Rooney ruins Gunners day

Wayne Rooney's late strike ensured Manchester United put further damage into Arsenal's slumping season with a 2-1 victory at the Emirates.

It was the Gunners' first home defeat in over 15 months and was made all the more frustrating as they were left with nothing to show for their dominance.

I was personally relatively happy with how the game had panned out after the opening 45 minutes, with goals all that was really missing from a decent performance. The lack of goals was far too costly to ignore and once again highlighted our inability to kill off games when on top this season. Jack Wilshere was also arguably lucky to stay on the field after thrusting his head into Marouane Fellaini.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was lively and Calum Chambers putting in an impressive performance at the back, while Danny Welbeck was working hard to create chances against his former club. But it counted for nothing when Welbeck and his fellow attacking players were so wasteful in front of goal. Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea deserves credit for an excellent performance but Arsenal still should have done far better in front of goal and their poor finishing cost them dear.

Restricting their opponents to merely shots off target in the first half was impressive but it counts for nothing when we couldn't score at the right end. What started as a positive performance ended with what became one of the most frustrating I have witnessed this season because of being unable to make our dominance count against what had been a fairly poor Manchester United side.

Louis Van Gaal's men, who secured their first away win under the Dutchman's leadership, do however deserve huge credit for showing great resilience in being able to leave London with a maximum three-point haul.

With Manchester United getting the victory, despite being on the back foot for large periods of the game, further criticism was thrown at Wenger with some fans wanting him to leave the club.

When asked how to see games through after dominating them, Wenger told his club's official website: "How you stop that is to be more efficient. That will be linked with confidence and the fact that we have to be a bit more calm and patient. At the moment we are after success and there’s a discordance with our possession, our chances we create and our result. It’s very difficult but we have to keep faith in what we do."

Wenger is right. We certainly do need to be more efficient whether it is through adding more new faces to the squad in January, a switch in tactics or taking the extreme measure of changing the manager. Many fans are losing patience with Wenger and, although I still want him to stay, it is hard to argue with some of those fans' reasons. Failing to kill off games and not rectifying the same basic mistakes is very frustrating and something has to be done about it and quickly.

I am still in support of Wenger staying in charge but I want to see one hell of an improvement in terms of converting chances regardless of the tough opposition in our next match against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

Whilst there were positive aspects to the performance against Manchester United, it is no good being able to simply 'talk about positives'. I'd rather be talking every week about three points regardless of whether it a great performance or an ugly win. We need to see games out far better!

After the impressive first half against Manchester United, I turned to an opposition fan at half-time and said the lack of goals was going to come back to haunt us. We had dominated but they were bound to get a goal out of nowhere....and that they did! Kieran Gibbs, who actually performance fairly well apart from this unfortunate moment, turned Antonio Valencia's cross into his own net after 56 minutes.

Arsenal were dealt a further blow when goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was forced off following a collision with Gibbs in the build up to the goal, with youngster Damian Martinez coming on to take his place.

The Gunners didn't then collapse as some may have expected and they continued to surge forward with attack after attack, but it was all in vain as still the goal wouldn't come. Wenger's men were made to pay for their poor finishing when Rooney raced clear to score with his side's first shot on target five minutes from time. Yes, it took 85 minutes for United to register a shot on target. It is an appalling stat but Van Gaal's side had the one stat that mattered - the result - in their favour and that's all that matters. In fact, it could've been worse for Arsenal had Angel Di Maria not missed a sitter shortly after.

Substitute Olivier Giroud came off the bench to make his appearance after three months out on the sidelines with a fractured to his left tibia. The French striker had only been on the field 13 minutes when he scored with a fine in stoppage time to give the Gunners a glimmer of hope.

Eight minutes of stoppage time were awarded to give Wenger's men further chance of a comeback, but they were unable to find another goal

Although Arsenal have done a lot right this season, they have also done a lot wrong to undo their hard work and it has proved costly with just 17 points from 12 games - their lowest total for 32 years.

It is clear that something needs to be done but I genuinely believe getting rid of Wenger isn't the answer. We need to spend wisely in January though, with a defensive midfielder, another defender and a striker the priorities for the Frenchman's shopping list in 2015.

As much as I usually back Wenger, he really must act quickly. We have been so near yet so far this season and it has proved very frustrating. With the exception of the odd one or two games this season, the ones we have dropped points in could've been prevented had certain basic problems, including defending at set pieces and scoring when on top in games, been addressed. We are just talking about small things here but these small things are turning into big things, so the manager needs to address them and, more importantly, the players must take responsibility and stand up to be counted, starting against Dortmund in midweek.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS