It’s all come crumbling down. An April shower.

Having lost two on the bounce, we were thrown a lifeline by Spurs losing in Saturday's early kick-off - one that we had to take.

We didn’t. A dreadful performance.

A team that picks up zero points in those three successive games doesn’t deserve to be in the top four.

It’s this mentality, and inability to stop the rot that means we are where we are. We’re quite good, but nowhere near good enough to be in the top four. Quite good is about as far as I can go. Our starting XI was probably good enough to get Champions League, anything but that XI and we’re nowhere near.

To be fair, I did let them down just as much as they let me down. I wasn’t there. For the first time away from home this season, I wasn’t there. A root canal infection had me incapacitated by the pain, and I don’t think my body could’ve handled a journey out of the house, let alone any more pain.

My ticket went to good use though, and I had to come to terms with watching a game from home. It would’ve been bad wherever I’d watched that though. 

We started off well, looking much more like our old selves after the previous two haunting performances. There was no cutting edge though, really. Nketiah looked bright, and certainly provided more than Laca has in the last few games. Saka had a huge chance which was miraculously flicked over by Forster. That was about the pinnacle of our first half.

On the verge of the HT whistle, our defence fell asleep and Bednarek swept home. 1-0 Southampton. Idiots.

The second half continued in much the same vain.

All Arsenal, but no cutting edge. We could’ve played for hours and not scored. Ian Wright warned us about this, when the goals stop coming from midfield - what happens?

This happens. We can’t score. It’s not chances, we created enough of them, we just don’t have a finisher. We don’t have a killer.

I mentioned this against Burnley, how our blunt strikers will cost us points and now (at the most crucial time) it’s starting to really bite us. Palace we were well beaten, Brighton we were outplayed for long enough, yesterday was just a case of not having the finishers. All the ball, 21 shots, but nothing to show for it. 

Top four is out of the question. Spurs’ defeat handed us renewed hope, but without being able to pick a point up ourselves other teams’ mistakes are useless.

Much like Emery, Arteta has been unable to steady the ship after disappointing results putting top four in doubt.

We really must ensure we are in the Europa League next year, as another season with no Europe may be untenable.

I get the sense Arteta has one more summer of heavy investment, the same next season and he’s gone.

We may need heavier investment than originally planned for though. Chelsea await, and probably another zero points.

Until then…