Good morning, and I hope it's as beautiful a morning where you are as it is in Dublin, and welcome to the final day of the season.

Is it just me or has this one flown by? I can't believe it's all over. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not too unhappy at all to see the back of this season, it just seems to have gone by so quickly.

Opponents on the final day are Stoke, a team that has defied all expectations and stayed in the league quite comfortably. They're a big, strong physical side, as we found out earlier in the season, and as I said on the Arsecast I'm quite happy to see them stay up. Especially when you consider who might go down. There are better candidates for the drop and fair play to them.  

For us it's a chance to sign off on a positive note. The ideal situation is a decent win, some goals, and the players and fans can say goodbye, wipe the slate clean and then start again next season. Whatever has happened this season, and indeed whatever happens today, I think it's important that some positivity is taken into the summer.

The players will do their traditional lap of the pitch and I hope the fans and the players can put all the negativity behind them and just enjoy the day for what is. I actually had a dream about it last night and Cesc scored but the stadium was half-empty.

As for the team, it doesn't really matter, does it? I think he'll pick as strong a team as possible to try and win the game as well as we can. I can't imagine us playing 4-5-1 today with van Persie as a lone striker. Perhaps he and Bendtner will start up top, Walcott and Arshavin wide, with Cesc and Denilson/Song in the middle.  

They've got nothing to play for, nor do we apart from a measure of revenge for what was a painful yet educational defeat at the Brittania Stadium, so it might actually be a decent game. Here's hoping.

At the other end of the table it's any two from Newcastle, Hull, Sunderland and Boro. My ideal outcome sees two extremely late Jeremie Aliadiere goals relegate both Hull and Newcastle when they think they're safe, but I can live with Boro going down if it means vigorously waving goodbye appalling Brown/Horton axis of evil at the KC Stadium. 

I did have a laugh with Paul Merson on Soccer Saturday yesterday on Sky talking about the worst thing he'd seen all season. It was Phil Brown's execrable, embarrassing half-time teamtalk on the pitch when they were being beaten by Man City. On that day he showed that it was all about him, not his team or his players, not his fans or his club, this was the Phil Brown show and his actions since have done little but rubber-stamp that. Seeing him downcast with that stupid little earpiece at the end of today's games would be very pleasant indeed.

So that's all to come later and fingers crossed for all the right results. Come on Aliadiere, you have to be good for something.

Looking around at the Sunday stories very quickly and Andrei Arshavin is looking to renegotiate his contract. He says:

I have a problem with my contract. Certain nuances emerged linked to taxation and some other things. As a result, I’m getting less money than I expected. It’s not critical but I still need to put it right.

Easy to fix. Take a chunk of Adebayor's £80,000 and give it to Andrei. And speaking of the Togonator, he's off to Man City if the News of the World can be believed. Which is can't, but maybe we can just wish really hard and it will happen.

Arsene talks about Thierry Henry as an article rather speculatively talks about a return to Arsenal. I can't really see that happening to be honest. Age is not on his side, Wenger never re-signs players he has let go, and Thierry is part of the past. Glorious past it might be but still the past. Of course he's got a big game coming up on Wednesday and despite what happened in 2006 I'd really enjoy it if he was the man to score the winner for Barcelona against United.  

Right then, we don't get the sun too often in Dublin so I'm going to sit in and play video games and watch it in awe. Or I might cut the grass.

Enjoy the final day folks, talk to you next season. 

I guess everyone is still hurting about yesterday's shambles at Stoke. I wondered, in the cold light of day, how I was going to feel writing this blog. Angry? Frustrated? Bitter?

I have to say the resounding emotion this morning is just one of sadness. I am sad.

Sad that an Arsenal team put in such a spineless and craven performance when they should have been pumped up and ready to make up for the Sp*rs game. Sad that we've dropped more points against a team we should, with all due respect, beat quite comfortably. Sad that the weaknesses we all saw in our squad have come back to haunt us and sad that we find ourselves in a position where we're so rightly critical of our players. I am sad that I look at this team and think 'We're just not very good'.

Mostly though I'm sad about Arsene. Ultimately what happens on the pitch is down to him and at the moment he's paying the price for making crazy decisions, both in the summer and recently.

I'm sad that Arsene thinks a midfield of Diaby (left), Song, Cesc, Denilson (right) is in any way acceptable or good enough to win a Premier League game away from home. When you have Nasri and Walcott on the bench to play Diaby and Denilson as your wide midfielders is just madness. I think every Arsenal fan looked at that midfield yesterday and went 'Oh-oh'. And you can be quite sure Stoke looked at it and said 'Thank you very much'.

I'm sad that nobody on his coaching staff had the balls to tell him 'That's rubbish. Don't do that'. Maybe they did and maybe he just didn't listen but I don't think anyone said a word to him.

I'm sad that he thinks some of these players are the best he has ever worked with when quite clearly they're not. I'm sad that some of these players, who DO have potential, might never reach it because too much is being asked of them too soon. I'm sad that he can't see that some of them might have all the potential in the world on the training ground but out in the real world they're simply not good enough, either right now or ever.

I'm sad that he looks at his squad and genuinely thinks it's good enough to win trophies. Without going over and over old ground we have serious problems in defence, something he acknowledged but did nothing about other than bring in a Manchester United reject at centre-half. We have no central midfield to speak of other than Cesc. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Song and Denilson should not be starting games in a side that has ambitions to win titles. They might grow up well playing alongside experienced players but at the moment they are not good enough and not ready for the Premier League week in, week out.

I'm sad that Arsene can't see how this is affecting Cesc, probably the only top class player we have in our squad. We saw how brilliant and effective he was last season when he had a good partner in Flamini. If Flamini wants to leave, fine, but replace Flamini properly. Not with the bargain basement option. Yes, Cesc's form is poor at the moment but if your Aston Martin needs a paint job you don't go to Homebase to pick up a tin of cheap Magnolia and do it yourself.

I'm sad that all this terrible stuff is happening on the pitch and almost to a man/woman every Arsenal fan I know could see it coming. If we could see it why couldn't Arsene? Or if he could see why didn't he do something about it? I love Arsene. I think what he has done for our club has been nothing short of remarkable. He has transformed us from 'Boring, boring, Arsenal' and brought about some of the best years we'll ever have.

However, it seems to me that he is blinded by his own stubbornness and hubris, this insistence on making his youth project work might well be the undoing of him. Potential is great. Over time the tiny sapling will become a mighty oak. If the sapling is surrounded by other mature trees then it gets some protection and grows without suffering too much damage. At the moment this Arsenal side is a sapling alone in the middle of a field with a hurricane blowing all around it. We're being damaged.

I'm sad that so many Arsenal fans are now thinking it is the end of the Wenger era. I would love nothing more than for him to lead us to another league trophy and the holy grail of the the Champions League. I would love to be proved wrong by him and for his team to become great. Honestly, if there was humble pie to be eaten I'd quite happily scoff the whole lot. But I don't think I'll be eating any pie, not with this team at least.

There are those who say 'You're not a football manager, you don't know better than Arsene Wenger', and that is fair and valid. Put me on a training ground and I certainly don't have the tactical nous of Arsene or any idea how to manage a club as big as Arsenal. However, you don't need to be a football manager to know there's something wrong with your team. Football fans aren't clueless, we watch games, have watched games, all the time. We don't know everything but we don't know nothing either.

I can look at this Arsenal squad and when I think back to the pools of players Wenger has had at his disposal over the years it is, unquestionably, the poorest squad he has ever had. It lacks quality, leadership and experience. Put the squads side by side on paper and weep. I find it incredibly sad that Arsene can look at the players he's got and think they're anything like any of the squads he's had before. People talk about how he got rid of all the high earners at the club for financial reasons but our wage bill is higher than ever and it's hard to justify how we're spending all that money on players who, it seems, have done little to deserve it.

I'm sad because there's only so long you can direct your ire towards the players on the pitch. If they don't work hard and put in the effort then they are, rightly, open to criticism. Some of the performances yesterday were beyond abject and those players need to look hard at themselves because they've let the club, the fans and the manager down. However, the buck stops with the manager and a team selection like the one yesterday was frankly ludicrous. He needs to stop thinking his players are so versatile that they can play anywhere. Denilson is not a right midfielder, Diaby is not a left midfielder, and who knows what Alex Song is? We have Jacks of all trades and masters of none.

Arsene's decision to allow three top quality central midfielders to leave the club without purchasing a replacement was wrong. His decision not the strengthen the centre of our defence was wrong. His decision to try and muddle through with players who might be outstanding in five a side at the end of training was wrong, wrong, wrong. Ultimately it comes down to the manager and he has to take the responsibility for losses against Fulham, Hull and Stoke. Read them and weep. Fulham, Hull and Stoke.

There is no question that this team needs surgery. It needs an injection of experience and quality. January cannot come soon enough and Arsene needs to be told 'This is not working. Get the cheque book out and make it right'. If he doesn't then serious questions need to be asked about his position at the club. Let me make it clear, I am not calling for his head but if he doesn't address the problems that we have for the sake what might be called a vanity project then he is failing the club.

You worry as well that signings might be his Kiwomya - Hartson - Helder, but I'd like to think he can bring in the right players and get us back on track again. This is undoubtedly the most turbulent time of Arsene's reign as Arsenal manager. Fans are losing patience, the players aren't performing despite the faith he puts in them, and nobody is interested in hearing about our potential anymore. What's important is NOW.

We're heading into November which now looks as terrifying a month of football as I can ever remember. Man United, Chelsea, Villa and Man City in the league. The way this team is playing it's hard to be confident at all. It might well get worse before it gets better.

As for yesterday well it was just awful. We've done the team selection and that was obviously an issue but we got undone by two long throws, just as we feared. It's a dangerous weapon Stoke have in Delap but, at the end of the day, it was Stoke and we hardly had a shot in anger. We've got injuries to Adebayor and Walcott and will miss van Persie for three games for an act of crass stupidity. Yes, the goalkeeper made a meal of it but van Persie simply shouldn't have done what he did. By all means force the keeper to pick up the ball but what good does hitting him with your shoulder do? Unless you don't give a shit about the consequences and just want to release a bit of frustration. He let the team down very badly and should be fined.

Where we go from here is anybody's guess. We don't have too much time to feel sorry for ourselves though. There's Champions League midweek against Fenerbache then we play United at home on Saturday morning.

I suspect more sadness is on the way.

Morning all. Stupid *boilk*.

I'll start with a small piece of advice. Don't go see the new James Bond film. Quantum of Solace? Quantum of Bollocks, more like. 

Right, well we've got Stoke later and they'll be looking to take advantage of our defensive weakness with their players talking about bullying us to get a result. Hasn't anyone told them bullying is mean? So much for all these campaigns to stop it. And what kind of an example are these so-called professionals setting to the kids of today? They'll go into school on Monday and start bullying people and then some of them will kill themselves and then The Sun and the Daily Mail will find some way to blame Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross and from there on in it's a downward spiral.

The manager and the captain have been talking about how the squad is united and determined and blah blah blah. It is, of course, just what they should be saying after reports of the dressing room bust-up following the Sp*rs game. Gallas says:

We are a tight- knit unit working together with belief and desire to challenge for trophies.  We can do it. That starts tomorrow at Stoke. Unfortunately a scan has revealed that I have pulled my hamstring so sadly I won't be involved but the boys are determined to come back with three points.

There are still whispers that the lack of Gallas involvement today is not down to an injury at all but until those whispers becomes stone-cold fact then there's not much point speculating. Unless all the speculation leads to Gallas being shot out of a cannon into the sun. But I don't think it will so let's not waste our time. Goodplaya notices a seismic shift in the quality of the captain's vocabulary too.

The boss says he will rotate his squad but it's not because he's upset at some of the performances. It's simply because we have so many games coming up. And we do. November is a busy month with eight games so there is obviously some truth to what he's saying. I like to believe though that he's not so much rotating as 'dropping' certain players. It makes me feel better inside.

For today I think we'll see Bendtner up top with Adebayor on the bench. Kolo should come back into the side and in the absence of Gallas will wear the captain's armband and we'll probably see Diaby slotted in somewhere - maybe today is the chance to see him in his favoured position in central midfield. On the other hand the manager could stick his head back in his shell a bit and go 4-5-1 with Diaby in the hole like against Fenerbache. We'll see.

I'd love to say I was confident today. In season' past this would be the kind of game you look upon as a three point banker but with this Arsenal team you just don't know. We're could win it at a canter or we could find ourselves pissing in the wind all day and going home having lost 1-0. On paper we should win, sadly we don't play our matches on paper.

Once again we find ourselves looking for a reaction from the team and for three points which would get us back on track. Until the next time we go off track.

Fingers crossed, Arsefans. Till tomorrow.