Periods of great quality and desire but poor defending and no luck in fornt of goal sums up our season

Champions League football has been pretty much guaranteed and there were plenty of positives to take from a game which we dominated after Fabregas' arrival. However despite all of the obvious optimism which is fully merited, there must also be some perspective on our resilience.

The main positives were that we played with spirit, huge quality and desire and our effort could not be faulted. In the second half we were extremely unlucky with a few chances and were very creative without being clinical enough.. But that just sums up our season doesn't it?!

Diaby was great in the middle of the park and he can be a big player for us, but he is not as important as Cesc who was conducting things very effectively. Eboue turned in a much improved performance as did Toure and Hleb. Adebayor worked hard and his 'stickability' as Stuart Pearce woudl say is second to none.

But we are still giving away cheap goals and letting the opposition score first too often (16th time this season we have been behind and come back to get something from the game). Can you imagine if we defended as well as Chelsea, I know the way they play means everyone in the team has to defend (which can make them look less dynamic and almost rigid at times) but their resilience cannot be knocked.

Another key question for Arsene is.. What is our best formation? We ended up playing a 4-5-1 with Cesc, Diaby and Gilberto in the middle of the park and it worked well with some good interlinking of positions and breaks at pace but when Henry and Van Persie are fit will we return to a 4-4-2? Are we defensively good enough away from home to play a 4-4-2?

Wenger still hasn't quite got the hang of substitutions yet and you have to wonder if Malbranque and Jenas would have played the one - two that lead to their equaliser if Hleb had been on the field, he certainly wouldn't have been waiting in the box for a cross that was never coming like Senderos!

All in all a cause for optimism with an excellent second half display but some deeper rooted problems in the defence and continuity in the team selection are key and if we can become a little more consitient then there's no reason to suggest we can't go up a level next year and mount a title challenge.