You're Killing Us.

It's turning into a bit of a cycle. One minute I start thinking 'we can actually do this', then the team commits the most heinous of sins and loses to the unmentionables.

It's amazing, though, how much ability is there in this group of players, not the forever-tomorrow potential that the Boss loves so much but actual clear-as-day, right-here-right-now ability. Nasri, Fabregas, Arshavin, Van Persie... these are all world-class performers, not legends of the game by any means yet, but players who would make it into any matchday squad in the world. How can these players turn up and capitulate like that to 'them'?

I have an opinion but, like it or not, there is no definitive answer.

This team has developed technically and physically over the past three years. The core group of players Wenger wanted has been kept and these have been supplemented with some astute purchases on the transfer market.

If this were a team of machines, we'd win the league every year. But it isn't, and like all-things human, there's the mental factor as well. And it has weighed this team down for years.

Wenger harps on about it all the time, this 'mental strength' we must show and how he believes the players have it.

No they don't.

That is a lie the Boss tells all the time.

And I call it a lie because there's no way in hell that genius of a man would delude himself into thinking that. He's just protecting his players and I admire him for it, even if it does grind my gears at times.

And in reality, the team collapses. Regularly. It's not something that's going to go away overnight and we'll probably still be talking about it at the end of the season. But mental weakness is taking away from this team's success and if it's not dealt with we'll be stuck in this limbo, between first and fifth, for five more years and I don't want that, I want this team to achieve what it is capable of.

This is Wenger's biggest challenge ever. In the past the mental strength was there with the likes of Adams, Keown, Henry and Vieira. But no one has showed they can provide it in this team. And I don't know who will.