Bottlers 2 Battlers 3

“..we just fell apart from 64 minutes onwards.

‘We gifted them the first goal, which is a pathetic goal for us to concede.

‘We have five people who are told all they have to do from a corner is make sure the player they are allocated does not score – that did not happen.

‘The second goal was a poor goal in terms of getting caught going towards balls when we should already have been in that position and then we started to panic a little bit.’

The statement comes from manager Gary Megson, and as an assessment of Bolton`s comedy defending against Arsenal it`s pretty much spot on. What he hasn`t addressed is why his team, once again, showed such a lack of backbone. This time it was the introduction of Theo Walcott that triggered the capitulation. From then on, Arsenal lifted the tempo of the game and the Whites, two goals to the good at that stage, tamely surrendered.

At Blackburn, Bolton bossed the opening twenty minutes of the second half but didn`t compete after the hosts had scored against the run of play. Against Liverpool a freak own goal after ten minutes ended the game as a contest, and at Wigan the towel was thrown in before the game had even started.

With ten minutes of the second half gone on Saturday, there looked to be only one winner. The visitors were down to ten men after Abou Diaby had deservedly been sent off and were under unceasing pressure. The way that changed so suddenly is more of a concern than the home team`s shambolic defending. Arsene Wenger has praised his players – it`s his job to do so, but even he must realise that they were handed the result by a side that had given up.

Megson comes across as an intelligent man, but not an inspirational one. On the face of it, Bolton`s run in isn`t that bad. Apart from Chelsea, the Whites face teams who are either not very good, or have nothing to play for. Yet if they are led by a man, who seemingly can`t rouse his troops, then the outcome looks bleak.