Only one place to start today, and that is with the news that Eduardo has left Arsenal to join Shakhtar Donetsk for a fee believed to be around the £6m mark. That he would leave has been likely for the last six months, but a move to the Ukraine suggests that his stock has fallen considerably since those early days at the Emirates, where he was developing into one of the deadliest finishers in the Premiership.

Sadly, Eduardo never fully recovered from that fateful day at St Andrews, his leg shattered by an enforcer tackle from ‘not that kind of player’ Martin Taylor. That kind of injury and a year out of the game would test anyone, but while he appeared to recover physically, he was hindered by mental scars that removed the clinical finishing his game relied on. His instincts were still good, his first touch was immaculate, but in front of goal his assurance had gone.

And in one of the most physical leagues in the world, I haven’t seen him compete in a 50/50 challenge in the year and a half he’s been back. Can you blame him?

We will never know the heights Eduardo could have reached. Perhaps he would have been a star, perhaps a useful squad player who could turn games late on. One thing is for certain – the ‘they don’t like it up ‘em’ brigade have claimed a victim today, removing another talent from the English game. How many more will follow?

Much as Eduardo has always been a fan favourite, and although he was noticeably touched by the reception he received on his return, I wouldn’t blame him if he never looked back. His treatment during his three years in England has been appalling – that challenge, the Villa fans who taunted him with ‘you’ve only got one leg’, and of course the diving storm from last season’s Champions League qualifier which saw UEFA attempt to ban him for an offence replicated a hundred times the same week.

I don’t know any right-minded person who doesn’t wish him well. Perhaps a fresh start and regular football will help him re-establish his poise in front of goal, and I hope his recovery is completed over the next year or so.

Financially, it is no bad deal - £6m is a sizable fee for someone whose future is unknown, and is not far off the amount he cost in the first place.

Elsewhere, pre-season has started, and while the internet age allows us to watch these warm-up games in full rather than scouring newspapers for the result, drawing conclusions from them can be dangerous, particularly when focusing on the negative. For example, our defending in today’s 3-0 win against Sturm Graz was exceptionally wobbly at times, but nothing more can be expected when holidays have only just ended and fitness levels are low.

That said, it is a chance for younger players to stake their claim for first team action in the weeks ahead, and Jack Wilshere, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Jay Simpson have all caught the eye in the last week. Of the three, Wilshere is closest to featuring, especially with Joe Cole moving to Liverpool for the money the Champions League a fresh start. JET and Simpson still have much to prove.

Of the new signings, Chamakh looks powerful, Koscielny the complete opposite (that boy needs to bulk up, and fast), and of the old guard, Nasri shone tonight while Arshavin oozed class against Barnet but needs to raise his fitness levels. In goal, Almunia is ‘ill’, which is giving chances to everyone else, but it is difficult to take those chances when the opposition doesn’t threaten.

What these friendlies are showing us is the depth of attacking talent at our disposal – some very good players are not going to make it at Arsenal due to the levels of competition. It is the other end of the pitch that causes all the problems, and I suspect another signing will be made in defence before the season begins.

And that is it for tonight, except to wish Eduardo well with Shakhtar Donetsk. Good luck, fella.

Arsenal 4 (Arshavin 21, Van Persie 26, Baird og 37, Vela 84) Fulham 0
(Premiership)

Before yesterday, we were in danger of ending the season on one of our worst runs of form in years, not just because of the games we’ve lost but the quality (of lack thereof) of the sides that have defeated us. But with Fulham the most accommodating of visitors, we were able to finish the campaign on a high against a defence already preparing for Forlan and Aguero on Wednesday.

The game was wrapped up by half time – Arshavin robbed Schwarzer to score the first, although had he missed Van Persie may not have forgiven him all summer, so free was he in the middle. The Dutchman got his goal five minutes later after being slipped in by Walcott – the first effort was pushed on to the bar, but the ball fell kindly and the game was as good as dead. When Baird inadvertently extended our lead, we could at last relax and put any lingering concerns about Spurs to bed.

The second half was true end of season fare, and after Van Persie had managed a remarkable miss from a few yards out, Vela scored the sort of goal we have become accustomed to seeing from him in the Carling Cup – a marvellous chip over the advancing keeper. You have to wonder if it is the only type of goal the Mexican can score.

With the bench ridiculously young, there were rare outings for players we have barely seen this season – Djourou was a welcome sight after his injury issues, while Lansbury returned from his Watford loan in time to make his first ever Premiership appearance. By that point, the game, and the season, had well and truly fizzled out.

Yet still, I found myself highly irritated by a number of the Arsenal support (admittedly a minority, but a brainless one all the same), who jeered Arshavin for his recent comments (and perhaps his selfishness for the opener) but saved the worst of their bile for Fabianski.

You can say what you like about the Pole’s ability in goal, but while he has been rightly criticised for his mistakes, I don’t think anyone can doubt his attitude to the game. If he is not ready for first team action, that is hardly his fault, and given how much of a confidence player he clearly is, it seemed hugely counterproductive to ironically cheer his every touch and then, when he handled outside the box late in the game (and was booked), to ‘hilariously’ call for the referee to send him off.

Lest we forget – he is our player. Destroying him helps no-one, and frankly I wish that section of ’support’ would up sticks and move on. It is one thing to have a go at a player who isn’t putting in the hard yards, but quite another to hound one who is giving it his all, irrespective of how impressive or otherwise that may be.

It is a shame that a promising, title challenging season has ended with some of the fanbase turning on the players and manager. Of course there are things wrong with the squad, weaknesses that need to be sorted, but it is easy to forget the strides we have made this campaign purely because it has ended so poorly.

Over the coming days, I will be looking back at the season, doing my end of term report for each of the players and looking at what we need to do this summer if our hunt for a trophy is to come to an end next season. Until then, enjoy the aftermath of a resounding win – it has been a while.

Blackburn 2 (Dunn 44, Samba 68) Arsenal 1 (Van Persie 13)
(Premiership)

If I were in Arsene Wenger’s shoes this morning, I’d have called the players in, sat them down in front of a big screen, and played them Sam Allardyce’s post-match interview. And once it was finished, I’d have played it again. And again. And again.

Looking at his smug face, gloating at the success of his predictable tactics, should drive the message home to those who failed to put in the required effort yesterday – if you play one of his sides, you have to be up for a battle. Cruise around the pitch, duck out of the physical contests, and you will be beaten. Stand up to the challenge, and your superior ability should shine through.

And for goodness sake, give your goalkeeper a little protection. If three opponents are crowding him, get in amongst them and disrupt them right back. It isn’t rocket science, people.

But apparently, to some of these players, it is. Traore, given an opportunity to prove his worth at left back, shirked every opportunity to drive forward. Vela missed a sitter early on then vanished. Diaby had another of his lazy days.

You can’t afford that against Blackburn. In fact, you can’t afford that against many teams – go away from home in the Premiership and you will face a challenge – it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, they won’t make it easy. If they work harder than we do, any technical advantage is cancelled out.

Of course there are extenuating circumstances – we lost Song, Rosicky, Clichy, Bendtner and Denilson on top of our existing absentees. But while a drop in quality is understandable, a decline in effort is baffling – the thing with injuries is it gives the squad a chance to shine. They not only failed to take it, they didn’t seem that bothered.

We have one game left this season, and third place is still not secure. A draw against Fulham is all we need, and while that might seem a foregone conclusion, so would some of the other games we’ve chucked away in recent times. We fought so hard to be in the title race this season, and the stark contrast in fortunes as soon as that drive slipped away shows just how little we can afford to let up. A small drop in work rate and the points dry up.

Fabianski has taken the flak this morning, and he was indeed at fault for the second goal – he was bustled but he and the rest of the defence need to be stronger than that. But I’m more annoyed with certain other members of the team – the Pole worked hard and made some fine saves under pressure. Some of the rest ambled around as if the game didn’t matter.

It did matter, to the fans who will be here long after they’ve departed. It will always matter against Sam Allardyce, and if they never want to see his smug face again, they’d better buck their ideas up.

Arsenal 0 Man City 0
(Premiership)

Much of the talk over the last couple of days has been about City’s incredibly negative approach to a game they never aimed to win. A goalless draw is what they sought, a goalless draw is what they got. But while plenty have criticised them for forcing the game into tedium, I am left questioning the tactic in the first place.

If I said to you that it made little difference to City whether they drew or lost the game, would you wonder why they never went for it?

By the time kick off arrived, Spurs had already lost to United, leaving City two points behind their rivals for fourth place, but with this game in hand. After the game, both teams would have three games to play, including the pivotal match between the pair at Eastlands in the final week.

But here’s the thing – City cannot rely on Spurs dropping points in their other two games, which are at home to (a now safe from relegation) Bolton, and away to Burnley, whose relegation has already been confirmed. So City came into the game knowing that to finish fourth, they had to do one of two things:

• Win Saturday’s game, therefore rising into fourth place, and then draw with Spurs.
• Beat Spurs.

If Spurs do win their other two games, it makes no difference whether City are one or two points behind them going into that crucial match, so it really made no odds whether they drew or lost on Saturday. They would have had to beat Spurs either way. It would have therefore been worth their while to at least have a go – if they had beaten us then a draw against Spurs would suffice, and even if we had destroyed them, it wouldn’t had left them in a worse position.

It was a truly bizarre approach to take to the game, and one I still cannot understand. Self-defeatism at its very best.

There is very little to say about the game itself. Van Persie provided our best moments, while the only real chance they had stemmed from a Vieira run before Sol Campbell ended the move in style. Mancini gave the crowd a chance to swing from extreme to extreme by bringing Adebayor on for Vieira in the second half, providing us with the comedy moment of a standing ovation followed by a chorus of boos louder than I’ve heard in a long time. In the end, the pantomime was required just to liven the day up – there really was nothing else on offer.

So third is almost secured – we cannot catch the leaders but the point makes it almost impossible to be overtaken. For us, it was important to produce a reaction after the Wigan game, and in fairness, the players gave it a good go, but for City, the game could have been pivotal, yet they never gave themselves a chance.

Frankly, I hope Spurs avoid defeat to them and claim that final Champions League spot. Putting rivalry aside, I think they deserve it. The City revolution can wait.

Wigan 3 (Watson 80, Bramble 89, N’Zogbia 90) Arsenal 2 (Walcott 41, Silvestre 48)

It has been a fine season. These players have exceeded expectations time and time again, defying the injuries, the pundits writing them off, and even the fans claiming the title challenge was over. That we were still in the race with four games to go was a remarkable achievement. There can be no doubt that the mental strength Wenger attributes to them is present in abundance.

But those impressive feats do not excuse the complacency and sheer laziness on display today, in a game that could have brought us right back into the title race after Chelsea’s defeat to Spurs yesterday. Two goals to the good, and with the opportunity of drawing within three points of the leaders, we simply stopped playing, stopped putting in challenges and invited Wigan back into the game.

About an hour in, there were various rumblings on Twitter, concerns that we were coasting far too much, and references made to the West Ham game, where we cruised to a 2-0 lead before letting a single goal change the complexion of the match. On that day, we dropped two daft points, and while accidents like that can happen, the important thing is to learn from them. Wenger should have stressed not to take the foot off the pedal. Coast when you’re three goals to the good, but 2-0 is not a safe scoreline. How many times do we have to be taught that lesson?

With ten minutes to go, Wigan scored the goal that set the wheels in motion. Despite having seven defenders in the box, no-one picked up Ben Watson, who slotted past a blocked off Fabianski. From that moment, an equaliser was inevitable, especially given the lack of any kind of reaction from us. Nasri cleared one off the line, but even that close escape only delayed proceedings.

When the equaliser came, it was another goalkeeping howler. Almunia was ruled out of the game with a ‘wrist injury’, a suspicious tale made all the more so by Wenger’s pre-match assertion that while the injury was minor, Fabianski would play the rest of the games. In other words, even a fit Almunia will not feature again.

But every time the Spaniard misses a game, his place in the side is secured yet further by the ineptitude of his competition. I’ve defended Fabianski for ages – I think he is a fantastic shot stopper, and when his composure improves he could be a fine keeper – but time and time again he betrays the faith shown in him with basic errors. Early on, he flapped at a corner, and in the 89th minute he dropped another routine catch on Titus Bramble’s head, and the ball dribbled over the line.

The equaliser finally killed our flagging title hopes, so in a way, the Wigan winner made little difference other than to highlight how comprehensively we’d thrown the game away. Credit to N’Zogbia, whose finish was unstoppable, but the defence collectively invited him inside on his left foot, which was naive in the extreme.

Wigan fought to the end, and they deserve praise for that, but in reality we gifted them the points with a performance so lacking in effort, drive and passion that you would have thought we had nothing left to play for. For me, the main culprit was Diaby, who was appalling in the centre of midfield, giving the ball away on countless occasions, and requiring far too much time on the ball. And this was against a Wigan side hardly snapping at his heels.

But in truth, everyone took their foot off the gas once Silvestre’s header had doubled the lead given by Walcott’s neat touch and finish in the first half. The likes of Rosicky, who worked so hard early on, drifted out of the game, and the only energy was supplied by Eastmond, who was trying to prove his worth, and Campbell, who was justifying the award of the armband at the back. Around him, Silvestre, Clichy and Sagna all responded to his rallying cry on occasions, but those moments were few and far between.

It is tempting to solely blame the players, to believe that Wenger reminded them of West Ham, and tried to stress that the game wasn’t won until we were a few goals to the good. The manager’s post-match fury suggested as much. But his own substitutions sent the message that Wigan were a beaten side.

Eboue’s introduction seemed reasonable, given his defensive abilities, but why was Fran Merida brought on in the final ten minutes? It is apparent that the young Spaniard is leaving in the summer, so what was this, a farewell appearance? If we’re at the final game of the season and we have nothing to play for, then fine, but this was just after Wigan had gotten themselves back into a critical match. With no other defensive players available, surely Van Persie should have been called on to re-establish momentum?

Whatever the reasons, it was a truly bizarre decision, and Merida did nothing to justify his place on the pitch. Van Persie was belatedly brought on at 2-2, but by then all fight had gone from the team.

I am a staunch defender of these players - regular readers can attest to that – but even I found myself unable to find positives from the match. If the players come out against City next weekend and react in a positive way, then perhaps this debacle can be pushed to the backs of our minds, but any repeat of the kind of complacency shown today will simply not be acceptable.

This sort of performance could tarnish the impression many have of the season, and too many strides have been taken to allow that to happen. Three matches to go. No excuses.