As Gooners we have become used to winning things throughout the last decade and this season, even more than last, has come as a very unwelcome shock. Something has gone wrong, so who is to blame? I can wholly understand the need to visit blame upon someone or something, it's a natural thing to do to try and make sense of how badly we are doing compared to what we have come to expect. But I think it misses the point.

To me the Fulham game was our season in microcosm. A very young, inexperienced team going behind early in the game through lax defensive play, numerous chances not put away, a goal from a set piece and Thierry not scoring. Yes that is a very brief synopsis, so please make some allowances. In passing, if Thierry was offside, why wasn't Le Sulks second goal at the weekend offside? Has to come down to home advantage I suppose. Having tens of thousands of fans shouting "offside" must make it very difficult to be entirely partial as an assistant referee.

So if not to blame, then what to do. Well I reckon the reasons are way more complex, so simply blaming players, manager, tactics, whatever doesn't do justice to the fundamental issues we have. All those things are relevent, but not really the cause. I outlined my thoughts in the last post about the lack of experience and what effect that has. I think the idea of some young players either trying too hard or being too tentative held true for the Fulham game. The only young player it doesn't seem to effect too much is Theo. Any chance he can share what he has with the other young guys? And what to make of Arsene's assertion that the stadium move has been an issue? At first I thought that was a bit weak, but having thought about it, I think I know what he means. It isn't just playing in unfamiliar surroundings, even last year when we had a relatively poor Prem, the players could still think if they could nick some points away, chances are we would win the following week at Highbury. Add to that opposing teams knowing the odds are that they would be beaten and we started each home game with a big advantage. Those certainties no longer exist at the Emirates and football players need certainty in their working lives just like the rest of us. We underestimate quite how important Highbury was to us at our peril.

Now I don't know what luck is and how it works, but considering some of the bad luck we have had like Thierry's disallowed goal and subsequent booking in the CL as an example, and you have to factor that in as well. Glibly saying 'you make your own luck' is a popular but pointless saying. You can't, otherwise there would be no bad luck. We certainly used up a buch of luck going unbeaten, so that gives some idea of what a difference it can make.

What all of this comes down to is that the team don't seem to believe they will win the next game, and although they might think they may be able to, it's a big difference. At this level, confidence levels make the difference between winning and losing, and to my mind we're real short of confidence as a whole. So  when Arsene says we are in a really important run of matches, he ain't kidding. If we lose on Saturday, we may as well write off the rest of the season, it will be so hard to come back from. OK that may sound a tad dramatic, but if we lose to the Spuds, what chance against Porto or the Chavs? Whatever he has done to date this season, Arsene has to get the teams heads in the right place in three days. It will prove how good a manager he really is.

Incidently we now see how important Sol was to us in defence, but good grief, he's got a nose for knowing when to jump ship hasn't he? That's twice now he's done it.