[Addick]

Frustrating, super frustrating.

I think this year's squad is an all-round improvement over last year's and that's why I was very upset at what at first looked like simply a lack of effort by the team. However, I think we have to give Rooney and United's midfield credit and level the blame where it is deserved.

United's midfield really handcuffed Arsenal in the centre of the park, which required Arsenal to use width. Unfortunately, Arsenal's wide players could not provide that necessary width. Podolski was non-existent and, as much as I want to blame Ramsey, that's not his position. That being said, intelligence and hard work could have helped make up for that but neither seemed to be exerted. It was a bit of bad luck as two of our wingers are out injured and Walcott played 120 minutes mid-week.

While I can't fault Arsene and the board for not going out and buying another winger as we have enough, I can fault them for not improving our options at left back. Santos was terrible and I'm not sure what he is doing both playing defence and for the Arsenal. The shirt swap defintely sealed it for me, he needs to go.

Moving to the centre of defence, Vermaelen needs to ride the pine for a while. Quite often we overlooked his follies because his storming runs up the pitch provided goals but the goals are drying up and the goal differential becoming heavily unfavourable.

While Arsene certainly could have done better, I think a few of the players need to take real hard looks in the mirror. Also, we really missed our injured/tired players today.