Yes, Mike Riley was incompetent and let Villa, particularly Sidwell, get away with what seemed to be a constant succession of low level niggling fouls that disrupted the flow of the game. But let’s be honest there was never going to be much of a flow was there?

A couple of weeks ago my mother in law asked me if I ever got bored watching Arsenal. No, I said, ecstatic/angry/frustrated/depressed yes, but never bored. Well, that’s now a lie. I was bored rigid at the Fenerbahce game and until I moved into angry/frustrated/depressed mode I was pretty bored at the team’s attempts to play on Saturday.

No pace, no fluidity, no movement, and that is increasingly the norm. Put the Man U performance to one side – still don’t know where that come from – and we have been pretty stodgy. When we have played well, we have still looked vulnerable. Bolton and even Blackburn away could have been very different results. I still think the Fenerbahce away was the most flattering result in Champions League history. I reckon we could have lost that 6-5. Think West Ham away, the early season home games against West Brom, Everton, Newcastle, and we laboured against pretty average teams.

If we aren’t going to blow teams away with the excellence of our football, which we have only done for spells during games, then we have to look secure and at least capable of defending. Our midfield and defence with full backs acting as auxiliary midfielders/wingers and trusting in the pace of Gallas and Silvestre (!!??) is not going to produce too many clean sheets.

We have under Wenger followed a high risk strategy which relies on every one of the 11 players being at the top of his game if it is to succeed. When it comes off it is fantastic and I would not swap it for anything, but we have to accept that it is not going to happen week in week out. The first choice 11 is not consistent. The Nasri who played in the Man U game looked a completely different player from the one who laboured so badly against Villa. The only player who has been consistent over the last couple of seasons is Fabregas, and we are now paying for it big time. The boy looks knackered. He is having to come ever deeper to pick up the ball. He now has to play square balls to Denilson, to Gallas, to Clichy and is having trouble getting into great positions because he is doing so much donkey work. Denilson may have the same build as Deschamps but he is carrying the water to an increasingly dried out Fabregas.

I know that the Under 20s team looks good but can you really see us getting the right combination of experience and youth that will make us truly competitive in the Premiership for the whole season? Last season we lasted until February. Will we make it to Christmas this season?

Let’s look back to the team that got us to our last final – Champions League 2006 with 11 clean sheets on the way– and see how they compare with the present first XI.

In goal, give me the 2006 Lehmann over Almunia.

Full backs – I think I prefer Sagna and Clichy to Eboue and Cole, but what has happened to Eboue over the last couple of years? Perhaps we were never that good.

Centre backs - Give me the 2006 Toure over the 2008 impostor any time. Campbell or Gallas. I think I would prefer the 2008 Campbell over Gallas, let alone the 2006 version.

Midfield - One slightly over the hill Pires and a now departed Hleb over two wannabes in Walcott and Nasri. Give me the first two. Gilberto and Fabregas or Denilson and Fabregas. Close but Gilberto and Fabregas.

Upfront – Henry and Ljungberg or Adebayor and Van Persie. Henry and Van Persie for me, despite the latter always being injured (or suspended).

The point I am trying to make is that the team as a team has not moved on in the last couple of years. The 2006 team had to be dismantled – Pires, Henry, Campbell were on the slide and Ljungberg’s last good year was probably 2002 - but the 2008 team is one of potential not achievement, and I cannot see a firm base of experience on which we can see the potential flourish. We do not have an imposing goalkeeper. We have no dominant defender who will be around for the next three or four years – in fact we have no dominant defender period! In midfield we have only Fabregas, around whom we could build a team, but another potless season will see him back in Spain. Upfront, Van Persie is too unreliable and Adebayor showed his true mercenary colours in the summer. There’s always Theo, but you can see him staying just long enough to improve and get a great contract elsewhere.

So, should we Gooners be downhearted? Well, if you genuinely expect us to be challenging for all the main competitions year in and year out, then yes you should. However, if you think that for seven years from 1998 to 2005 we played great football and won competitions, and that since then there have been times that we have been untouchable and can live with the rollercoaster, then just sit back (or stand up) and enjoy it.

Here’s a positive to end on. Our lack of progress as a team has been magnified by the improvement at Chelsea, Liverpool, and ManU. However, how stable is that improvement? Those three clubs are heavily indebted or reliant on the whim of a Russian whose fortune is diminishing as fast as it grew. I know we have got the debts associated with the old and new grounds but these do seem manageable in comparison. Perhaps the world is turning in our favour when these clubs and other trying to buy success in the same way will not be able to bid up transfer fees and wages quite so aggressively and good experienced players will become affordable and welcome the opportunity of playing with a very talented group of youngsters. Then we shall see the wisdom of Wenger’s cautious approach to the transfer market and players wages as we reap longer term benefits.

I am firmly in the “let’s enjoy the ride” camp. There will be lows but the highs will come again and they will be great.

Keep the faith.