The difference between one and seven

What a difference a few manic minutes make.

Having responded rapidly to going a goal down in the Carling Cup Final, and having spent 30 minutes bombarding Birmingham’s goal, in the blink of an eye our season took a distinct turn for the negative.

Although Sczezney and Koscielny were responsible for the goal – having, as one of you put it in a text to me after the game, “defended like deaf and dumb c****” – Arshavin and Rosicky are the real villains who should be hanging their heads in the wake of Arsenal’s defeat. Their performance had a huge influence on a game we should, let’s face it, win comfortably on a pitch that big and slick.

It all helped add to what’s becoming a fairly familiar story – and what happens next will determine a whole lot about our season.

Because all of a sudden, from being on the brink of winning our first trophy for a while and looking forward to Man U facing difficult successive games against Chelsea and Liverpool - we’re now in a situation where the press will bang on and on forever about how we haven’t won a trophy for six years and how we have a psychological issue; van Persie is out for three weeks; we go to Barcelona without van Persie, Walcott and possibly Fabregas; Man U away now stands between us and advancing in the FA Cup; and Chelsea are in such disarray following the Ashley Cole shooting incident – [there’s a really easy joke there about Cole being in trouble for shooting… not for the first ime etc etc] - that Man U could well be seven points clear by tonight.

If it is seven rather than one, you do have to wonder if this team has the ability to bounce back.

Still, Orient at Home tomorrow. Surely we’ll win that… won’t we?