He is not the only problem.

Or maybe he's part of the problems. I am still fuming from spineless performance of yesterday afternoon.

We praise wenger when the team plays well and win trophies, so its only fair when he takes all blame for their losses and trophylessness.

Was Santos the reason we lost yesterday? No

We lost because the whole team under-performed and didn't play up to standard collectively. You can't blame Wenger for that.

He is right, no matter what formation you pick, you have to play well at places like these. We didn't, as simple as that.

FFS in some periods of the game it was practically the beloved 4-4-2 we were playing, with Podolski playing very centrally off Giroud. It still didn't work because we misplaced so many passes and panicked everytime we got anywhere near De Gea.

We looked better in the last 10 mins because we finally found some urgency and started to get in United's area. Too late!

If you look at things purely as a manager then what he has been giving us of late is just not good enough.

•I'm sick of this tired 4-3-3 formation
•Being tacticly inept every season in the big games
•Theo scores a hatrick so gets benched next game...what a joke as he is our only goal scorer
•Ramsey play out wide
•Playing players out of position (arshavin, Theo etc)
•Yes Theo came on early yesterday but subs after 70min
• Bring in poor players to replace the likes of fab, nasri, rvp etc
• Probably the most important, none of wengers recent teams have fighting attitude and mental toughness. The amount of times we crumble season after season it's embarrassing.

The game yesterday, fergie gives his players certain instructions. Rooney you sit on arteta and carrick you stay close on cazorla. Both players got marked out of the game and we got swamped in midfield.

Also, why not take wilshere of, bring Ramsey into the middle and then Walcott out wide. Fergie got cleverly out of their as soon as he sensed danger.

Wenger may not have the funds but boy he has regressed as a manager and doesn't do himself any favours.

"We lost because the whole team under-performed and didn't play up to standard collectively. You can't blame Wenger for that."

Verminator, you CAN blame Wenger for that. He is after all part of the team. Of course the players must take blame, too, but Wenger is nowhere near faultless.

I suppose you're right Batmanu.

Tbh I want Wenger to be more ruthless and drop these under-performing players who are constantly letting him down. We need some inspiration now and some of the players are just not providing it.

I expect Mannone (I know he was good at OT),Santos, Vermaelen, Ramsey and Podolski all to warm the bench vs Schalke.

@Verminator: He is right, no matter what formation you pick, you have to play well at places like these. We didn't, as simple as that.

You meant playing round peg in a square hole. In your wisdom the inclusion of Ramsey on the right side is a good judgement from Wenger. From yesterday and some of the previous matches, it clearly shows without Theo and ox in the team, we lacked urgency in our play.

Let's not forget Theo came on yesterday and the pattern of the game hardly changed at all because like I said, the whole team were under-performing and not actually playing like a team. It was embarrassing. Don't think Fergie's ever been so pi$$ed off after a win.

Wenger has no excuse for not subbing Wilshere before he was sent off. Ferguson had done exactly that with Cleverley only minutes before because he could see he was walking a fine disciplinary line.

Wilshere was arguably walking an even finer one, yet Wenger doesn't act and *boom* we're down to 10 men. Wow, who'd have seen that one coming, eh? And I don't buy the arguement that we were pressing forward so needed to keep Jack on the field either.

Wilshere's suspension is a blessing in a way though, because he'll start against Schalke during the week and without the red card would no doubt have started against Fulham as well.

We're already relying on the guy too much considering he's only just back from such a lengthy lay-off, so this enforced rest helps ensure another of Wenger's mule-like tendencies of running him into the ground will at least be temporarily halted.

Lex although everybody saw his red card coming, I won't complain about Wenger gambling on him, he was our best player by a country mile and we needed some inspiration to get back into the game.

Of all the things Wenger got wrong yesterday, I wouldn't really blame him for the red.

Also it was easy for Fergie to take Cleverley off because he was absolute garbage! Notice he didn't take RVP off when he was on a yellow.

"Wenger has no excuse for not subbing Wilshere before he was sent off. Ferguson had done exactly that with Cleverley only minutes before because he could see he was walking a fine disciplinary line."

Exactly Lex. That was the thing that annoyed most yesterday . I know Wilshere was one of our better players, but he should have taken him of for Arshavin or even for Walcott and then play Ramsey centrally.

...and from the get go Valencia was ripping Santos a part, but Wenger did nothing about, had that been Fergie he would subbed him off even in the first half. We are lucky though because Valencia's crossing was sheet yesterday, otherwise we could have been looking at another big loss there.

Wilshere was our best player, Cleverley was arguably their worst. Easy decision for Fergie and whatever Arsene would have done with Jack, he would have got slaughtered either way.

Was I watching a different match yesterday or something? I do not rate Santos AT ALL and was certain he would cost us the game yesterday but he barely put a foot wrong yet everybody is having a go at him.

He was very weak defensively Batmanu but we didn't lose the game because of him, and also he was better than Vermaelen.

Valencia skipped past him with ease many times though.

Valencia probably got the better of him 3 times which is nothing to be ashamed of considering he is the best winger in the league.

In second half he was good but in the first half he was shocking. How many times did Valencia and Rafael get behind him, but tbh it wasn't only his fault because Pod didn't nothing to help him.

Valencia hasnt been on great form recently but still got past Santos too easily on a couple of occasions. Why was Vermalen not at LB?

Why don't we play our best available defence. Pretty stupid to see Kossy rotting on the bench when he was our best CB last season.

Sagna-Mert-Kos-Verm

Looks good, will you revert to 3 at the back when Sagna leaves next year?

Wenger is stubborn!!!
It is his fault that wilshere got sent off!!
Wilshere had been warned by dean and wenger knows what man yoo refs are like so he should have known.

I don't buy into the "wilshere was our best player" stuff!! Wenger should not be relying on a 20yr old kid just back from 2years out to carry the entire midfield!! He did this with fab and he ended up injured!
Wenger has gone into another season with a weak squad with injury prone players.....he never learns!

I understand that Wilshere was our best player yesterday, Batmanu. But surely we'd have stood a better chance of wherever we were hoping to achieve at that point in time, (personally I was just hoping to keep the scoreline respectable) with 11 men on the field, than 10?

Just started reading today's Arseblog. Not finished it yet, but he feels worse about yesterday than he did about last season's game.

I kind of know what he means.

arseblog ripped into Vermaelen today, and they're THE most respected arsenal bloggers in the world. Some of the players read it as well apparently.

Looks like arsenal fans have fallen out of love with Verm.

Lex I am the same, I think we played better in the 8-2 last season, I genuinely do.

We didn't even start playing until Arshavin came on and by then it was too late.