being a bad side. They sadly learnt from their innocent attacking ways and would hold us at their place. Theo showed good passing, good awareness of space, good pace and even good shooting during those three games, he seemed to have found some confidence but has since lost it again. He does sometimes seems to lack self-belief and I do think it is his head that holds him back rather than his talent. His form has been better for his country, Romania were so scared of him that they tried to kick him off the park, but it didn’t work. Setting up a goal against Montenegro, tearing Ireland and Bulgaria apart and from what I have heard, he played well as a lone striker against Portugal.

Walcott may not have been on form for us this season but he has shown some of his talent for club and country, he hasn’t suddenly become a bad player over the last year. He is an eighteen year old player and sometimes we forget that not everyone is a world class player at such a young age (like Cesc), some take time to be ready to play at the highest level. Toni was hardly an internional forward at eighteen, Henry wasn’t the world’s greatest player, Sagna hadn’t made a huge impression in France by that age, Clichy wasn’t one of the best left backs in the world at eighteen and neither is our current young French pretender to Clichy’s throne but it doesn’t mean he won’t be. Rensing is twenty-three but still second choice at Bayern. Hleb took three seasons to win fans over so why must Walcott be performing brilliantly now? Players take time, Walcott will be one who could be a very good player for us but we must be patient and let the little cub grow into a lion rather than being tossed aside. We not Newcastle. Remember the good times Walcott has given us and wait awhile longer for him to roar.