It’s been 20 hours or so since the 0-0 draw against Bolton and frankly I’m not sure what’s left to say.

I’ve talked about the importance of second half performances before. Arsene Wenger has talked about the importance of second half performances. And yet, against Bolton Arsenal’s second half performance was one of the worst of the season. In fact, this team dipped in terms of performance from about the 30th minute onward.

In the first 30 minutes Arsenal generated 9 shots and 3 clear chances in front of goal. For the next 60 minutes Arsenal generated just one shot on goal. That’s a dip of epic proportions.

If you want to be generous you could say that Arsenal should have been just two goals up after those first 30 minutes. The most glaring of the misses came to Theo Walcott when he found a pocket of space behind the defenders and The Ox presented him with a one-on-one with the keeper. I’ve lost track of the number of one-on-one’s that Theo has had that he poked straight at the keeper. And at this point I think it’s pretty clear that Theo Walcott’s confidence is shot.

I’ve made excuses for him over the last few months because it’s been difficult to get service when you’re playing with a fullback who isn’t actually a fullback. But yesterday saw the return of Bacary Sagna, who was excellent, and service to Theo was just fine. But when you watch Theo these days, and especially when The Ox is on the pitch at the same time, it’s like night and day. His form is so poor at the moment that I have to wonder if he will be benched once Gervinho returns and Arsene will start Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain over Theo Walcott.

Ramsey is another player who seems like his confidence is gone at the moment. In yesterday’s By the Numbers column, I posted a comparison of Ramsey’s passes in the Bolton final third versus Arteta’s passes in the Bolton final third and like comparing The Ox to Theo you can see that Arteta’s passes are direct, attacking passes, while Ramsey’s passes are too often backwards and sideways.

Here’s the comparison again, for those who don’t want to click around:

By my count, 10 of Ramsey’s passes in the final third were backwards while just three of Arteta’s passes were of the same ilk.

And this gets to another issue that people have talked about extensively: the attitude of this team. Arteta gave an interview after the match in which he was clearly exasperated with his teammates. The quotes on Arseblog news don’t give the full emotional extent of his frustration, you really need to watch it on Arsenal player if you can. When Arteta says that Arsenal were “not good enough” it’s not said in the same way as when Arsene says it. He’s clear that he means that’s not an excuse, he says that Arsenal “should beat Bolton” and that we “should beat Blackburn” this weekend because “Arsenal have the quality.” It’s a frank assessment of the team and echoes the sentiments of many frustrated Arsenal supporters. On days when Chelsea drop points, with opponents who have the worst defensive record in the League, and presented as we were with three really good chances Arsenal should have scored and pulled out the win. I’m almost certain that Man U would have.

Which raises another topic that we have beaten to death; the problem is squad depth. If Robin van Persie doesn’t score, then who will? Park? Per Mertesacker was kicked in the face at the end of the match and broke his already quite broken nose. Who will play in defense if he’s out as I suspect he will be? Djourou? Squillaci? Song looks absolutely dead on his feet as you could see by the fact that Mark Davies was running him ragged. Who will play for Song this weekend if he gets the rest he deserves? Coquelin? My detractors will say that I’m schizophrenic on this topic but it’s been a long road for me and I’ve finally come to the conclusion that this team, as comprised is not good enough in terms of quality in depth. There are too many players on the team who are simply making up numbers; Squillaci, Almunia, and Park are three that everyone would agree on. But there are more that people would argue over like Diaby (who is under contract until 2014) and Arshavin. And that doesn’t even touch on the fact that Arsenal still have Denilson, Bendtner, and Carlos Vela under contract — meaning that they could return to Arsenal this Summer.

And so when I see Arsene Wenger on the Arsenal Player smiling broadly that he didn’t spend any money this transfer window, except to buy a kid who hasn’t  gotten a first team game yet and is already icing his knee, a transfer window I must hasten to add in which no one has any money (except Arsenal), and in which teams admitted to £1.6bn in losses, I get a little frustrated. Because it looks a lot like frugality for frugality’s sake.

Yes, we can argue over whether it’s a wise idea to buy more players when we have so many players who are already dead wood. But isn’t that exactly the problem? I’m the guy who argues for keeping the faith but at some point you have to stop thinking with your heart and be ruthless and cut some of these players — and I’m not talking about just the easy ones.

In the end, the reality is that all of these arguments dissipate like the smoke that they are if Arsenal do just one thing: win. No one cared a lick about Owen Hargreaves’ injury nightmare at Man U because they were winning. No one in Man City gives two-fucks about the debt they carry or whether they will qualify for the Champions League because of financial fair play because they are winning. Tottenham’s manager has been in court, accused of taking bungs and cheating on his taxes, and the Spurs’ supporters don’t give a shit because they are winning.

Conversely, Chelsea are under the microscope all the sudden because they are in fourth place. Liverpool supporters are starting to wonder about their team because they aren’t getting the results that they want, especially at home. And us Arsenal supporters are on the verge of a nervous breakdown because we are in 7th place with 15 games left to play.

Against Bolton, Arsenal probably deserved just a point. Bolton were very good, especially in the final 10 minutes when Arsenal were severely stretched. I will also admit that they probably deserved a penalty which when you look at the fact that Arsenal probably deserved a goal still put the two teams level in terms of points. They played their game, very well, and very cleanly and but for an excellent save by Szczesny at the death would have taken all three points.

My head says that that’s our reality. We are a 7th place team and by my account probably deserve to be a 7th place team.

My heart says that Arsenal can play better. I want to believe Arteta when he says that the performance was not good enough and they they should win against Blackburn on Saturday.

And if they do win, things will probably be better for a little while. That’s said both from the heart and the head.

Qq

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