Following Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat away to Manchester City on Sunday, the Goonerverse felt like it’d had the wind knocked right out of it.

It wasn’t necessarily to do with the loss itself, or dropping another three points in the title race, although losing two games in a row by the same scoreline is gutting.

It was about the way we lost. The players didn’t look like they knew what was going on or cared for that matter.

THIS is what Gooners were more concerned about than anything; if they can’t get excited about a clash against our title rivals, what will they get excited about?

Legend, Ray Parlour, believes that the current team needs belief.

“They need to believe you can win the league,” he said.

“Believe and be confident in your own ability. Have a winning mentality and never give up. My team believed in ourselves a lot more and we were ruthless.

“You have to have that winning mentality. Arsenal have got better at it. But you have to go out there believing every single game that you are better than the other team – even if sometimes you are not.

“We played the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid and they were probably better sides but we always believed we could get a result.

“If they did beat us and you walked off that pitch and they were better then you hold your hands up sometimes.

“But never walk off the pitch saying I could have done that better or I could have done my team justice.

“Sometimes players these days walk off and say maybe I should have done better. That’s the difference between winning, drawing and losing games.”

The thing is, sometimes this Arsenal team look as if they have plenty of belief. In the first half against Everton and City, we went 1-0 ahead early and run riot for the initial 20 minutes. However, after that, we wind down and in the second half we look like a different team.

Where is it all going wrong? Is it just belief or something deeper?

After Sunday’s display, Arsenal have gone up to 11/1 to win the Premier League this season on most football betting sites. How are they supposed to have belief when they sabotaging their own title challenge?