Can you believe Wenger was going into this season with Djourou and Vermaelen as his two main centre backs? The former is a disaster waiting to happen (and since August the disasters have happened) and the latter has played about ten games in the last 18 calendar months due to successive serious injuries. The less said about Koscielny and Squillaci the better, although I do like the look of young Ignasi-Miguel. Had we not lost 8-2 to the Mancs, do you really think OGL (Ed –that’s“OurGloriousLeader”for those unaware) would have been so quick to sign four players in less than a week after wasting the whole of June, July and August?

As for the forward line: we haven’t got one have we? Van Persie is being played woefully out of position as a lone striker (although the goals have been coming for him, everybody else’s have dried up). Walcott has lived up to everyone’s expectations after five years of Wenger’s coaching and if his display at White Hart Lane is anything to go by, is a worse player now than when we signed him. He’s so bad he makes overrated sound like a plus point.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has more skill in his little toe than Wally does in his entire body. Don’t worry, though, OGL will knock that out of him before very much longer. Much like he’s done with Gervinho, who under the Frenchman’s recent tutelage has turned into Chamakh Mk II and can’t hit a barn door from six yards out. What do they do in training? If Wally, Chamakh and Gervinho are anything to go by, I reckon they’re shown a zillion blind alleys with six defenders at the bottom of each one and repeatedly told to run down each of them until they’ve got it off to perfection.

I read today that Ivan ‘Sustainable Model’ Gazidis is telling us that the club will not suffer financially if we don’t finish in the top four this season. We should worry. Never mind the Champions League, If Wenger stays much longer we’ll be heading for the Champion-ship. Our league form over the last 18 games would see us in the bottom four with only Bolton, Sunderland and Wigan below us. And OGL wants to stay another 15 years! I can see AFC Wimbledon overtaking us on the way down. Can you hear the Mancs, Spuds, Scousers, Geordies and the Chelski Chavs laughing at us? Hang your head in shame, Ivan.

Maybe a bottom six finish would at last make them realise that in the 21st century having three stale guys in their mid-sixties who have been at the club for 15 consecutive years is maybe not the best coaching set up when dealing with promising young players with attitude 40 years their junior. This is not a blip, this is suicide.

Right that’s it. Moan over. God it’s so depressing. To think where we were before the half wits running the club got rid of David Dein and prioritised hoarding money over success on the pitch…

Herbert Chapman: Arsenal Legend I’ve recently returned from a holiday in Majorca where I spent many a happy hour on the beach reading the fantastic Herbert Chapman book we received in our membership pack this August (at last they’ve done something right). The book is called ‘Herbert Chapman on Football’ and it’s a collection of articles Mr Chapman wrote for the Sunday Express in the early 1930s.

When I first started supporting Arsenal in the late 1960s, the club was entrenched in the history created by this character Chapman who led Huddersfield to two consecutive league titles in the mid 1920s before being lured to London and the then less than mighty Arsenal, where he took the club to their first FA Cup final in 1927. Chapman’s Gunners then won the FA Cup in 1930 and two league championships in 1931 and 1933, before he tragically died half way through the season when they won their third title in 1934 on the way to a decade of domination. The great man certainly laid the foundations for

What the f*** is tippy tappy football?

everything that Arsenal stood for until 2006, when, in many fans opinions, the real traditional old Arsenal sadly passed away and was buried at Highbury where it now rests blissfully in peace.

Short of writing an autobiography, which to my knowledge Herbert never did, this book gives us a fascinating insight into what made arguably Arsenal’s greatest ever manager tick. Mr Chapman was undoubtedly the Alex Ferguson/Brian Clough of his day (in terms of success) and I’m sure if he’s looking down on the current Arsenal now from the Great Highbury in the Sky, he will certainly be wagging a few disparaging fingers in the direction of his successor tenth removed currently occupying the managerial hot seat at the club.

My favourite manager ever is Brian Clough and as I’ve got older, I’ve got so much respect for old Big Head (as Clough was affectionately known) and I would’ve loved it (just loved it) if I could’ve spent an hour or two in the pub with him. What a character. Brian Clough had charisma for a middle name. Chapman was the same in the 1930s. If you’ve read your Arsenal history you’ll know he was responsible for, amongst other notable things, introducing the white sleeves to the Arsenal kit in 1932. In fact, so strong was Herbert’s legacy at Arsenal that 33 years later in 1965 the club did away with the white sleeves as the players were constantly being unfavourably compared with Chapman’s team of the thirties and they thought that wearing a plain red shirt (like a certain contemporary

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