As the final whistle was sounded at the Emirates, Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal boys were booed off the pitch after another spineless performance at home to Roy Hodgson’s entertaining Fulham side. Well, another goalless draw and one has to accept that things are getting beyond any repair for the 2008-2009 season as far as an Arsenal fan is concerned.

Reports from England appear to suggest that Arsene Wenger is an unhappy man at North London nowadays, particularly hurt by the negative reaction of his beloved Arsenal fanbase on Saturday and some sections of the British press have hinted a possible exit from the Emirates stadium by one of English football’s finest managerial imports at the end of the season. Well, such reports look a bit too early to analyze yet with Arsene Wenger reportedly mulling the idea of leaving N5, clubs such as AC Milan, Lyon, Real Madrid and even Barcelona would be heavily interested in landing the ‘Professor’.

As for Arsenal, this week’s performance can be looked from two sides. Firstly, the team again lacked the striking finesse of an Eduardo or an Adebayor. Bendtner is just not a world class striker although he has the physique to be one and with Robin Van Persie one just cannot be sure about the Dutchman’s mood on a given matchday. He is a typical Dutch striker who on his day can be a devastating entity to deal with for any opposition yet he cannot be called the complete striker as he severely lacks the consistency of finishing that separates the good from the best in football. Yet Mr.Wenger still backs his bunch of talented yet young and inexperienced players to prove their critics wrong.

The million dollar question is when? Qualification for next season’s champions league looks grim although on Sunday Stoke City provided the Gunners a much needed lift by dramatically holding fourth placed Aston Villa 2-2 having been two goals down till the eighty sixth minute of a thrilling game at Villa Park. The gap between Arsenal and Aston Villa remain at six points.

This means Arsenal’s stalemate against Fulham can be treated as null and void courtesy of Villa yet it can be easily said that Martin O’Neil’s side lost a golden opportunity to make the fourth spot their very own but still one feels a six point lead is too much for the Gunners to overtake with eleven league games to go even though the likes of Eduardo, Adebayor and Fabregas are set to return to the Arsenal starting line up.

Arsene Wenger, despite this bizarre blip in his illustrious career as an Arsenal manager that could bring about a long term change in the Emirates dugout, sounded amazingly calm and confident of his side’s race to champions league qualification. Even the lasting whistles and boos aimed at his side by the Emirates faithful seem to have no impact on Wenger’s daily life. In his interview, the Frenchman was quoted as saying, “I don’t know(whether the fans are losing faith). That is not my worry.

What is important is that I do what I believe is right and we keep going, that we show great attitude and do our job as well as we can, then let everybody judge and have an opinion. I believe it’s not the biggest problem, not the biggest worry. The biggest worry is that we don’t win games that we should win.”

The Arsenal manager still considers qualifying for the Champions league a must and in his words his players belong to the top and that should not be compromised at a club like Arsenal. Yet with the team dropping points at such an alarming rate, Arsene Wenger’s assurances for a top four finish in the Barclays Premier League could be jeopardized and then it remains to be seen how the fans, players and the board react to a season that would be miserable with the failure to qualify for Europe’s elite competition.