Well here we are barely two months into the new season and, the Fulham and Hull results aside, we’re all feeling highly optimistic about the club’s chances this year right? Wrong. I hate to say it, but I’m really losing my patience with the Gunners at the moment. Don’t get me wrong here, I’ve been a loyal fan for 25 years and I am certainly not spoilt by our success or ungrateful that I support a side that rarely loses a game.

I love everything about Arsene Wenger’s style of play and I strongly agree with his policy of not paying over the odds for average English players when he can find far more technically gifted players at a quarter of the price or less overseas. I would far rather he pluck a talented youngster from obscurity than say spend £17 million on Gareth Barry.

The football we’ve played over the past 12 years has been from another galaxy, an absolute joy to watch. When Arsene finally decides to hang up his crown and retreat to a quiet retirement village in France, I’ll be one of the first to shed a tear. Too many managers are overly eager to splash the cash on mediocre players each summer to try and keep up with the big guns. Wenger has never been tempted to stoop so low and I have massive respect for him for that reason, but there does come a point when something needs to be done if we are going to keep pace with the rest. Do we honestly think we are going to win things in this day and age when we don’t ever buy proven top class players?

I’m totally disillusioned by our recent results and the prospect of another year without a major trophy. There comes a point for every big club when a transition period must end; when you can’t keep using the age of your players or the wealth of your opponents as an excuse for failure. We need to deliver and fast, and that’s been the case for two years now.

I know that many Gooners will agree that we really should have won the Premiership and Champions League in the last couple of years. Last season we were arguably punching above our weight in the league but we still made huge strides forward and looked like serious contenders for 26 games. I’m still adamant that we would have won it had Eduardo not got injured, and had that stupid ref not given such a ridiculously harsh penalty in injury time at Birmingham. But let’s not go there.

More importantly, have we made further progress during the summer? I don’t think so. My concern is driven by the visible evidence that we are drifting further behind Chelsea and Man Utd rather than closing the gap on them. Are we a weaker side than last season? Possibly. You only had to take one look at our squad before the season started to know that we wouldn’t win the league this year. Take a look at the Man Utd and Chelsea bench for God’s sake, would any of our first choice midfielders apart from Cesc (who’d be the first name on their team sheets) get a place there? I’m not convinced. Saving money, making shrewd investments and playing youngsters is good for the club as a business but it is becoming disastrous for the team’s success.

Do you honestly think players like Denilson, Walcott (recent displays aside), Eboue and Diaby are going to steer you to Premiership and European glory? It only takes an injury to Fabregas, our key man, and we look like a distinctly average eleven. That’s when points are thrown away and title hopes disintegrate and I hate to be a pessimist but that’s what will happen again this season. I would have thought Arsene would have heeded that lesson by now, but yet again we are heading into a long, tough winter with a threadbare squad that is a mere couple of injuries/suspensions away from another capitulation.

Watching the recent games against Blackburn and Bolton, I was rubbing my hands with glee. It was the old Arsenal; an array of devastating football, slick, fast flowing movement and passing combined with clinical finishing. On our day, we can still destroy anyone out there and make a top side look decidedly ordinary. I recall Chelski’s bunch of overpaid “stars” spending a great deal of time chasing shadows when they were up against our youngsters in the Carling Cup Final the season before last.

But on the other hand, look at the displays against Fulham and Hull. I nearly left the pub I was in during the Fulham game at half time (something I’ve never done before); such was the heartless spirit of the performance. I felt my enthusiasm draining out of me as I watched in glum despair. In those 90 minutes, when I hasten to add we were totally outplayed in footballing terms by Fulham of all teams, one could be forgiven for wondering if some of our players were really that bothered by it all.

Certain members of our squad, Emmanuel Adebayor in particular, are letting their reputation go to their head and believe they only need to walk onto the pitch and their job is done. There are mixed views on Adebayor and I admit I’m not his biggest fan. He may have bags of potential, pace, strength and score the odd amazing goal or 30, but the finished article and a genuinely world class striker? Not a chance. Comparisons with Thierry Henry are obscene in my eyes. How can you compare the Togonator with the King of the Premiership? Henry was, in my opinion, the best striker we’ll see at the club in the next hundred years, if not ever.

And talking of Henry and the era of the “Invincibles”, how do you think this current crop would fare against that unbeaten team of 2003-2004? Think about it for a moment, it is 3pm on a Saturday at the Emirates stadium (oh what a rarity that would be!). Arsenal line up: Almunia, Sagna, Djourou (Toure exempt as the only existing member of both squads), Gallas, Clichy, Nasri, Fabregas, Denilson, Walcott, Adebayor, Van Persie against the Invincibles: Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Senderos (ok, maybe not!), Cole, Ljungberg, Vieira, Gilberto, Pires, Henry, Bergkamp.

Who’s your money on? I don’t want to knock our current side too much but I really can’t see them getting a point from this one. So have we made steady progress or fallen away since the last time we lifted the coveted Premiership trophy? The reason for this comparison is that the old Arsenal teams were littered with world class talent, not just kids with potential.

After a brief flutter of hope last season, we are still very much in transition and I’m not convinced we have moved forward at all in terms of mounting a serious challenge. So what is the solution? Arsene, get the chequebook out in January, puhleease! I’m not asking you to sign an overrated Englishman, please do avoid them at all costs, but why not move for a cheaper foreign alternative? Wenger is the master of talent spotting and getting top players for next to nothing. Why this recent obsession with unproven youth?

I think we need three established world stars before we can seriously challenge again. It won’t happen before then I promise you. In my mind’s eye I can see the season unfolding in front of me now. The league bid rapidly disintegrating during the winter period, January comes and goes with little transfer activity at the Emirates, and come May it ultimately ends in a 4th placed finish. Our Champions League campaign falters at the quarter final stage as we give away another soft goal from a corner, in the home leg. And we start to blame the lack of experience in the side and the fact that every other club has money to burn.

Yet Arsene has a huge transfer kitty, or so I’ve heard. So when will the Professor do what he has to do and sign some top class players? One thing is for sure, it better be soon because I’m going to lose my head before long!