Oh, how the mighty are fallen!

Those of us supporters of other Premier League clubs who sat and watched - whilst laughing hysterically - at Manchester United's embarrassment last night will have had, if they dare admit to it, just a tiny iota of unease. Go on, tell me you didn't!?! Imagine, for a moment, that it was your club suffering that humiliation; we've all had them.

In my opinion (stated at the time of his retirement) people under-estimated the power and influence of Sir Alex Ferguson. It looks like I was even more right than I could have dreamed! When he was getting results, who was to argue? But Ferguson's incredible legacy should be tarnished by what he left behind. A lop-sided squad, with massive deficiencies left unattended - Scholes was never replaced and the defence was rickety at best - and the difficulties caused by the deflection of funds from their Transfer Kitty into the pockets of the Glazers caused a 'perfect storm' which only he could have dealt with/covered up - and that purely by the force of his character. 

Winning the league by 11 points in his final season should be regarded as one of his biggest successes, but poor David Moyes - whatever his manifold deficiencies - had an impossible act to follow as Ferguson took the glory, but left behind the proverbial 'poisoned chalice'. It was only going to end up one way, but the speed of the demise of the team (and with it the club) can surely not have been foreseen?

I think that we all knew that Manchester United would struggle post-Ferguson, but as it turns out all their chickens have come home to roost at the same time. An unthinkable 7th-placed finish last season, followed by the sense of panic - despite the hiring of van Gaal (and by the way, if he's a tactical genius I'm a concert pianist!) - that has ensued since which culminated in the 'double whammy' of the payment of that ridiculous fee for di Maria and the 4-0 defeat at the hands of the mighty Milton Keynes Dons in one day - can only mean another season of real struggle. For fans of other clubs, to see the arrogance and sense of entitlement of Manchester United fans replaced by shame, embarrassment and utter bewilderment is priceless and after all those years the rest of us should milk it - it's what football fandom is all about!

And mark my words, it could go on for years. Witness how long and how much money it took Liverpool to get back into the Champions League after they slipped out. Witness the '4th place is a trophy' message from Arsene Wenger every year, at which people snigger. Look at the money and effort thrown at breaking into that elite by Tottenham. Up against the sort of money that Manchester City and Chelsea - let's face it, recent interlopers into the Top Four - possess, only two places are left. And three - or four - into two clearly doesn't go.

Once you're in that elite, it gives you the power and prestige to stay in it. So for an Arsenal team shorn this evening of Ramsey, Arteta and Giroud the Besiktas game is an early-season Cup Final and it must be won at almost any cost. And then Wenger must go straight back into the transfer market, armed with a Champions League place/carrot to dangle at the players he wants.

But for all the suffering of fans of Manchester United (and those of West Ham United, Leicester City and Burnley too - and the rest of us can have a good laugh at their expense), we have just a little nagging doubt. 'There, but for the Grace of God, goes I'.

Having spent hundreds of hours posting my opinion on football and other matters of Life and Death on Facebook and Twitter, here comes my first genuine blog post...

It’s entitled “HIM – in THAT shirt!”

Or Cesc Fabregas in a Chelsea shirt - an Arsenal fan’s perspective

Here we go, then:

OK, so let’s go back three months. Why should Barcelona have wished to sell him? OK, he hadn’t exactly stood out (although his stats are pretty good), but that is in a side set up to ensure that Messi is fully effective. As Arsenal fans well know, he is a world-class player (although not at Messi’s level, but there again who is?). So put him in a side in which he can express himself and he will shine, as he did for Arsenal previously. I wouldn’t want anybody’s opinion of him to be clouded by his perceived ‘failure’ at Barcelona; however, make him the fulcrum of a team, sit back and watch...

We are given to understand that there was a buy-back clause in the deal Arsenal made with Barcelona. So why would Wenger not exercise it? Well... as I said a year ago, surely the signing of Ozil means no way back for Cesc (although I’d have taken him back like a shot), and so it has proved with the manager concluding that with Ozil and Ramsey in his side, there is now no place for him at the club. With a limited transfer budget, the priorities probably need to be elsewhere. However, I very much subscribe to the view expressed by @arseblog when he wrote in June 

‘It’s simple. Just buy him – if he’s available of course – and don’t let him go make another team better.’ 

What Arsenal fans are going to find difficult to accept is that as a result (apparently) of Wenger’s decision he has gone to Chelsea. Chelsea, let us not forget, are a club for whom he had previously expressed his disdain and whose manager he had spoken about with a good deal of animosity (I'm with him on both counts!). And, of course, he has made them better – so much better that they have quite rightly been installed as favourites for the Premier League (although the signing of Costa has obviously got something to do with that also).

So here’s my take on it. I don’t like Abramovich’s Chelsea or anything they stand for. I can’t stand Mourinho; he’s an arrogant boor. Cesc has gone down in my estimation because he has taken their money as opposed to sticking to previously-stated principles. My motto for this season is very much 'Anyone But Chelsea', so to see him playing so well (yes I know; it was ‘only’ Burnley) in that shirt for the first time earlier this week was exceedingly distressing.  And whilst I abhor Mourinho, I have to accept that he has a pretty good eye for a player...

So we shall just have to grin and bear it; and we’ve got Mesut Ozil. So whilst Fabregas was never going to get the sort of reception from Arsenal fans that the likes of Henry and Pires have received, if he’d signed for 'Anyone But Chelsea' that would have almost certainly been fine. But he’s now going to get the sort of reception reserved for the likes of Adebayor and Nasri. So can we get on with that, guys, but we then need to forget about him. We’ve got our own heroes to get behind. 

Cesc Fabregas, I used to love you, but now I feel nothing.