Alexis Sanchez being left out of the squad more or less confirmed his departure is looming and a frustrating 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth compounded Arsenal's woes in what has been a largely poor season.
Sanchez looks set to join one of the two Manchester clubs and with his future at the club looking bleak it was maybe understandable that he was left out. If he had played would his head have been in the game? Well that is up for debate, but something that isn't is his footballing ability and how he can change the game in the blink of an eye, so maybe it could have been worth a risk.
Mesut Ozil was missing through injury and the absence of the duo was definitely felt and also being without Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Olivier Giroud didn't help matters either. But the starting 11 that was put out should still have been good enough to put up a better challenge against Bournemouth than the one that we did.
Manager Arsene Wenger got it wrong and paid the price in what was a poor display, but the players must also take responsibility as they are in control of what they do with the ball on the pitch. Other than Jack Wilshere, who once again put in a decent shift, not enough of the players showed enough hunger and desire to get the result. When we went 2-1 down there was still 15 minutes left to turn things around, but we didn't look close to doing so and that was so frustrating to see.
Even finishing fourth is fading further away as we are now eight points behind Chelsea and even fifth-placed Tottenham have a five-point cushion over us, which is simply not good enough.
We are now three league games without a win and five in all competitions, although three were draws including a very good 2-2 against Chelsea, but this doesn't mask the frustration of a side clearly lacking in confidence. For a side that has often in the past played great football to watch, we seemed to be struggling for ideas and didn't really get going in attack for long enough spells in the game.
It wasn't the greatest game to watch, but it was more the manner of the performance than the actual result that hurt the most. Both of Bournemouth's goals were avoidable and soft ones to concede and we didn't create nearly enough in attack.
The best chance of the opening 15 minutes fell to Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who after taking a couple of touches hit a decent strike against the crossbar.
Asmir Begovic kept the scores level with two decent saves as the Cherries goalkeeper parried Alex Iwobi's deflected strike behind before blocking Danny Welbeck's shot.
At the other end Adam Smith shot straight at Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech before the Gunners survived a claim for handball when the ball appeared to hit Iwobi's elbow.
Calum Chambers produced a superb diving block in the box to deny Bournemouth's Dan Gosling before Arsenal took the lead within seven minutes of the restart. Iwobi released Hector Bellerin with an excellent through pass and, although Begovic got something on the full-back's shot, he couldn't stop it from squeezing over the line. It was a tad fortunate, but they all count, and we really should have been more composed on the ball to preserve our lead.
If it had been one of those days that ended with a scrappy 1-0 win I'd have taken it, but instead of galvanising us the goal didn't seem to even kick us into gear.
Bournemouth then stunned us with two goals in less than five minutes. Callum Wilson produced a great striker's finish to get on the end of Ryan Fraser's ball into the box to fire home. It was a great pass and Wilson did well to get there ahead of Cech, but maybe the Arsenal goalkeeper should have done better with it.
There was definitely no denying that Cech and his defence were at fault for the second and what a sloppy goal it was to concede. Arsenal failed to clear and Wilson controlled the ball before it fell to Ibe, who was in the right place at the right time to beat Cech with a low finish for his first goal for the club.
Jack Wilshere shot wide as Arsenal tried to muster a response but, in truth, we barely created anything in the final 15 minutes and the lack of fight and desire to try and get back on level terms was very disappointing to see.
Rather than looking at which fixtures to be wary of in a run of games, we now find ourselves wondering where the wins are going to come from as confidence is low at the moment. We need some big wins soon to have any chance of finishing in the top four, although I fear the race for fourth is realistically nearly already over anyway.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Bournemouth fan Liam Searle was delighted with the result in a game he had expected to be tougher, but felt Arsenal had bottled it in the second half.
"Well compared to the fairly sure position we were in for the return fixture in August, we had less reason to be cautious and it showed," said Searle. "Late in the first half it felt like the pressure our defence was under was starting to lower and typically Fraser looked like the best chance of nicking a goal, whether from him directly or through one of his many decent balls into the 18-yard box.
"And then Bellerin scored. At which point it felt like a valiant attempt to secure a brave draw had gone to pot right up until the point Wilson scored, from the very sort of cross I'd praised Fraser for all season. Even then, Ibe did even better, scoring from a pathetically easy move which suggested Arsenal hadn't got a handle on the game. That even Jamie Redknapp noted that in the commentary is quite damning on how simple it was.
"I was slightly nervy as a Bournemouth fan at the end, but when Wilson scored it felt like Arsenal had bottled it, and in hindsight Arsenal offered nothing for most of the second half.
"Four points off the bottom three now, and when I'd have been happy with a draw this was a great example of those last few wins giving the team a little boost."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
With Sanchez likely to leave and the future of Ozil uncertain, Wenger must enter the transfer market and make a few big signings if we are to have any chance of turning our season around.
Manchester City lost their unbeaten run in a 4-3 defeat at Liverpool, but they are still worthy of their place at the top of the league and to be 23 points behind them is quite frankly embarrassing.
I'm not saying we should be matching City as very few teams are, but we should at least be putting up a better fight in the title race instead of not being anywhere close to being in it and, even fading very fast out of a race for the top four.
Wenger's time at the club is reaching a close, whether it is this summer or next, but for however long he is still in charge he needs to improve and change his tactics. The players must take responsibility for their own performances once on the pitch and some of them need to take a long hard look at themselves, but Wenger also isn't helping and we are in a downward spiral and it hurts.
The League Cup and Europa League are still possible. Is that good enough on its own? No, of course not, but we need to take them both very seriously and try to somehow lift the spirits within the squad so Wenger can at least bow out on a higher note than he's at now. We are in disarray and our next match sees us travel to Crystal Palace and I don't feel as confident as I normally would ahead of this sort of game, which shows the rut we are in.
Our home form has been far better than our away performances so we should get a result, but I am taking nothing for granted, and Wenger and the players need to up their game massively as it is going to be a long final four months of the season.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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