Wengerball

Having started supporting the Arsenal shortly after Arsène Wenger's arrival at Highbury, this writer has known no other brand of football. While the focus as always has been on pretty football triangles on the pitch, the barren run of trophyless seasons have slightly dampened the enthusiasm of the average Arsenal fan.

Wengerball attempts to chart yet another season in the Arsenal red and white, one that hopefully culminates in much anticipated glory in England's highest footballing echelon.

This week, Arsenal crash and burn at bottom-of-the-table Blackburn, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain caps his first start with an emphatic goal against Shrewsbury.
Heads rolling

Amidst the fallout from yet another league loss, much of the attention has once again been focused on the hapless gaffer. Arsène Wenger has been looking all his 61 years and more of late, and the capitulation to winless Blackburn was as sorry a defensive Arsenal performance as any.

Despite scoring three goals, and leading 2-1 at halftime, a limp performance from the back four and two own goals meant all the hard work done previously against Swansea was erased as the Gunners fell to their third loss in five league games this season. When Yakubu Aiyegbini scores two goals to open accounts for the first time in a year, you know there's something seriously wrong with the defence. And so it proved, as Alex Song and Laurent Koscielny both managed to deflect the ball in at the wrong end to ensure Blackburn's poultry giant owners went home happy.

Indeed, pre-match criticism had been directed at Blackburn boss Steve Kean, with some sections of the Blackburn support openly calling for his removal. Ninety minutes of football later, Wenger was the very much the manager in the headlights.

But honestly, what could the Arsenal manager have done to turn the match? The eleven that went out on the pitch was about the strongest team that Arsenal could have managed given the circumstances. Gervinho and Arteta scored good first half goals, and even Marouane Chamakh managed to net a fine headed effort to ensure a tense finish to the match. Yakubu's second might have looked offside, but there is no disputing how shaky Arsenal looked at set pieces. Per Mertesacker's might have added much needed height to the defence, but it was transfer target Christopher Samba who was proving a tremendous threat at corners and free kicks.

Sacking Wenger might do more harm than good at this point, and there are few realistic options to take over from him, but the fact remains that much of it has come down to bad luck. It makes you wonder if Wenger broke a mirror seven years ago, thus starting this barren run of trophyless seasons. Little seems to be going right of late, but sacking the manager won't solve the problem.

Teaching the defence how to do their job might, though.
Hindsight bias

Football fans can be a fickle bunch, and some of Arsenal's lot are no different.

Just take a look at Arsenal's transfer signings this season. There might be doubts as to whether the late spending spree would have happened without the calamitous 8-2 loss at Old Trafford, but there is no disputing that close to £50 million was spent on players this transfer window.

For once, seven players were recruited to offset the losses of Gaël Clichy, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. So for once, the complaints have changed from the club not signing enough players to signing them too late, from not paying enough to paying too much for potential (Oxlade-Chamberlain) or on gambles (Park Chu-Young, Andre Santos).

But most surprising of all has been Per Mertesacker and his reception so far. Once hailed as the potential messiah that would solve all of Arsenal's defensive problems, a towering presence in central defence with proven pedigree and leadership capabilities, the consensus so far has been anything but.

Two league games in, Mertesacker has been derided as being too slow, 'having the turning circle of the Queen Mary' as one of the comments following the last column put it. Granted it will take the German some time to get used to football in England, but there is a certain irony to calls for Wenger to have signed Gary Cahill or Christopher Samba instead. You wonder if any of the two would have done any better when inserted into the shambolic Arsenal defence.