Having seen some of the reaction from people on the Gooner website and elsewhere after the Fulham game, I thought I’d add my thoughts to the melting pot.

1. Fulham away was nothing new
Mark Vallis said he couldn’t recall a more insipid performance than last Saturday’s. Well, how about these away games (in rough chronological order): 2005/06 - West Brom, Newcastle, Everton; 2006/07 - CSKA Moscow Fulham, Sheff Utd, PSV, Everton; 2007/08 - Sevilla, ManUre (FA Cup), Wigan. These matches involved pretty disgraceful performances where we leaked basic goals to often poor teams and offered practically no attacking threat. My point isn’t to argue that Mark is wrong, just that the kind of display we saw on Saturday is not rare - things improved last year but perhaps we’ve taken a step backwards.

2. Be fair to Eboue, he’s a right back
I think Eboue is a waste of space in midfield and contributes virtually nothing to the attack. But let’s be fair to the guy and acknowledge that he is a right back (an international right back) and still offered more against Fulham and West Brom than Denilson; Eboue should be forgiven a bit more easily for allowing Fulham so much space and time on the ball. What’s more worrying is that no-one could see we were being outplayed in the centre of midfield - surely that’s the job of a skipper and coaches, not a guy who is playing in a position for possibly only the second time in his career. I couldn’t see much input on that front from the sidelines or Gallas.

3. Wenger’s muddled thinking
I’m usually a member of the ‘Arsene Knows Best’ brigade but even I have to question some of his thinking, particularly over transfers. For example, Aaron Ramsey may well become a fine midfielder for us but spending £5m of our precious transfer kitty on another ‘midfielder with potential’ was a mistake. That money should have been put towards the giant, scary centre back we’ve been crying out for since Keown and Campbell departed (or at least put into the wages pot to help keep Flamini).

4. Wenger’s pride can only be battered so many times
Wenger can’t enjoy being responsible for performances like Saturday’s. And, as I said earlier, he’s been doing it for almost four years now. Nobody outside the Club really knows how much AW’s hands have been tied when it comes to splashing the cash - or how willing/unwilling he has been to agreeing with the policies. He is a proud man who has gone from almost ending ManUre’s dominance to spending season after season scrapping for third place and working with good, but not top class, players. He always stresses he’s never broken a contract but surely he won’t want to be associated with games like Fulham away for much longer.

5. Cesc and a CEO
To end on a slightly positive note, when Cesc returns we’ll be ten times better and the Club should gain some positive momentum when the new chief executive arrives. Let’s just hope he won’t have to spend next summer persuading our number 4 and his agents to stick with us.