Nero fiddled while Rome burned, will Wenger fiddle too?

What a joke at the Emirates on Saturday! We have to rely on want-aways like Nasri and Bendtner to get us a result. How surprising they failed to impress, although to give him his due, Nasri had his moments. Not as many as Frimpong, who will make the likes of Chelsea's Jon Obi Mikel look ordinary at this rate. His five-star display was marred by his red card, but his commitment was admirable.

Once again it was the manager's negligence that led to disaster. First he can't buy players for a whole catalogue of reasons and then he can't see incidents. Maybe that prevented him from seeing Frimpong's first yellow card. From that point on, his overzealous tackling made him a sending off waiting to happen. I'm surprised Wenger didn't notice. When the red card came wenger used his 'big squad' as best he could throwing Henri Lansbury into the fray to replace Arshavin. The Russian had a bad day but he had three opponents on him when he got the ball, freeing up space for team-mates. Let's not forget, Arshavin scored four once upon a time at Anfield, while Lansbury, for all his merits, is unlikely to score that many in his whole Arsenal career based on what I've seen of him. It's a big step up from reserve team football so we shouldn't expect him to shine at this level.

However, Frimpong looks every inch a star as does Szczeny. Jenkinson, meanwhile, allowed Stewart Downing to look like a world beater. Ramsey also struggled, as did Walcott and van Persie. Time to rely on the 'big squad', especially as Koscielny got injured earlyish.

Miquel proved there is life in the reserve-team football by playing imperiously until an unfortunate clearance ricocheted off Ramsey for Liverpool's first. It was over. Arsenal had already been struggling when reduced to ten men, but Wenger perhaps chose not to see it. No doubt he noticed both Liverpool goals were marginally offside so perhaps he'll put another defeat down to bad luck and keep the cheque book in the boardroom safe.

At least Wenger is still popular with the moneymen at Arsenal but his support among the loyal fans looks to be slowly diminishig with each inactive day during the transfer window. At least Nero reportedly fiddled while Rome burned. Arsene doesn't appear to be able to do even that right now, as fiddling or tinkering with this squad would involve paying out big bucks. As we all know, virtues can become vices: careful money-management can become penny-pinching. That's where we're at now at Arsenal, it seems.