You have to wonder how a manager and a team that can't figure out the spuds would go to any lengths to win such a vital game will fare in a European competition packed with teams that will go to any lengths to win, most of them considerably superior to a very average gang of spuds.

These are the tests the club has failed at for a decade. When it really matters to the fans, the club lets them down. There's not a single spine in the whole organisation. If that match against the chavs had been the decider for CL qualification, Arsenal would have lost it handsomely. As it was, they did what they always do. Pull back from the brink at the last moment, so they don't fall from longstanding mediocrity and into the abyss. But that's where they live now, at the edge of a pit, circling a drain, aspiring to be also-rans. There's not a single sign this club is in control of its own destiny. There's no control, no smarts, no ability to dig deep at the crucial moments. Progress is not a measure of avoiding failure, it's a measure of proceeding in a controlled manner towards a desired outcome. Does Arsenal actually desire anything, other than continued existence there or thereabouts?