WHERE to start after Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal were humiliated 5-0 by Manchester City last weekend?

Inept defending, ineffective attacking, creativity lacking, a failure to work hard, no coherence, no tactical plan, no hope. It was as painful a thrashing as I have experienced, as a fan or a journalist, in 40 years of watching Arsenal. 

It was so bad that a colleague in the press box asked, only half-joking, if I needed to be accompanied to the toilets at the end to prevent me from self-immolating after what I had just witnessed.

What really hurt was the manner of defeat. Anyone can lose a game of football, but to give up without a fight, without giving your opponent a game — whoever they are — was simply unforgiveable. 

Yes, City are an outstanding team as current champions. But, as I tweeted at the final whistle of Arsenal: disorganised, disjointed, disappointing, defensively incoherent, offensively apathetic, creatively ineffective.

This is the team under Arteta after 20 months. Trust the process? What process?

What happens next? Those saying that Stan Kroenke is loath to sack the manager are essentially correct. The club’s owner would much rather a status quo that produces endless revenue from the cash cow that is the Premier League.

Yet it is such a damaging stasis that underachievement is accepted, and success is not the sine qua non.

However, the next few games are crucial. Norwich at home next weekend is shaping up to be a crucial match for Arteta. As is the trip to Sean Dyche’s Burnley at Turf Moor the weekend after.

If Arsenal continue to unravel at such an alarming rate, no-one, and I mean absolutely no-one, can make a claim that the Gunners boss should remain in charge.

Don’t forget that Unai Emery started the first week in October 2019 in second place, but was sacked six weeks later as results plummeted while he simultaneously lost the changing room and the support of the club’s owners. 

And yet. This malaise at Arsenal has been going on for a long time. The City debacle was exactly 10 years to the day since Arsene Wenger’s side were routed 8-2 at Old Trafford by a rampant Manchester United.

It was so bad that arch-foe Sir Alex Ferguson actually took pity on Wenger and Arsenal. I always think when someone takes pity on you, it’s worse than anything. Because they feel sorry for how bad you actually are. They stop seeing you as a rival in any way, shape or form and they show sympathy and compassion for you. 

Well, top-level sport isn’t about those feelings, however important they are in real life. Top-level sport is about ruthlessly crushing your opponent. Which is what City did.

It was instructive that Pep Guardiola showed sympathy to his old friend Arteta at the weekend. The underlying message was: “I feel sorry for you and your plight.”

Unfortunately there will be no sympathy shown to Arteta if his teams continue to operate at such a poor level, as shown by the abysmal performances at Brentford and City.

Arteta is a good man, a dignified gentleman who cares passionately about the club and helping it to succeed. As someone who has interviewed him and seen him close up over the last 20 months I want him to do well. No-one wants anyone to lose their job.

And for anyone thinking about turning valid football criticisms into vengeful, personal attacks — forget it. The conversation stops if that line is crossed and I would implore everyone who cares about the club never to go down that route.

Not that genuine fans would anyway. Arsenal supporters, real supporters, are intelligent enough to understand that. The ones who were in the away end at City and sang their hearts out all game were a prime example.

And forget all that nonsense about Gooners cheering City’s fourth goal. Didn’t happen. Anyone who spreads that information is a treacherous fraud and a liar.

Yet it is not all doom and gloom. Spending nearly £150 milliom during the summer transfer window, attempting to reshape a team in transition by bringing in youthful prospects to meld with the undoubted talent, is a project that the manager should relish.

Having also watched the U-23s and academy sides, there is huge talent around. Not least in the form of Charlie Patino, who I caught up with this week before he played for an hour in the behind-closed-doors friendly at London Colney.

He’s a humble, hard-working lad with exceptional talent, and will be the future of the club.

So, for pundits such as Danny Mills and his relentlessly anti-Arsenal agenda, to say that the club has no strategy is as incorrect as it is embarrassingly biased against the Gunners.

Because the question — the only question in town at the moment — is whether Arteta is the right man to ensure that the players can flourish.

The next month will reveal all. Because further performances as bad as Arsenal’s appalling showing at home and at Brentford will result in the current manager losing his job. It’s as simple as that. 

PS: I was at the Oval this week for the fourth Test. Enthralling, captivating, mesmerising. Test cricket, eh? You never know, it just might catch on one day. 

PPS: The latest scores are in. FT: Racist, neanderthal scumbags 0-4 England.