Where do Arsenal go from here?

After Arsenal got dumped out of the Champions League by PSV, there has been the usual mixture of reasoned debate and over reaction.

Some have called for big money signings to improve the team. Firstly, there is no guarantee signing anybody would make any difference at all. Wenger's history of big money signings is not great, and Julio Baptista has proved that no matter how long you chase a potential player, they can still be a huge disappointment when they get into the team. I was one who thought he would bring a different dimension to our game, someone who could compete physically when it mattered. Not only has he not done that, his finishing has been woeful. At this stage, only Wenger knows if he will sign him permanently, but in my opinion he wouldn't be a great loss if he left.

Regarding the forward line, Wenger needs to decide what will happen with Bendtner when his loan at Birmingham finishes. If he brings him back to Arsenal, Baptista or Aliadiere will have to go to make room for him. Regardless of who goes or stays, we desperately need to improve our finishing. Time and again we have anything up to 20 shots on goal, but come out of the game having scored 1 or less. Our midfielders aren't scoring, which is a major loss after years of Pires and Ljungberg providing 10 or more goals each. This then puts the onus on our strikers to take their chances, which they regularly fail to do. I like Adebayor, who has scored plenty of important goals, but sometimes his finishing is abysmal. I have lost count the number of times he has been through one on one and missed.

I was amazed before the 2nd leg against PSV when we heard Arsenal had started to practice corners. We all know how little we take advantage of them, but to virtually admit that they are not part of our game exposes a major weakness - opposing teams know they are unlikely to come under pressure from us at corners. To me it seems a huge waste of the effort put in by our forwards. After the Carling Cup semi Final against Tottenham, I commented on the number of corners Aliadiere won for us, as he never gave up on a lost cause. He might as well have not bothered and saved his energy. We need to improve at corners straight away, as not taking advantage of them must take 10-15% out of your game. It is no disgrace to get a headed goal from a corner - it won't betray our footballing principles!

The other surprise for the PSV game was playing Gilberto at centre half. Why this was the case when we had Djourou on the bench is a mystery. As a result we had 2 19 year olds playing in central midfield. As good as Denilson looks, I would have preferred the experience of Gilberto for this game. Of course, it's impossible to tell if this would have made any difference, but it seemed a huge risk to take in such an enormous game.

Now we must make sure we get as much out of every league game as possible. It's probably too much to ask to return to the days of killing teams off in the first 20 minutes at the moment, but we must make sure we qualify for the Champions League next season.

Who knows where Wenger expected us to be at this stage in the teams development, in public he would never admit to having a 'transitional' season. We can't afford to have another season without a trophy (literally - if crowds start to wane at the new stadium, we will be in the shit).

Lets see how ruthless Wenger is in the summer...