FOR some weeks now we’ve been reading about how this or that game will be a ‘turning point’ in our season, only to find that the change of direction has been just a sharper decline.

The Manchester United game was chief amongst these pretenders, while encouraging performances against Lyon and Birmingham City have also been hailed as heralding an improvement in fortunes.

Now a scrappy win at Goodison, achieved with no little luck (though heaven knows it’s about time we are able to say that), and the sun is apparently peeking back over the horizon and we’re all set for a barnstorming assault on... fourth place.

Or maybe third now the Great Pretenders of Arsenal have been put firmly back in their very pretty but underachieving box.

Although it’s encouraging that we went through November unbeaten, it’s becoming clear there’s going to be no sudden clearing of the skies, no abrupt return to the swashbuckling form of September, no exultant release of pent-up frustration at the expense of some struggling minnow.

What we’re in for is a slow, grinding return to some sort of form, as confidence and fitness returns to what looks a pretty sorry bunch of footballers at present.

The performances against Debrecen and Everton were sluggish in the extreme, though marked by notable differences in the capacity to keep hold of the ball.

Against Debrecen we had so much possession and did so little with it that you could have nipped out for a cup of tea and just picked up where you left off on your return.