No longer.

The time has evidently come for Arsene to go. He is by no means the only one to blame and of course replacing him won’t make everything OK.

Of course, the players who yesterday appeared happy to amble while their opponents chased everything should not be absolved of their responsibility, nor the board who seem so adrift from reality. Yet irrespective of what the truth of our transfer business is (and I haven’t yet seen it properly explained), the manager appears incapable of getting anything like what he should be getting out of what he has got.

The manager has seemingly lost all ability to put us on back on track after a setback. Yes, I know we responded well to adversity against Villa in the last round but that was the exception rather than the norm. We know the pattern all too well: that tame defeat will be followed by tame defeat. One of the things that, for me, marks Alex Ferguson out after all these years is that when his sides do lose, you’d always back them to win in their next big game.

The opposite is true of us.

And you know what else? Following Arsenal is boring at the moment. It is stale, repetitive, uninteresting, predictable. Not simply because we are not being successful but because season after the season the same failings are repeated, except ever more acutely.

We’ve become fourth place junkies. You know I’d rather we didn’t get it because every year we do get it, it is as though actually everything is OK when in fact it is not.

The club is constipated. It needs change and I think it needs it now. I can’t really see what the point is in sticking with Arsene til the end of the season. If we don’t get fourth place, so be it. Life will carry on.

As it is, the next two home games are almost a perfect storm: a rampant Spurs come to the Emirates next Sunday. Realistically, they must be favourites. Then it is Milan. Maybe we’ll beat Spurs and salvage pride against Milan. But surely it is only delaying the inevitable?

It is not that Arsene Wenger risks sullying his long term record. Its glory is secure and the last seven years will be an easily forgotten footnote to the magnificence of what went before. Magnificence that I will always be grateful to Arsene for providing.

But it would be sad to see his departure become unnecessarily acrimonious.

Let’s get on with it.

IN PRINCIPLE, it is not the worst idea for the first, away, leg of a European knockout game: beef up the midfield by sacrificing one of your two wide men. It has worked before and it will no doubt work again.

Equally, generally speaking, you should play your best team. And by the reckoning of most independent observers Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been one of the few things to get excited about of late, while Tomas Rosicky, sadly, has not been. Harsh as it may sound, I see parallels between him and Denilson in that I look at him and I can’t think of one single attribute where he bests the other three midfielders. When that happens the player becomes a filler, there really to make up the numbers. That is rarely a good thing.

Of course, he could have dropped Theo Walcott but it seems this most absurd of charades where Oxlade-Chamberlain can never be seen to have been preferred to Walcott has to continue for a while yet. It is preposterous because barring an almighty change in fortunes, this is only going to end one way: with Oxlade-Chamberlain on top and if Arsene won’t make that call, then it wouldn’t surprise me if the next England manager does.

And so our one midfielder in any kind of form was dropped and really, it was hard to see us threatening. Add in another episode of Szczesny’s slightly awkward second season (he is still the man for me, but he hasn’t been great of late), some defensive zig-zags in place of lines, some great finishing and a tablespoon of ill fortune and you get what we saw last night.

We were never going to win this competition and the reality is that when you’ve qualified for both the competition and the knockout stage of the competition so many years in succession, anything other than winning the cup or perhaps a truly glorious defeat from the semis onwards is going to feel like failure. That Harry Redknapp was feted as a god despite Spurs being thrashed by the same margin in last season’s competition (albeit a round later), while Arsene will face calls for the sack after this is a fact of life.

Equally if one insists on avoiding an early exit from the cup competitions then when they are all played within a week of each other around this time of year, one leaves oneself vulnerable to “Arsenal out of x cups in x days” headlines. C’est la vie.

There is, of course, the temptation on mornings like these to think of affairs that frankly are for the end of season. Tempting as it is to indulge in that (and I feel fairly certain of my thoughts), we are still in the FA Cup and we still have a fourth place to fight for in the league. While the latter represents a rescue act more than anything, achieving the former would be an undoubted good thing and while that prospect is there, thoughts must remain on the season at hand.

Three goals in just over a full 90 minutes worth of action, two of them important, none of them the type you or I could score.

The temptation every time he gets the ball and opts other than to skin the entire opposition 11 before slotting home is to point to a fading pace, but from where I’ve been sitting he’s looked more fleet of foot than many of his peers. And sharper upstairs too – Theo Walcott could learn a great deal from his predecessor at number 14 on rationing the number of touches one takes when in possession, so that every single one serves a real purpose, rather than simply shifting the ball forward another half yard.

Sunderland was the kind of pitch we have lost on many times in recent years. We don’t adapt well to these conditions and great a victory as this was, we didn’t create a hell of a lot. That is not to say we didn’t deserve it because as the game drew to a close, we were clearly the better side and even I, the great pessimist, had a sneaking feeling we might nick it.

I think on balance Sunderland were entitled to play on after Mertersacker went down, though supposing Szczesny had had the ball under no pressure while in his goalmouth and suddenly gone down under shooting pain, leaving an unguarded net? What would the etiquette be then? Tough one. Nice finish mind.

And so we head to Milan and critical as I am of the club in the league this season (I don’t expect us to win the league, but never challenging or having a hope of challenging is not acceptable), this is one time when a little credit is due. Neither United nor City have got this far. Nor have Spurs, who couldn’t achieve two successive seasons of Champions League football, let alone 14 or whatever it is.

That we are still in it does not mitigate the yawning league gap between us and those three sides but it does give the manager a degree of credit which he is not really being rightly afforded right now.

Talking of Spurs and by that token Redknapp, he would appear to me to be the outstanding candidate for England manager, though that is different to being an outstanding candidate for an England manager. So yes, his pedigree is better than the rest domestically (and I do think an Englishman should be appointed, in part because we’re incapable of working with foreign coaches), but it is worth remembering that the man has one season’s worth of experience in the Champions League – the club equivalent of a World Cup or European Championship.

A Ferguson, Mourinho or indeed Wenger, he ain’t.

But Blackburn was my last game out of the UK and so full service (such as there ever is on this blog) should return for Sunderland next week.

Clearly, it was a good comeback.

On the refereeing issues, I’d say this:

- Dunne simply had to get a straight red for the Ramsey penalty incident. Once you’ve ruled his contribution illegal, the question is whether Ramsey would have had a clear goalscoring chance had he not been there. Of course he would have.

- I don’t get the fuss over the RVP incident. The top part of his arm is near enough vertical. Had it been horizontal and had he properly swung it then fine. But he didn’t.

I don’t think you can stress the importance of the FA Cup to us. We’re not going to win the league. And we’re not realistically very likely to win the Champions League.

Come the end of season reckoning, the FA Cup, or lack of it, could make all the difference.

So I’ll leave it at that.

CREDIT first of all to Swansea. I’d say this defeat was 60% the product of their excellence, 40% the product of our ineptitude.

To me it felt as if today was the day when the paper that had covered our cracks finally gave way. I felt Swansea deserved it. Again we failed to capitalise on a lead – in our last seven league games we haven’t once scored two successive goals. Yes, we were potentially unfortunate on the penalty but there was still more than enough time to regroup, improve and win the game.

So on the penalty, the first thing to say is that whether or not the decision was right, it was certainly reasonable. I’ve long believed that reasonableness, rather than right or wrong, is a better barometer for measuring decisions. And on this occasion I don’t think any objective person, on first glance, would have said the penalty decision was unreasonable.

Now, on much closer inspection, it appeared that perhaps Dyer had caught Ramsey, rather than vice-versa. But (and I realise some of you will ridicule what I’m about to say), I think those super close-ups may have been misleading and that actually Ramsey had indeed got into Dyer’s space, rather than vice versa and that the first glance was actually correct.

Anyway, that’s my take.

So a few personnel thoughts:

Szczesny – that was very, very, very poor for the third goal. He just started off in a woeful position and it gifted them a goal (it was very unlikely to go in had he been properly positioned).

Full-backs – we’re really suffering at the moment. Miquel is trying gamely but is not one, Djourou is even less of one.

Arteta-Song-Ramsey is a nearly acceptable midfield. Benayoun-Song-Ramsey clearly is not. Nor was the replacement like for like either: the injured Coquelin or the unwisely loaned Frimpong would have better impersonated Arteta’s role in the team.

This may sound harsh and reactionary but it is what I’ve thought for a while: we should be very open to finding better options than Ramsey, Arteta and yes, even Song. I’m not saying they are not good enough, just that they are not in the class of player who you just wouldn’t waste your time thinking of an improvement for. Wilshere, for example, falls into that category.

The friend I watched the game with asked “what is Ramsey there for?” I think that harsh but the fact is his record of one league goal this season is poor. It is also true (and this is Wenger’s rather than Ramsey’s fault) that he never actually won his place in the team. He didn’t oust anyone to get it. Instead, it became his by default when Cesc and Nasri left and Wilshere got injured. I do think he has promise, but whether, at 21 he should be starting every game for Arsenal, I’m not so sure.

Our wingers: Yes, I know Theo scored today (nice finish but would have been poor not to score) and yes, I know our wingers haven’t had proper full-backs behind them for ages. But the fact is they’re not performing. And yet still Oxlade-Chamberlain can’t get a game. In fact, I almost wonder if it would be easier for him to get one were the likes of Walcott and Arshavin playing well. At least then Oxlade could be drafted in without it appearing either of the other two had been dropped for poor form, which in the sometimes hierarchical world of Arsenal seems to be an issue.

Henry: People will have all sorts of opinions on him, usually based solely on whether or not he has scored. On Monday I thought he looked rusty but took his goal very well. Today he looked sharper I thought and what failings there were in his appearance seemed no greater than the team’s in general.

Wenger: I’m afraid that today we saw the bad Wenger of the past few seasons return. The one who, when his team is struggling, seems to become a hindrance rather than a help. The one who gets obsessed with minor issues of whose throw-in it is and who reacts to refereeing decisions in an embarrassingly extreme fashion. No manager likes losing, but when we need inspiration he too often appears like the last man we’d want to turn to.

It was as if he knew the cracks he had papered were being exposed.

Over and over again it has replayed that moment. And why not? It was one of those moments that would have punctured any normality, even one where we were in the middle of a title scrap. A Chelsea supporting colleague said that it would have been like Zola returning and while a part of me wanted to point out that I considered Henry’s legend a little greater, I took his point.

It was the stuff of childish fantasy. The kind of story so many of us would have written in English classes at school had the teacher been naive enough to prescribe an essay subject sufficiently ill defined that Arsenal could be brought into it.

But there ain’t nothing more likely to bring one back down to earth with a jolt than the realisation that Spurs are nine points ahead of us. Now, nine points may sound like only a very mild Aprilesque collapse by our recent standards but generally speaking it is a fair whack.

In fairness to Spurs, they’ve done very well and being behind them perse is no great disgrace. It should also be pointed out that because of their failure to qualify for a second successive Champions League campaign last season (Arsene has managed something like 14 on the trot), they haven’t had to balance their league challenge with a serious assault (the Europa League does not count) on a European trophy.

That we are still in the Champions League should at least warrant some degree of credit when that nine point gap is looked at.

But the point is, I think, that we’re very obviously lacking goals at the moment and I can’t see any great reason not to bring in another striker if one can be found. He’s hardly going to “kill” Thierry Henry, to coin that horrible Wengerism most famously applied to Denilson.

In fact, from what I can see there is no player, young or otherwise, who is just a few games away from striking maturity and could be damaged by the arrival of another forward. Said arrival could hardly make Chamakh’s form any worse either.

So go for it Arsene. Handbrake off.

FROM GOODPLAYA AT THE EMIRATES

WHO knows how the cameo will end. Perhaps he will be found out against United or in the San Siro. Perhaps he’ll see red – possibly for two bookable glares. Or maybe the whole circus will implode on itself.

But on this night, it was beautiful. And not because we’re half way through a season of few competing highlights. No. For any club the sight of their greatest ever player returning to assume his former majesty would evoke scenes as wild as we witnessed last night.

Really if you were a Gooner who didn’t enjoy this, I’d suggest you’ve forgotten what it is that first drew you to the game of football. For this was the stuff of a million children’s dreams. From his departure in May 1992 right up until his tragic death nine years later I always held out the vaguest of hopes that the wrong that was the selling of David Rocastle to Leeds would one day be righted and that he would return to where he belonged.

I arrived, deliberately, unusually early for this game. I’m going to be missing from the Emirates for the United and Blackburn games and I figured that if he’s still not still around for the Spurs game, this was the only time I’d see him and even then it wasn’t guaranteed he’d get on. So I decided to get there for the warm up. And it was odd, almost moving really. I hadn’t, if I’m honest, until now come close to being moved while watching Arsenal this season. But now I was.

On the pitch, we weren’t up to much. In Chamakh, Arshavin and Chamberlain we had a front trio with no form whatsoever to draw on. And at the back we were missing Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Santos, Mertersacker, Vermaelen and Djourou. And before long the energetic Coquelin too. Only in central midfield were things normal.

Early on Arshavin was presented with a not dissimilar chance to the one Robert Pires lashed in when he opened the scoring against Leeds in April 2004, a game Henry scored four in. But the Russian fired wildly over. Other presentable chances came and went and while the oles from the Leeds fans seemed (even if intended ironically), somewhat premature, we were toiling.

We cranked it up in the second half but too often decision making was poor. Too many a shot headed for the near post or just wide of it, while others from range were hit with the player in such a position that he had no hope of finding the target.

The Leeds kit was a right eyesore, not helped by the clashing referee and by the Leeds subs warming up on the touchline standing stationary three in a row in front of us whenever anything interesting happened. Warm-up or siddannnn.

I called the double sub correctly. Chamberlain was unlucky to be withdrawn and really only was because it would have been too great a slight on Theo had he been kept on the bench while Henry was brought on ahead of him. So in the event we got a double sub. Clearly, it was not too great a slight on Park, who seems to be somewhere in between Kaba Diawara and Cliff Bastin in the current pecking order.

And then following one offside run, one successful lay off, an overhit through ball he couldn’t get and another moment when the Emirates crowd gave a hearty “man on”, it happened.

Right in front of us.

Song’s perfect ball, the kind of first touch that Theo Walcott aspires to and then the finish perfectly placed across the keeper.

Cue pandemonium. I make no bones about it: this was hug thy neighbour stuff.

And you know it was a really, really good finish. Not some tap in from a yard out.

The game finished with us again apparently incapable of keeping the ball and running down the clock. Not surprisingly given the state of our defence, Leeds fashioned a couple of chances too.

There was just time for a slightly frustrated kick out from Henry (no more than a yellow) but not before he’d picked the ball up and briefly turned on the burners as he headed for the corner flag. That brought back memories.

All in all, dreadful game, poor performance (midfield tried hard in fairness), fairytale story.

When he left in 2007 I remember mournfully writing of my sorrow that we’d never again see the finest specimen to (in my view) ever wear an Arsenal shirt. I doubted if we’d ever see another as consistently good as him.

Even when he re-signed, I told myself we’d be getting the same man but a different player.

And he is different. But in that vintage finish and the run at the end, he was there again. Perhaps, in my case as I’ll miss the next two home games, for one night only. But he was undoubtedly there. It was unmistakable.

Odd but exhilarating, it felt almost as if either he or we had time travelled.

Either way, a memory that will endure for a long, long time.

Assuming he makes at least a cameo appearance over the next six and a half weeks, Thierry Henry will join the likes of David O’Leary, John Lukic, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and Nigel Winterburn in enjoying an Arsenal career spanning three decades.

When your second, third and fourth longest serving players are John Djourou, Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott, then (with all due respect to those three), there can feel something a little transient about the squad, particularly for those of us who grew up thinking Arsenal careers that lasted well over a decade were the norm. So the resigning of Henry – who played alongside Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown and yes, even Lukic – at the very least should make many of us feel that little bit less old for a few moments, at least until we’re reminded of the fact that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s mother gave birth to her son in the hours after that unforgettable opening day 3-0 defeat to Coventry at Highbury in 1993.

Going back to Henry, I was reminded yesterday that if he plays Leeds, it will be the first time since he personally stuck four past them one magical night nearly eight years ago. I was in the West Upper that day and as he surged through the Leeds defence again and again people just looked at each other in wonderment. That night was classic Invincibles: in some senses it wasn’t a great performance but we could just up it at any moment.

So what of the current Henry? I said on the Arsecast last week that were it just about any other Premier League club, there would be none of the agonising over whether or not the signing was the right one or not. They’d have gladly taken him.

We can’t expect the old Henry. But his game was always about a lot more than mere pace and one would hope he has adapted suitably. His ego will have to adapt a little too.

It should be interesting.