Birmingham-Arsenl Heartbreak: Play Till May!

One of the Premier League's expected tough assignments ended in anguish—if not potential disaster.

Everything seemed to be going so well. Eighty seconds remained on the clock.

Then the inexplicable, and maybe unforgivable, occurred. And we were pegged back at St. Andrew's at the death once again—rocked right on our heels.

Do we give up here? Do we simply curse our luck—and Manuel Almunia ?

Hell, no!

For all those who have waited for an Arsenal slip up out there, you can rejoice all you wish for now. But do not be fooled into thinking that this is the beginning of the end for this set of players.

With six match days to go and plenty of tough tasks awaiting the trio of Manchester United , Chelsea , and Arsenal, there is still plenty to play for.

True, the manner of the equaliser was absolutely sickening. True, it all came from a series of self-inflicted errors.

Both substitutes, Arshavin and Nasri, were wasteful after the latter gave us a late lead, and we suffered yet another goalkeeping blunder by Almunia, undoing all his good work last weekend against West Ham.

And true, our rivals' emphatic wins makes us look weak, and United and Chelsea look strong at the moment.

But now is precisely not the time to throw in the towel. Now is not the time to sit and moan about the agony and damage of Saturday's result.

Remember, four points is not insurmountable with six weeks to go. We can get closer to at least one of the two teams should we win our home match against the Wolves next week following their Old Trafford clash.

Several of us, including myself, had previously predicted the sheer difficulty of the match at Birmingham. We also emphasised there are no such things as easy games, easy run-ins. And, if we were to be honest, winning all our remaining matches on the trot was always going to be a tall order.

So, if there was any time where we could not afford—but be forced—to have a slip up, now was the time to do it.

Of course, our next away match will be the Spurs' turn to try and finish us off. But, we must look to the next game. Remember, there is plenty of time remaining and plenty of points to play for.

This will be manager Arsène Wenger 's biggest test.

Revving any footballer up for the visit by Barcelona should not be too difficult, but it will take some doing because of our circumstances heading into the match.

Wenger should say this: Our season could very well be over by midweek should we not get a result against the European champions. That should be enough talk to get these players up and running again.

Difficult as it is, we simply must carry on. Leave aside all the inevitable gobbledy-gook that is bound to be showered across the national papers and television sets from the anti-Arsenal media.

Saturday's slip will definitely satisfy their desires to act as puppet creeps for Sir Alex Ferguson and Chelsea 's now seemingly dried-up money machine.

We did not do much wrong at Birmingham. It was a heavy pitch.

The Premier League needs to look into the state of some of those northern grounds, by the way. It's utterly unacceptable. Tackles flew in everywhere, some committed, some ridiculous—as usual.

But, as has been so often the case this season, our players were up for it. They were men enough to take them and dish out some of the home team's own medicine.

We had all the possession in the second half, but were thwarted by the home side's defence, as our rivals have been this season.

Birmingham had one or two chances prior to Nasri's tenacious long-range effort. Then, we were made to pay for missing presentable opportunities to kill the match off.

We must rise above all that, ignore the media reaction, and laugh it off. Most importantly, our management and players must simply carry on as one, preparing for the glamour tie against Barcelona that awaits them

There are six domestic, winnable matches remaining—another six in a row is very possible and re-doable!

I could've gone down a completely different route with this one. But, I have deliberately chosen to stay strong, to look at the positives, and to say it is far from over.

From this very website, I call for all Arsenal supporters to leave the criticisms, "ifs" and "buts," and post-mortems of individuals and performances to the end of the campaign. That is when the time to talk and dish out end-of-term reports.

For now, let's soldier on.

You can probably imagine just how I felt as the ball looped in for 1-1 in the 92nd minute. Just as I can imagine how this went down with many of my family and friends, and millions of Gooners out there.

But I write this within two hours of such murderous heartbreak. Having taken in Chelsea and United's thumping victories as well, I am visibly strong again.

Willing to play on. Ready to fight on.

This is not denial, nor is it some propagandist rhetoric. This is the truth, and however difficult it is, the players must retain that spirit. They have plenty of time to do so before Wednesday night.

We had returned to the top six weeks after having been 12 points behind not once, but twice, already this season.

Try telling us, Arsenal FC, we cannot do that from a mere four-point gap and make it third time lucky.

The answer is: YES, WE CAN.