I heard and read that you thought the result flattered City, but I watched the game and it truly didn't. Now I understand that you have to protect your players, but I have to hope that you didn't protect their feelings in private because they didn't deserve it. It's understandable being beaten by a better team, it's galling but understandable being beaten by a better team on the day, but City shouldn't have been either of those things for all their development this season.

Thing is, you may well be right about this squad being your best ever, but they will only be the best ever to Gooners when they achieve more than other squads have, and they are not doing that at the moment. I want to believe, but you need to give some hope that what you say in public is not what you do in private. It is after all your policies that you are asking us to support and we need more than wins in just the big matches to sustain belief.

Yes it's still relatively early in the season, and still possible, but that's less of a belief and more simply a hope against hope now. Frankly most Gooners wouldn't necessarily admit it, but the Prem has gone unless something utterly remarkable happens. And that's the basis for any lingering belief. You have done the utterly remarkable before, maybe you can do it again. But please don't ask us to believe that what we have seen with our own eyes is not the truth.

A few barren seasons shouldn't stop real fans supporting a team, and it won't, but we have become used to having pride in the way we play and many more abject surrenders will remove that from us. OK, we'll survive, but pride in the team you support is important, and some weekends this season that's been hard to come by.

You have said that the technique is there, it's a matter of getting the players heads in the right place. No kidding, looks to me like you've got your work cut out. Most right-minded Gooners will support you, maybe not blindly, but we will support you. Don't let us down.