The subject of money reared its ugly little head at the weekend, largely thanks to the Chairman’s programme notes which once again made it clear that if Arsene wanted to spend, the money was there. That he has not is his choice. Well, perhaps not; he may well have tried to sign the odd player but been either put off by the price quoted (probably a lot higher with Henry’s departure so the assumption was that we were floating in cash as very little had been spent by that point) or rebuffed by the players themselves, the thrill of getting higher wages elsewhere may have been too much to refuse. Whatever the reasons, the squad currently is what it is.

The problem is that everyone else has been outspending Arsenal this summer, from the bottom to the top, which tends to blind us to what is going on with those transfers. The amounts spent are phenomenal. In England it is expected to exceed £300m this Summer which is already lagging behind Spain where El Pais calculated that the Primera Division Clubs had spent €420m with still more than a fortnight left of the transfer window. This on the day that Barcelona reportedly told Milan to come back with their £40m in 2008 for Ronaldinho and negotiations can begin.

The money machine has a tendency to drive you mad. Either you are on the outside looking in, waiting for the Club of your choice to sign that one player you desperately want (or maybe it is more) or else you are on the inside looking out, happy with the activity but quietly concerned about how much is being spent and how it is being paid for.

Once you get outside the Top Four, there are serious questions to be asked about how it is being funded. The new broadcasting revenues have brought in even more money to flow into football’s coffers, the next one will probably be higher as Setanta look to challenge Sky even more. Those who fear that the bubble will burst and collapse is imminent only then have to look to the World Cup in 2018 and if that comes to England, the stakes get raised even further.

But for Arsenal supporters, it seems to be passing by; we are like the Hedgehog at the side of a motorway waiting to find that elusive gap in the traffic to reach the other side without being flattened onto the Tarmac. Not having spent much, in the eyes of some nothing of note at all, we appear to be drifiting out of the race, despite the fact that we are one of the teams who started the season with maximum points. The desire for new faces is tangible; easy fodder for the scurrilous to make up their stories of imminent signings to grab your attention – Boruc for £6m, Pedersen £7m were the ones to re-emerge at the weekend. Unfortunately for us, the Club’s policy on transfers is to rarely comment beforehand, preferring to do the business quietly, fanfares at the appointed hour once ink is dry on contracts.

The question is though, will one player make a significiant enough difference to the squad? Will bringing in a left sided midfielder ensure a challenge is made? Or will their presence bring about an imbalance to the team? I said before the season started that a Left Winger would give us another option. Who would make way can sometimes be irrelevant, injuries and suspensions enforcing changes as we well know. The fundamental issue with a left sided player though is that the bodies have to be in the box. On Sunday, I am unconvinced that such a player would have changed the game. Whilst we got bodies into the box on more occasions than in the past, there were still a large number of occasions when we did not leaving RvP isolated.

Despite being the greatest season in the Club’s history, The Invincibles have created a millstone for Arsene. He has shown the heights to which the Club can go, the gap between then and now for some is unbridgable. Yet no-one has come close to achieving it since, the Champions still lose the same number of games as before that squad. The players in that team were peaking or already had done so. Rare indeed for this to occur all at once. What happens now is that we aspire to that level. Perhaps Arsene should have replaced with equally talented players. Perhaps he should have broken the bank on the off-chance that we might have retained the title. Or the Champions League. Perhaps the Stadium should not have been built, leaving Highbury to fund the ongoing spending, trying to keep up with rest of the big spenders. At some point that team was going to be broken up and rebuilt. It has happened now; we have a new Stadium ahead of the rest, the building blocks are already in place. We knew this ‘hardship’ was coming upon us; no-one can say that it was unforeseen. What Le Boss has dones is put us in a better position for the future than if he had left it for say another two seasons, holding onto Vieira when his heart was patently not in it, turned by Madrileno promises. As for new players,I thought Vieira had been replaced with Fabregas, more of a threat going forward and as each season progresses, more of a presence in the centre of midfield but the partnership with Gilberto is moving onto an equally impressive level. Henry? Irreplaceable in his peak, injuries and demeanour mean that he is replaceable now. However, Arsene has chosen his tried and tested route of signing lesser-name players rather than spending big. And that is no guarantee of success. Neither is signing a big name; football’s history is littered with big money failures. Nothing is set in stone; a manager signing a player is putting faith in him, and himself, to get it right.

And therein lies the rub; supporting a team requires blind faith at times. For some, understandably, nerves take over and the faith gets questioned and there is nothing wrong in that. Present it as fact and that is when the problems begin. But with one game gone, the opening day of the season, is it not a little premature to write the team off?