Here West Ham, have some points, we don't want them

Today started in a very confused fashion, that tends to happen when someone messes with all the clocks in my house. It makes it worse when you forget one and then have to check BBC News for what time it actually is. That didn't happen to me off course, I only put my clock forward three weeks early. It wasn't my fault, my mate agreed with me and she put hers forward too. Now we aren't allowed to tell people when the clocks changed and have to verify the correct weekend with at least three independent sources each first.

Then it was off to work and we all know how much I love that place, but it wasn't too bad as it's only my department in on a Sunday and it's people in other departments that are giving me all the grief

Off course, first up was Liverpool v Man U and as usual Carragher was allowed to commit assault in the name of defending and only finally got booked when he should have got a straight red. Vidic did get a red, but only after his second yellow, which, again, could have been a straight red in its own right, but having set the precedent with a professional foul much closer to the box, the ref just gave him a yellow.

No doubt Fergie will go on a ref-rant in a desperate bid to distract from the fact that a team described as distinctly average in Liverpool showed Man U for the distinctly average team they are. As Paul Merson said during the week, Man U having been falling over the line in games. Liverpool made it two after Mascherano went for another second yellow, but to be fair, both him and Carragher should have been off the pitch long before that. Ferguson might be in the right to feel aggrieved, but the fact is, they were outclassed. You could blame the ref, but another fact is that Carragher and Mascherano get away with murder week-in-week-out.

Having won this game, Liverpool will be thinking they can now go on and win the league, but what they fail to realise is that raising your game for the Champions isn't what wins you titles. It's winning against the teams below you...like the West Ham's.

I understand that Liverpool v Manu is a far bigger match than West Ham v Arsenal but to give one match an hour's pre-match build up and the other zero is ridiculous. At 4.12 Sky were still at Anfield talking about Liverpool.We kicked off at 4.15 with no even time to show the teams. And why did we have to kick off at 4.15? Why couldn't they kick off at 1.45? It's always 4pm on a Sunday.

I must say, pre-match (and everything up to the end of this paragraph was written pre-match – would I gloat so much about United and Liverpool being average after what just happened?) I was a bit apprehensive. Everyone had this down as a no-brainer. They hadn't won a league game at home and we were scoring for fun and that sort of expectancy always unsettles me.

Then we nearly scored in the first minute as West Ham  slept at the back and I thought it would all be ok. What a fool I am.

I should have known when Mannone had a touch of the Jens when he was given a back pass from Vermaelen. It was an o crap o crap o crap moment, but he got away with it. Robert Green didn't. His error in judgement tipped the ball right to VP who won't score an easier goal all season. In between, Mannone had pulled off a great save to deny Carlton Cole which was put away on the rebound and wrongly ruled out for offside. Basically, neither team could defend for shit.

Arshavin was an invisible man for most of the match, and not wanting to look for problems that don't exist, he does tend to do that a lot in games which don't necessarily earn top billing.

Gallas got our second from a corner and we ended the half very much on top after West Ham stopped pressing us and we played the ball around with ease. There was very little pace though. Cruise control was set.

At half-time they couldn't wait to start talking about Liverpool-United again, so not only did we get zero pre-match build up, we got restricted half-time coverage as well. Fuck you Sky, you're just sick you ballsed up the pre-season Top 4 selection.

At the end of the match I was begging them NOT to discuss the match. 2-nil and we fucked it up, yes indeed. 

Despite a LOT of dubious refereeing decisions throughout the match (that was not a free kick from which they got the first and Parker's second yellow was a bit harsh to say nothing of the penalty claims), we threw away a two goal lead simply because we were in the mindset that as we were on the pitch that was all we had to do.

I guessed that we would have addressed this after last season. I pondered that perhaps the result against Alkmaar was a timely reminder that matches aren't over until they are over and that we really need to hammer home our advantage. I suggested that it was ok when it happened against Alkmaar as that didn't really cost us anything and it was a good lesson to be reminded off.

Well, today, it cost us two points, and the chance, assuming we won our game in hand, to go above Chelsea on goal difference.

But no. We couldn't do it. It's bad enough not being able to see out a 1-0, but to throw away a 2-0 lead against a team who only had chances because we handed them to them is not good enough. If this mindset doesn't shift and shift pretty fucking quickly, we are going to find ourselves sinking like a stone.

Knee-jerk? Perhaps. But I'm pissed off. I excused it last season, and this season I genuinely thought we had mastered whatever mental hurdle was in place that caused us to just cruise when he had no right to. Cruise we did, there's no doubt about that. We have begun believing our own hype again and after seven straight wins literally think we have to turn up for three points.

Too many players just didn't bother today. There was no running off the ball, no movement upfront, and no one with a desire to put in a shift to get three points.

This was a match that we could and SHOULD have won comfortably with a fraction of the effort put in against United.

Post-match Wenger said we were unlucky with decisions and credited West Ham but we did not, as he said, play a good game. A good game would have been one in which we could see out a two goal lead. And yes, as I said, there were plenty of dubious decisions, if we had played at all two goals would not have been enough for West Ham to get a point today.

So, that result, and the manner in which it was achieved kinda takes away some of the laughing I feel I can do tomorrow at United and City fans ( who I had a good ol laugh at on Twitter for throwing away a two goal lead against Fulham).

Arsenal, you continue to make fools of us all. Anyone else want some points? Apparently we've got so many to spare we're just giving them away at the minute.

Next up in the league the Spuds, and we all remember how that went last season at home...

Grrrrr.