29 October 1983, Arsenal thrashed Aston Villa 6-2 at Villa Park, an eight goal thriller that will live long in the memory. Quite spookily a chilly autumn evening exactly 25 years later produced another eight goal thriller – the big difference this time is that Gooners will want to erase this pile of sh*te from our collective memories.

Cruising along at 4-2 against the league’s bottom team, I thought that history would exactly repeat itself but in a six minute spell that I still can’t believe, two late goals ended up in our nestling in our own net. Not only did we throw two points away but we have probably allowed Sp*rs to kick-start their season.

So what does yet another capitulation tell us about the current Arsenal squad? My article in the current issue of The Gooner (issue 189) focuses on what I believe has been, and continues to be Arsenal’s biggest failing – a complete lack of mental strength and a horrible complacency amongst several players. When I wrote it, I wondered if I had gone too far but after last night I can see that I didn’t go far enough.

Allowing the Spuds to leave N5 with a point, despite being 3-1 & 4-2 down, is something that our main rivals Man Utd & Chelsea would never allow. None of us like the way that these two chuck money around but that is the standard that we are up against and that is the standard that we are falling further and further short of. Sadly dropping two more points is just a part of the same recurring problem, namely that the current squad simply isn’t good enough defensively.

Our back four make far too many collective and individual mistakes to win either of the two big trophies. The midfield and forwards don’t help – in fact they don’t seem to think that they don’t have any defensive responsibilities at all. All four Sp*rs goals came from situations that the present incumbents seem oblivious to but Vieira, Petit, Adams or Keown would have snuffed out in less time than Sp*rs could sack a manager.

The Totts were (and still are) bottom of the league, abysmal at the back, low on confidence and all but dead and buried. Allowing them to snaffle two late goals is something that Arsène and the team should be ashamed of, especially after the Fulham and Hull matches.

So far this season (16 matches) we have won 1-0 only once, against West Brom and even then a better team would have left with a point. 1-0 might be a boring old cliché but it is the score-line of Champions, emerging victorious from a tight game or doing whatever it takes to get three points from a game when we are not at our best.

This is conclusive proof that Arsenal have become obsessed with pretty football to the detriment of almost everything else. We are in danger of losing sight of the real objective – entertainment where possible BUT make sure you get the three points first. It’s no co-incidence that our last five titles were built on solid defence or that our last trophy was won with Patrick Vieira’s last kick in an Arsenal shirt.

Until Arsène re-introduces some defensive steel into our squad, I’m afraid that we will see many more games like Fulham, Hull and Wednesday night’s debacle.