Football FanCast columnist

Arsenal have faced much media criticism in recent weeks, following their poor domestic form which has seen them win only one game in eight and fall from the top of the table into 3rd place. Admittedly this isn't what you want as an Arsenal fan, but if we take a look back to the beginning of the season, you would be hard pressed to say we have not performed well and way above expectation.

The Gunners were predicted to fall out of the ‘big 4' following the departure of the clubs all time top goal scorer Thierry Henry (Then again it was the same people predicting Tottenham would replace Arsenal!). However as the cliché goes, ‘you are only as good as your last game' and I guess that has been taken rather too literally when it has come to defining Arsenal this season.  

They began the season with a long unbeaten run and were top of the league for the large part. It was combined with a number of excellent performances and it didn't take long for many to declare Arsenal's title credentials following this run of games. This was coupled with excellent performances in the Champions League, including a 7 - 0 drubbing of Slavia Prague, in which the commentator described the performance as "Perfect football".

On top of the great performances, were a number of individual displays that also silenced the early season doubters. Adebayor was top goal scorer for the large part of the season and quite emphatically replaced Thierry Henry. The emergence of Theo Walcott has pleased not only Arsenal, but also England fans and the swap of Ashley Cole for William Gallas appeared to have come up trumps. 

However recent matches as well as individual performances have ironically come to reflect the season as a whole. The match against Liverpool on the Champions League was not only a show of how great English teams have become, but was a reminder of Arsenal's talents. As they did at Emirates in the first leg, they dominated Liverpool for long periods of the games and created many chances, however in the last ten minutes they failed to keep Liverpool out and as with the end of the season, they have failed to keep Manchester United and Chelsea out of the title race. 

Last weekend a deflated Arsenal went to Old Trafford and was one of only five teams to score there all season. Not only did they manage that but they dominated possession, making more than twice the amount of chances United managed and retained 75% possession for the first 30 minutes of the game. But, as with the clash at Stamford Bridge they were unable to keep their opposition out for long enough to secure the win. It has been an indictment of our season and why the enquiries have begun in earnest.

While it is very easy to criticise our end of season collapse and point the fingers at underperforming players like Adebayor's goals drying up, William Gallas failing to replicate that motivational figure we saw for large parts in the season, I firmly believe it is simply down to the age old Alan Hansen quote "you don't win anything with kids". Our squad is simply too young, inexperience and quite inexplicably too small compared to that of Manchester United and Chelsea. We may have gone out of the Champions League sue to Ryan Babel's rather weak ankles but I believe the demise in the Premier is simply down to fatigue no more evident than Cesc Fabregas' inability to run in the last ten minutes at Old Trafford last weekend - he was simply too tired. 

We will wait and see what the club do in the summer to remedy our apparent failings this year. We look on and wonder whether Arsene Wenger will get off the apparent ‘large pot of money' he has been sitting on and deliver the two or three world-class players needed to take us back to the good old days where we use to win trophies.