Wenger must cure Arsenal nerves or end up trophyless again

LONDON-- Belief, like a reputation, is difficult to gain but remarkably easy to lose.

On Saturday morning, ahead of a trip to Anfield, Arsenal and its fans carried justifiable belief that this might just be their season.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night, and that confidence had almost completely dissipated. Instead, there were howls of derision at the Emirates as Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny formed little passing triangles inside their own half, rather than go for Manchester United's jugular.

It was fair to say that belief had deserted the club as swiftly as the team's reputation for defensive parsimony had gone south with the 5-1 thrashing at Liverpool just four days previously.

The grumbles from the Arsenal fans had more to do with a fear that this was the case of a team reverting towards the mean, a support base readying for disappointment.

There are widely considered to be seven stages of grief, and in the space of just a few days Arsenal's fans seem to have gone through shock and denial (phase one), pain and guilt (two) and are stationed firmly in anger and bargaining (phase three).

The next is depression and it could well be that both Liverpool and Bayern Munich, both of which are rampant at present, could provide those in the FA Cup and Champions League within the next seven days.