You find out more about your team away from home than you ever do at home and Saturday at the Britannia was no exception, we had great support and the first ten minutes it was our usual display of possession football with absolutely no threat and then it happened... a throw in.

This long throw weapon is not new, Hutchinson of Chelsea, Vinnie Jones and many others. Peter Storey could deliver a mean arching ball into the box. I was right behind Delap’s throw (I was in a Sky box with friends from Stoke). ‘Bloody hell,’ I whispered as it arrowed into the box. ‘F***ing hell!’ I shouted when Fuller nudged it in. It was that simple Almunia did not move and with Wenger’s words in my head “You may score a goal from a long throw once in every two months,” Delap proceeded to do it again in the second half. This time Almunia did move, he jumped out of the way in case he got hurt! I cannot describe our performance in correct English, only in Anglo-Saxon expletives: f***ing disgraceful, f***ing gutless, f***ing pathetic.

And then I remembered Bill Shankly once saying, “To play football you must have courage. If you do not have courage get out of the game because you are a menace.” Cowardly - that was our performance, Almunia should never wear an Arsenal shirt again. He was always our Geoff Barnett to Bob Wilson but yesterday he made Malcolm Webster look like Lev Yashin (Who? Ask your dad)

I was relieved when Adebayor went off because it was so embarrassing watching a giant of a man be bullied all over the pitch by players who at best are hard tackling journeymen and at worst really no more than First Division standard (excluding the excellent Faye)

I hope fans who tell people like me to F*** off and support another team for daring to criticize Arsene and Arsenal were at Stoke yesterday because if you still think we are wrong about our defence and central midfield I suggest that you are the equivalent of a modern day flat earth society member, deluded and hopelessly blind to what is in front of you.

More worrying was RVP. He clearly was still suffering from last Wednesday’s collapse after having his best game of the season against the Spuds - so flattening Sorenson was frustration at playing in team so close yet so far away because we won’t buy a proper goalkeeper and a real centre half (Stoke’s Faye would do).

Why RVP and Walcott did not start I don’t know, those omissions gave the imitative to Stoke before the game even began. However the real player concern for me is Cesc. He needs a break, his passing was not up to his normal standard against Sp*rs and he looked very flat yesterday and I fear without major, I mean major, spending he will be off in the summer.

In the name of sanity will the board have a word with Wenger and tell him it is not his money and he can spend it. Who on? Well I would break the bank for Buffon or Casillas because missing out on the Champions League will cost us more than the £20/30 million it would cost to buy one of the two.

I watched this game in a Sky Box courtesy of a group of friends I have known for over 25 years due to my involvement in junior football. This game was a proper Cup Final to them and I just wish we could have had our 98 team on the pitch to give them a proper game (“So you want to play rough, eh?”) with Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Dixon, Vieira, Petit and Parlour.

How brittle we have become.