There's two kinds of performances that make the job of the blogger easy. The truly great (think Barcelona at the Emirates last season) and the truly awful, (think Milan, tonight). When your team throw in the towel after a quarter of an hour in a Champions League last sixteen tie, the words come a little easier.

Milan are obviously a talented team - Italian football is no longer in the doldrums (see seventh placed Napoli's qualification from their Champions League group ahead of Manchester City) and Massimiliano Allegri's team lead the league. With the criminally underrated Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading the line, and Brazil's first choice centre back Tiago Silva marshaling the defence, they're a fundamentally solid outfit, if not a flashy one. Their draw at the Nou Camp was no fluke, a result of good counter attacking and well executed fundamentals, and should have served as an excellent warning to the Gunners. Arsenal have played badly this season, making bad teams look good and good teams look great, but the performance against Milan was breathtakingly dire. After a really pleasing fightback against a resurgent Sunderland on the weekend, and against significantly better opposition, it was therefore surprising to see the Gunners treat the first half at the San Siro like a training match.

Wenger seemingly predicted that the game being contested in the midfield as opposed to the wings, dropping Oxlade-Chamberlain in favour of Rosicky: the Czech is happy to drift deeper and involve himself in the link up play and his versatility should have come in handy. Ramsey reclaimed his place in midfield, while Kieran Gibbs started at left back for the first time since October. As it happened it didn't really matter who started out on the left wing because Arsenal's front three saw so little of the ball in the first half. Milan pressured the Gunners midfield and marked the forwards tightly, and so we were privy to another masterful display of side to side passing - it's like Denilson, master of the sideways pass, never left. While Arsenal offered absolutely nothing in the final third, the same could not be said for Milan who looked incisive right from the first whistle.

With Van Bommel keeping the midfield ticking over and Ibrahimovic the focal point for the attack, the home team moved the ball quickly and intelligently. Arsenal often look short of ideas against well organised teams, and in those games the defence must be relied upon to keep the game competitive until the attack finds its groove. Not so tonight; players were consistently allowed time and space to pick passes, knock in crosses or even take shots. No one was closing down, no one was doubling up on wingers, the full backs were consistently outnumbered by Milan players, headers were going uncontested; I really cannot overstate how poor Arsenal were defensively in this game.

Mindblowingly bad.

Both of Milan's first half goals were well taken: FA Cup final penalty misser Kevin Prince Boateng smashed a brilliant shot beyond Szczesny after fifteen minutes, but why he was allowed the space to do so? Robinho's header after half an hour was well directed, but why did Sagna simply stop following Ibrahimovic's run down the wing when the linesman failed to flag for offside? It wasn't like we were undone by individual pieces of skill and 25 yard piledrivers into the top corner; the Arsenal players beat themselves by failing to execute fundamentally simple tasks. Words cannot express how disappointing it was to watch a premier league team play like a bunch of Sunday league amateurs.

The sides went in at half time at 2-0, the only question worth asking was not whether Arsenal would get back into the game, but how badly they would be beaten. Vermaelen's slip allowed Robinho to make it three from the edge of the area and Djourou, (replacing the injured Koscielny) continued to make a case for him to be banned from wearing an Arsenal shirt ever again when he was once again caught too square to a striker and dragged down Ibrahimovic in the box. The Swedish striker converted the penalty, and frankly it was no less than the Italian team deserved.

Arsenal offered a little more in the second half, as first Henry and then Oxlade-Chamberlain were thrown into the fray, but this was more a consequence of Milan easing off than anything else. Nothing short of a miracle will see the Gunners progress now, and Wenger would be well-advised to focus his efforts on the fight for fourth place. He must address the problems highlighted in Milan tonight however. Van Persie, I feel, owes his club a debt of loyalty for consistently renewing his contract despite his many injuries, but he can't be expected to stay at a team that not only cannot match his expectations, but fails to even come close. The Dutchman, along with Szczesny and the two second half substitutes, were the only players to play at a level even close to what you'd call acceptable, and Wenger must identify why his players looked so out of their depth.

Arsenal were always going to struggle against a fundamentally better team, but it seems a real shame that Theirry Henry should bid farewell to the club surrounded by such abject mediocrity. He deserved better, and so did the fans. Sunderland are the opposition once again on the weekend, and victory would see us through to the quarter finals of the FA cup. Gervinho will be back from the African cup of nations where, as is to be expected of an Arsenal player, he missed the decisive penalty in the final. Wenger can now put the consistently useless Walcott on the bench and give his starting spot to the Ox. If the Frenchman is to be at the club next season, and I sincerely hope he will, his players will have to stop phoning it in. We're edging closer to the precipice week by week; for god's sake, someone throw us a lifeline.

(Buck your ideas up son)

Let's face it - things are not looking good for Arsenal. The Gunner's slide into mediocrity continued last night with a piss-poor performance against a Bolton side now just two points clear of the relegation zone. The gap between us and fourth remained at 5 points thanks to Chelsea's draw at Swansea, but two teams, namely Newcastle and Liverpool, now occupy the space between us and them. To put that into perspective, that's a Liverpool team with lumbering man-child Andy Carroll up front and a Newcastle team managed by Alan 'he's absolutely raped him' Pardew. Can things get any worse?

Well yes, as apparently Jack Wilshere looks to set to miss the rest of the season. The young midfielder aggravated his injury in training and will almost certainly not feature in the league. Wenger must now rely entirely on the midfield trio of Song, Ramsey and Arteta, an alarming prospect given Ramsey's tendency to play as if he's just returned from his year long absence (ie tentatively and sloppily) and Song's apparent disinclination to provide any meaningful contribution at either end of the pitch. Arteta continues to provide the only spark in the middle, although his physical limitations prevent him from taking the game to the opposition in the way that someone younger and quicker might, say a Fabregas or a Nasri.

Meanwhile Van Persie continues to look like a man who feels the burden of expectation upon his shoulders - with Gervinho in Africa his support up front at Bolton came in the shape of the inexperienced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the woefully inefficient Theo Walcott. The latter, who can can only really be allowed one more season to show why he should be allowed to play for Arsenal, looks less and less like the player who beat three Chelsea defenders to score at Stamford Bridge in October. The paucity of quality in the team was reflected by the rather abject performance on the pitch. Opportunities were created in a first half which Arsenal largely dominated - Ramsey failed to make sufficient contact on a Van Persie through-ball, and Walcott unsurprisingly squandered a one on one after he was played in by Oxlade-Chamberlain. David Ngog missed a similar chance at the other end but Arsenal should have been ahead at the break.

After half time the roles were reversed. The Gunners best chance came in the shape of a cross from the returning (and ever-reliable) Sagna, which Van Persie could only crash against the post. The Dutchman hit the woodwork again with a Bergkamp style lob from close range, and Oxlade-Chamberlain fired just over from 25 yards, but for much of the second half the ball was in and around the Arsenal penalty area. Despite creating only half chances, the home side were almost rewarded for their hard work right at the death when Szczesny brought down Mark Davies in the box but Chris Foy gave the goalkeeper the benefit of the doubt.

The momentum gathered during a dominant second half performance against Villa on the weekend failed to spill over into the next game, and instead Arsenal demonstrated the lack of incisiveness and ability to convert chances that has plagued their game since late December. Van Persie's task must seem increasingly thankless and futile if the other strikers consistently fail to alleviate his workload, and rumours linking him with a Summer move to Spain seem to be gathering momentum. Moreover the midfield must start creating the chances that their possession merits. Walcott and Ramsey, playing as they are, would probably look out of their depth in promotion chasing Championship sides.

What's to be done about a run of form that makes Champions League football next season look more and more unlikely? Well with the transfer window shut (and our only purchase a young German from Dortmund without a single senior appearance to his name) the only thing we can do is to hope that the player we have can turn things around. The talent is obviously there, as evidenced by the fact that the team went from 17th to 5th in about a month earlier in the season. When Gibbs and Santos return we will at least have two bona fide full backs, which will allow Vermaelen to move back into the middle to partner Kosielny, who has, except for Van Persie, been Arsenal's standout player this season. Oxlade-Chamberlain, who looks to have displaced Arshavin in the pecking order (much to the pleasure of most Arsenal fans with the exception of those select few who have honoured him by naming their blogs after him) looks like the player that Walcott always wanted to be: fast, strong, tricky and with a fierce shot. As his general game improves (and with the return of our actual fullbacks) we should have a genuine wide threat for the first time this season. Above all else though, players like Ramsey, Song and Walcott have to start making a positive contribution. Van Persie cannot carry this team for an entire season, and shouldn't be expected to. Ultimately the difference between playing in Europe on a Tuesday night or a Thursday will ultimately rest in their hands.