They were well placed to win the game, true the injury to Sagna disrupted the rhythm of the team, but they were beginning to lose it before he went off. Things got even worse when Grant put Anelka alongside Drogba, this proved far more deadly than Joe Cole and Drogba, and it was the centre of Arsenal's defence that couldn't cope. Perhaps it demonstrates how dependant Toure is on Sagna for cover, but certainly for the next 20 minutes he and Gallas did a fair impression of the Chuckle Brothers.

Wenger was moved to criticise the defence as a unit, but he couldn't have meant the magnificent Clichy and Sagna. I know it's popular to criticise Eboue, and he does some stupid things, but on the wing he had a good game, and his partnership with Sagna created havoc in the Chelsea ranks. However his presence in defence was less certain, and, perhaps, because of it the defence as a unit began to buckle. Certainly he and Walcott did not have the impact of his partnership with Sagna, it also meant  Arsenal lost width just as Chelsea started to funnel everything down the middle, mainly with over the top hopeful hoofs.

It was this bombardment that seemed to put the centre of the Gunners defence into a state of chaos. Earlier in the game they had defended as a team and kept out everything thrown at them. Clichy had kept a tight grip on Cole, and still found time for threatening runs.

Chelsea, from 70 minutes on had two deadly strikers, by 76 minutes the rusty van Persie had departed. As Chelsea became more powerful up front Arsenal seemed to become more lightweight. Contrary to some knee jerk responses written by disgruntled Gooners, and believe me my gruntle is as dissed as anyone's, Hleb was the best midfielder for the Arsenal.

Hleb worked tirelessly, but one feature of his game grates, that is his condition of scoreophobia. The man breaks into a sweat at the thought of scoring; a fear of flying is far less disabling for a footballer. If our most effective midfielder cannot score, then there is not a lot of hope in making up a deficit. Certainly Fab and Flam were no better in that department.

Adebayor has hit a lean spell, and van Persie has come back too late, by the time he finds the net our season will be finished. Just imagine what Eduardo might have done, for him fat English bastards are like a red rag to bull.

It probably all went wrong when Eduardo was wasted at Birmingham, and the boy Robin took far longer to recover than expected. Walcott might have replaced Eduardo after his two great goals at Brum, but immediately afterwards he was injured.

  

Distractions

Now we can blame Wenger all we like, his failure to predict in January that Eduardo would be injured in late February particularly rankles with some, but shouldn't the players take some of the blame? Birmingham was forgivable, it was exceptional and harrowing, and Birmingham cheated for their two goals. The following game was understandable, the team still hadn't got the injury out of their head, but two more draws and a defeat just isn't good enough. There must be distractions here, Flamini wavering on his contract, Hleb going out for ice cream before a big game. Fabregas carping on that he can do more for Spain, if I was you Cesc I would try and do more for Arsenal, like scoring a goal in the Premiership,  before our season goes down the toilet.

   That the squad is stretched and tired no longer washes as an excuse, the decks were cleared by exiting the cups, and they have been on a game a week, for the last few weeks. With a load of shyte Internationals coming up, and three games in a row in six days against Liverpool what can we expect? They were only 14 games away from glory and now they have 10 games to salvage something from the wreckage. A fish rots from the head, and on this occasion it is the heads of the players that has gone. 

For a large selection of Arsenal Books, DVDs, PC games AND MORE at Bargain Prices visit the Arsenal Times Store CLICK HERE

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• That Offside Law Cleared Up For Arsenal Benefit
• Kalou Praises Eboue Apology

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS