Arsene Wenger now needs to give us a cast iron guarantee that we will win against Milan this week in such convincing style and commitment that we will put the tie to bed in just the home leg alone and look like prospective winners of the competition itself, nothing less will do.

We have now endured two losses in the domestic cup competitions to our bitterest rivals conceding 9 goals on the way because those matches were not Arsene Wenger’s priority. Quite clearly we could have won those ties had we fielded stronger teams, just what makes Arsene decide his priorities? What will happen if a Champions League and a big Premiership fixture clashes, who will he drop and for what one?

Arsene should have learnt his lesson all those years ago when he first played a makeshift defence at Old Trafford when we got hammered 6 – 1, so why did he put Traore and Hoyte in when the first thing you must have on the team sheet for this fixture is your first choice defence in place. Both Traore and Hoyte were found out and in all honestly they looked a long way short of being in the first team.

One person I have been defending for a while now is starting to show signs that he may not be an Arsenal type player after all, Eboue. He is a really talented player and does give us another dimension to our play when he remains focused but when he is not focused he is becoming a real liability. He needs to be dropped for a while and learn how to conduct himself better and what being an Arsenal player is all about.

I am not as despondent about the result as perhaps as much as I should be as this result was always a possibility if we played an under strength side with 9 first team players out injured or rested. This was a must win match for united and the desire they had was probably higher than ours after their two recent results and I am sure the return league fixture will be a totally different affair, and as the 9,000 travelling Gooners kept reminding the home fans, that we will be back, to win the league.

One thing that really irked me about Saturday was a call I got from a guy from work, he called just to gloat of course but what is it about Manchester united fans that people hate so much, is it that they don’t go anywhere near a football ground? Or is it that they chose united because their personal lives lack purpose and they are seeking esteem. This bloke from work was actually a West Ham fan originally but decided to change teams because West Ham were not successful and he did not like it.

As any real football fan knows, you cannot change your team, the whole idea is to support them through thick and thin, but this just seems to be lost on him and I would actually say the Manchester united fans of today would of course have been Liverpool fans had they been choosing their teams in the 80’s and 90’s as they would have been seeking social esteem and to of course associate themselves with success without realising that they were actually being ridiculed by the footballing world for their inability to see it.