The way I see it - Sheffield United v Arsenal

Last updated : 01 March 2005 By Jason Hogan

Looking back to Last Tuesday night's debacle in Munich all I can say is that we are damn lucky just to be in with an outside chance of qualifying for the last eight of the Champions League. And if we do end up getting knocked out of the competition then it will serve us damn right.

The thing that hurt me the most about what happened was that we were beaten by a side that were not technically better than us or any more likely to win the tournament than we are. The trouble was that there was a huge gulf between them and us on the night in terms of professionalism and organisation and that's what has swung the tie considerably in their favour.

As for Saturday's league game at St Mary's, well, all I can say is that a mixture of crass stupidity and some oh so familiar old failings cost us all the points.

Without any doubt in my mind Robin Van Persie's antics at St Mary's just had to be the most bone-headed I have ever seen from an Arsenal player in over 20 years. He was lucky as hell to get away with just a caution for elbowing Rory Delap and then, in spite of being warned at half time to watch his step by Arsene, he recklessly clattered into Graeme Le Saux five minutes after the break.

It could be argued that the boy is maybe trying too hard but sometimes you can't put things down just to the impetuosity of youth. Van Persie is not exactly new to playing high-pressure games for high stakes. He played in a UEFA Cup Final when he was a teenager for God's sake.

Saturday was not the first time that he has managed to get himself into a scrape and for someone that has been at the Arsenal for five minutes, his latest indiscretion surely was one too many.

Van Persie has to realise that it doesn't take much for a foreign player to be labelled with a bad reputation in this country particularly if you happen to play for Arsenal and it's really up to Arsene to sit him down and make him aware of this.

Still for all that I have said about Van Persie's stupidity, the fact is that he was far from alone when it came to displaying irresponsibility. Jens Lehmann did one of his party pieces in making an absolute pig's ear of coming and gathering the ball from a corner and allowing Crouch to nod home an equalising goal in the process.

I have always reserved my judgement on this chap but I have to admit that I have seriously had a gutful of him now. If he actually played the game half as well as he talked one he would have seen off Oliver Khan as a rival for the German number one shirt long ago.

You would be inclined to think that Lehmann's days are numbered but then I have been saying that about Pascal Cygan for the best part of two and a half years so I will wait and see what happens to him in the summer.

However speaking of Cygan leads me nicely on to the subject of our defence and in particular the heart of our defence. For me, there is precious little doubt that we are currently paying the price for a mixture of blind faith and a lack of investment.

We have never really replaced the trio of Adams, Bould and Keown and the only international centre half we have bought of proven quality is Campbell – and of course we didn't even pay a transfer fee for him.

Instead, Wenger has often opted over the years to bring in either cheap makeweights (like Grimandi and Remi Garde) and or what can only be described at best as journeyman pros (like Stepanovs) that were effectively cut and pasted into the side whenever he saw fit. The most Arsene has actually spent on a centre half was £2.1 million. Who did he buy for that princely sum? None other than Pascal Cygan.

If ever a guy stood out as a gleaming symbol of blind faith on Arsene's part it's this guy. Cygan arrived in the summer of 2002 primarily to back up with Stepanovs to Campbell and Keown. Within three months of arrival I was telling anyone who would listen (friend or foe) that this boy was not good enough to play for the Arsenal and that if we had to use him for any significant amount of time over the course of that season we would not retain our title.

With Keown at the stage where he was starting to pick up injuries that kept him on the sidelines for long periods of time, Cygan was often drafted in as his replacement and in the end all my fears were proved right. We surrendered the league to ManUre losing six league games in all. Tellingly, Cygan started in all but one of them.

By the start of last season, it was clear that Keown's shelf life was fast diminishing and it appeared that even Wenger himself did not fancy Cygan as a first choice to partner Campbell at the back.

To everyone's surprise, Wenger elected to use Kolo Toure at centre half in all the pre season matches including last year's Community Shield and carried that on into the season.

It was a gamble, wasn't it? Here was a kid from the Ivory Coast that had been used sparingly as a right back cum left back, left winger cum right winger, suddenly being catapulted into the first team on regular basis as a centre back partner for Sol Campbell!

There were some initial teething problems. Kolo and Sol were in tandem when we got bashed 3-0 at home by Inter in the Champions League but we all know what they went on to help us achieve in the end, don't we?

Here's the significant thing though. Pascal Cygan came in for ten league games on the spin early on that season but when he came into the side, Wenger NEVER paired him with Toure. Instead for each and every one of those games Cygan played alongside Campbell and Toure was switched to right back.

This is where the lack of investment aspect of my argument comes in. You see, when Wenger released Keown in the summer, he lost the one experienced quality defender we had apart from Campbell and he never made any attempt to replace him.

The same argument could be used where our front men are concerned. After all, if you take Henry out of the equation have we got an established proven goalscoring alternative?

This is what I'm talking about when it comes to a mixture of blind faith and a lack of investment and when you have a mixture of relatively untried players and downright useless cheap ones in the case of Cygan in reserve – well, you reap what you sew, don't you?

Still as they say we have to carry on regardless and our next assignment comes at Bramall Lane where we will face Sheffield United.

The red half of the steel city will no doubt have fond memories of the last time they got us back to Bramall Lane in a cup replay in 1995. I remember listening to that game on the radio and to be honest the only thing that surprised me that day was the fact that it took the Blades 80 minutes to score the goal that proved decisive.

The Arsenal were totally outplayed on the night from start to finish and though we did actually stage a late rally in an attempt to save the day, it would have been a travesty if we had actually gone on to mange it.

I honestly don't know what to expect from tonight's game. The injuries and suspensions we have are well chronicled. I suppose that it comes down to a straight choice for Arsenal. We either go out there and show some pride in who we are or we bow to what everyone outside of Highbury considers to be the first step towards oblivion.

I know what I would like to see but I have been an Arsenal supporter long enough to know that what you want isn't always what you get.