Arsenal: A Long-Suffering Gunner Vents and Laments About the Season

How do you respond to a season in which your favorite team flounders like some troubled character from a novel who has the world at his beck and call, yet simply can't seem to make it all work?

Anger? Resignation? Empathy?

I've tried all three so far this season (should Arsene Wenger try out the middle of those three words in a literal sense? Joke...) to no avail.

This Arsenal side continues to confound me with its inexplicable defensive woes and inability to resuscitate the passing movement that once saw them the toast of English football. The days of fourth-place finishes, once the summit of frustration for Gunners supporters, now seem like the good ole days in a present where the team languishes in 15th place.

Ignominy knows no bounds.

Perhaps Sunday was the perfect synopsis of 2011-12 for the Gunners. Wojciech Szczesny, the bravado-brimming Polish goalkeeper, had yet another sensational match, delivering countless big saves.

Outside of one.

When it mattered most, and his side could ill-afford a blunder, he gaffed just as he did in the 2011 Carling Cup final when he'd clattered into Laurent Koscielny to gift a dumbfounded Obafemi Martins the winner for Birmingham.

On Sunday, it was a Kyle Walker strike that seemed to take Szczesny by surprise, so searing was its pace and trajectory. The 21-year-old could only parry the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

There is no point heaping vitriol upon the keeper. After the endless travails of Arsenal keepers past, he has been a revelation between the sticks since his introduction to the first team against Manchester United on that wet, windy night at Old Trafford in December, 2010. The Pole acquitted himself well then, and he's been immense since.

Yet that mistake lingers. In what has come to define this Arsenal team, stupid slip-ups continue to undermine their success.

Is there some psychological defect within this current side? Have they grown soft during the past seasons, content with their third-and-fourth place finishes?

I don't believe so, but still, the examples continue to stockpile like, well, an arsenal. Perhaps it is simply character befitting of the club's name.

There was a glorious chance on Sunday for the Gunners to steal a point in this newest edition of the north London derby. Yet it was squandered in one throat-clenching moment of madness by Walker, who will remember that 25-yard strike for the rest of his life, albeit in a far different light than Szczesny.

Arsenal now sit firmly in 15th place in the league standings, ensconced in the mire. Eight points (already) off the fourth-place pace, they have managed only to exact a meager seven points from seven matches.

It will only get rockier henceforth, with the worst fears over Bacary Sagna's Sunday injury realized. The French defender, who has been a rock at right back since his arrival in 2007-08 (he's twice been named to the PFA Team of the Year during his time with the club), has suffered a broken leg and will miss at least three months.

For a man who has confessed to battling demons in his past, most notably after the death of his brother, one hopes the lengthy layoff will not crush Sagna's spirit. Our best wishes are with him for a speedy recovery.

It is now more than evident that this is a side steeped in a transitional period, with Sagna's understudy, the far-too green Carl Jenkinson, a perfect example of the current state.

There are too few true world-class players within the side, joined by talented but inexperienced youngsters. The preseason notion that this team could challenge for a title has now fallen flat.

One wonders if striker Robin van Persie will remain at the club past the January transfer window to see this tumultuous period through to its end.

At 28, the window of his prime has begun its slow-but-steady close, and while the Dutchman's attributes transcend the customary career curve, his body will suffer at the hands of age like everyone else. Will he look to take advantage of those years at pastures greener?

It might not be behavior befitting of a club captain, but then, van Persie has been with the club a long time. He's seen the degradation first hand.

Much in a similar fashion to Cesc Fabregas, and Thierry Henry before him, perhaps Wenger should let the former Feyenoord man leave in search of silverware while the club rebuilds.

The absences of Jack Wilshere and Thomas Vermaelen are more glaring now than ever.

The 19-year-old Englishman possesses just the kind of attacking industry and technical prowess needed to break down a side like Tottenham, and while Aaron Ramsey, currently enjoying the role of attacking midfield roamer, has impressed—his well-taken goal against Spurs to knot the game up at 1-1 was predatory finishing at its best—the Welshman hasn't looked like the type of gamechanger who can break apart sides on a consistent basis.

When Wilshere does return, it would behoove Wenger to give his young charge a run out at that attacking midfield position Fabregas once played in with such unequivocal aplomb and consummate ease.

It is my feeling that Wilshere will also take to it like a fish to water. Ramsey still needs time to continue his slow comeback from that hideous broken leg, and quite honestly doesn't look ready to assume regular first-team action.

The case for Vermaelen's importance is even more readily apparent.

The Gunners back line simply is not good enough, and has not been good enough for years. While Alex Song has been solid in deputizing at center back in the midst of a rash of injuries to the (meager) crop of defenders, a collection of Laurent Koscielny, Sebastien Squillaci, and Johan Djourou is not the type of lineup one wants or expects at a club of Arsenal's stature.

Vermaelen and Mertesacker should be the pairing at center back when the Belgian returns in November from his ankle knock. The two look as if they could compliment each other well, their contrasting styles a fitting counterpoint. Opposites attracting, so to speak.

Yet a third top-class defender is an absolute necessity now, lest Vermaelen suffer a fresh injury blow, which at this point seems more a matter of "when." The winter transfer window beckons...

One shudders to think at the prospect of Jenkinson being employed at right back in the heat of a Champions League tie. Emmanuel Eboue was no saint (cue the replay of his rash concession of a penalty to Liverpool last season), but allowing the Ivorian to leave the club now looks to have been only the latest in a long line of mistakes.

All in all, a 2-1 loss at White Hart Lane, in a match no one really expected the Gunners to win, seems about right at this juncture.

The rest of this season for Arsenal will be trying. Hell, it feels like a year has passed in the past two months of football.

Champions League qualification may well slip through Wenger's fingers, its monetary bonus burning in some unreachable distance.

But all clubs run adrift at some point in time. Remember, Manchester City were wallowing in the third tier of English football 15 years ago.

Who knows, maybe Stan "The Man" Kroenke will find a stack of gold bullion back in his home in America and invest it in the squad. It's wishful thinking, but in the midst of such uninviting reality, can you really blame me for dreaming?