Listening to the game on the radio, I was once again shaking my head in sheer frustration as we seemed hell bent once again on pressing the self destruct button. And, although we managed to get back into the match, I think that a lot of Arsenal fans trudged away from The Grove with far more questions floating around in their minds than answers. I know I did.
There were plusses for us. Young Theo, having come on as early as the sixth minute as a sub for Freddie Ljungberg, posed a threat to the Pompey defence all afternoon. Robin Van Persie really should have come away from the game with a hat-trick. And what can you say about young Adebayor? The boy came on and gave us a momentum that was largely conspicuous by its absence for most of the afternoon.
Mind you, on a day where we were confronted yet again with an understandable sense of frustration, I have to say that the Arsenal faithful didn't do an awful lot to help the cause. I made a rare decision to briefly listen to Alan Green's post match phone-in on Radio Five and one of the callers, a chap called Tom, made a point that definitely stuck a chord with me. He said that he was an Upper Tier season ticket holder at The Grove and whilst he tried to vocally support the team, there wasn't one fan in his vicinity that made any attempt to join in.
Tom's comments were indicative of Arsenal in as much as saying that whilst we are not short of fans, the fans we do have in general often tend to be of the fair-weather kind that are devoid of any real passion. Too many of them are a bit like rush hour commuters on their way to and from work, a bunch of faceless, muted strangers shoehorned into a relatively confined area almost trudging their way resentfully through the rat race.
When a team is lacking in a bit of passion and drive sometimes the fans have to play their part. Not at our place. The capacity at The Grove may be similar to that of Parkhead, the home of Celtic for example. And, like Celtic we are virtually sold out every time we play at home (or so we are led to believe).
But in terms of passion and support for our team, we are poles if not universes apart from our counterparts north of the border. It's something I cannot help feeling almost embarrassed about from time to time. I don't know what the answer is. Do we need a club anthem? Yes. Do we need to create definitive areas within The Grove where those who do choose to actually vocally support the team can sit together? It would definitely help.
I mean, at The Grove we don't have an equivalent of the old North Bank as such – not that I'm saying much there given that the atmosphere on that famous old terrace at Highbury waned considerably long before it was converted into an all seated area and in my experience, there was, if anything, a far better atmosphere amongst Arsenal fans down at the Clock End in the latter years at the old place.
Maybe there is an element of truth in what other fans say about us Arsenal fans being generally an arrogant bunch. It's something that certainly appears to manifest itself in the vocal support that the Arsenal team are given, particularly at home.
Look at Liverpool. Nobody in England has been more successful in terms of winning trophies than them. Yet, their fans are not arrogant enough to just go to Anfield and sit there, week in and week out, in silence, expecting their team to entertain them and for the games they play to take what they perceive to be a natural course.
Whether they are playing Reading, Fulham, Sheffield United or Manchester United, there is always an atmosphere which is intimidating and the only thing that varies is not so much the atmosphere but the actual level of intimidation itself.
Look at Newcastle. They haven't won anything worth talking about for the thick end of forty years. But, no matter whether they have a team capable of winning trophies or not, the moment that they see their team gain the remotest ascendancy in any game, they are right behind them.
Can you just imagine what the atmosphere would be like up there if they ever stumbled on a team that achieved even half as much as Arsenal have over the last ten years? They would have to call in the Environmental Health at St James's Park, just to keep the noise down.
Whilst it's true that we have moved into new ground, I've never subscribed to this theory about the new ground being a handicap to us for a number of reasons. For a start, no stadium has ever physically won a football match, it's the players that play in them that do that. And then, if you want to look at it another way, then ask yourselves this – if you move to from one house to another, is it down to you to make that new house into a home or is it down to the people that happen to subsequently pay you a visit?
It's not just the Arsenal players that have got to put their stamp on The Grove, it‘s the fans too. Highbury, much as we all loved it, has gone and The Grove is now what we have got to replace it. Unless you happen to be completely ignorant or downright jealous, the fact is that we now have a stadium that every Arsenal should be proud of. If only in terms of its size and scale, it's a stadium that the likes of Liverpool, ironically enough, would love to build tomorrow all things being equal.
I know, more than anyone, that the price of going to see your team is outrageous these days. I remember the days when a season ticket on the old North Bank terrace cost me £60 and by the way, I got to see potentially almost as many games as any season ticket holder today would be entitled to see.
Today's regulars down at the Arsenal may continue to pay through the nose and I respect that is not right. All I will say to you fans that go more regularly than myself is that whatever you paid for your tickets and however much you feel entitled to moan, it doesn't cost you anything more to give genuine vocal encouragement to the team.
We are a big club in our right and we've got the kind of stadium a club like us should have. It's time that Arsenal fans did their bit to make it all that it could be – and should be.
Now, it's time to look at tonight's trip to Anfield in the Carling Cup.
I noticed Rafa Benitez was mouthing off in the papers today suggesting that our youth policy is a sham. He also said that unlike us, Liverpool dint have the money to invest in quality youngsters like Arsenal do.
Reading between the lines, I thought that Benitez was clearly looking to get his excuses in early just in case his team get beat by what is probably going to be largely an Arsenal under-21 side.
How Benitez has the right to plead poverty given the amounts that he has spent on players in his time at Liverpool I don't know. Wasn't he the one who paid £11 million for Alonso, £10 million for Kuyt , £7 million for Pennant, £6million for Bellamy, £6 million for Luis Garcia, £5 million plus for Agger and Sissoko and last, but not least £7 million for Peter Crouch?
There are a few others that I haven't mentioned but that little lot alone cost him (Err, I mean Liverpool, let's get it right) around £58 million. Given that none of those players were bought before the summer of 2004 then we are talking about a fairly serious amount of money spent in a fairly short space of time. And, when you consider that Arsene has spent approximately £145 million in total on players at Arsenal in over 10 years and that he has at least made a conscious attempt to try and invest in youth AND give them a chance as opposed to buying in ready made players, then I don't think that Benitez has any right to criticise anything we do.
Still, for all that, Benitez and Liverpool have to be commended in that they have built up a decent bit of momentum in recent weeks. After a dreadful start to their Premiership campaign, they have now gone six games unbeaten and finally laid to rest their away-day blues to boot having thumped Wigan and then Charlton in successive away games.
Though Bellamy and Kuyt seem to be in pretty decent form of late up front, it wouldn't surprise me to see Robbie Fowler play tonight. Benitez is more than clever enough to know that Fowler has often been the nemesis of Arsenal down the years.
Fowler's partner will probably be Peter Crouch to start with. Now, I know this lad is the butt of a million and one jokes amongst fans up and down this country but I am a fan of his. Some players needed to be appreciated for what they bring to the team as opposed to what they can do individually. Crouch is the type of guy that fits into that category.
Sure, he has his faults but from a technical point of view, unlike the likes of Defoe, Andy Johnson and Darren Bent for example, he is the only English target man of any genuine repute in the Premiership today (with the exception of Dean Ashton at West Ham that is).
All in all, it's a highly intriguing contest we have on our hands tonight. I know that deep down Wenger would love to win this trophy one day partly because it's then one domestic trophy to have eluded him but also because it would stand as a decent testament to his policy of giving youth a chance.
For Wenger's sake I hope tonight goes a long way to vindicating that.