Don’t let this be your Larry Holmes moment Arsene. You still have time.

So, mercurial defender Mikael Silvestre says that if we want to win anything this season we’ll have to improve on Wednesday’s woeful performance, I suspect when he said the same thing after the Burnley game he forgot to tell his team mates, or at least I hope he did, because if he didn’t, we are in trouble.

I think there comes a time when Wenger needs to realise that these kids just aren’t as good as he keeps telling us they are and there also comes a point when you have to stop waiting for the day when they ripen and go out and buy now, much the same way that every other team in world football do, it’s called football management.

Take Barcelona for instance, they have Messi and Bojan, but they also buy a lot of great players, like Henry and Hleb. They have the balance right, and as we have the third highest wage bill in the EPL it’s not hard to work out what they are all paid to keep them on board, and that I think, is the comfort zone and that could be the problem.

Watching the Porto game was like watching the FA Cup last season and I said then that Arsenal should have refunded the fans that went. I had the opportunity to travel with the team and decided not to, well, coming back with those players and the manager would have made interesting reading, so in a way I’m sorry I didn’t.

Middlesbrough next up, well my memories of this fixture are not good, we lost last year and we were on fire up till that game, I also remember losing on the first game of the season once when Reyes scored, I don’t know why they cause us so much trouble, because I also remember beating them 7 nil at Highbury, what I do know though is if we play like we did against Porto, we can expect to get hammered.

I cannot understand how we can play so well at Stamford Bridge one week, then play so badly at Burnley and Porto the next, it can’t be good for moral that’s for sure, and they can’t keep saying they didn’t perform.

Expect a big performance from this team on Saturday, if we don’t get it, the championship is over, and if we don’t beat Middlesbrough we shouldn’t expect to win it, I was going to say we are playing a team that spends less than we do, but we’re not are we!

I was hopeful that we were going to spend big this January but as he keeps telling us how lucky we are having this talented crop of youngsters, I’m not so sure, but what I am sure of, if he doesn’t deliver this season, questions will be asked, this season Arsene I think is the last season of your experiment, please get some good players in before it’s too late, we still have time and we don’t need much, but the excuses are wearing a little thin now.

I would hate to see him get kicked out, I really would, it’s a bit like watching Muhammad Ali fight Larry Holmes that one last time when we all said he should have retired, Arsene, this is your Larry Holmes moment, do become an Ali, you can still change things before it’s too late, get your cheque book out.

Needless to say we need a result on Saturday and I think we’ll get one, if not it will be an early bath for us the fans this season.