Diaby and Almunia's nightmares are for the greater good

Shock defeats should come as wake-up calls for big clubs. You'll always lose sometime, and the trick is to learn from it immediately, regroup and respond. The defeat to West Brom was ridiculous and appalling. As bad in its own way as Wigan last season.

But unlike that Wigan game, where we also lost 3-2, we get a chance to make good from it. In the broader scheme of things, losing on a weekend where Chelsea and Tottenham lost, and United and Liverpool both drew, is ok, no matter the manner of it.

The important part of Saturday's defeat is the lesson it makes very clear about the presence of both Almunia and Diaby in the team, and the very clear message it sends to the fans and to Arsène Wenger. It's very simple: continue to rely on them and we will win nothing this season. Fail to take the other options we have and it will be another miserable season where hope turns to despair.

I said just a few weeks ago, after the Bolton game, that Almunia's mental state was going to cost us big goals very soon. I take no pleasure in being proved 100% right, as he turned a salvageable 1-0 score into an impossible 3-0 deficit through the abject stupidity that comes from broken confidence. His injury tonight is typical of his time as our number 1, where, whenever he does something utterly unforgivable he mysteriously misses the next game through a minor injury.

We can't go on with him. We just can't. Fabianski's no better – he may be worse 0 but we need to change. A new defence with bright talent like Laurent Koscielny and Sebastian Squillacci deserves the chance to grow strong with a keeper they can trust behind them.

Diaby's just as culpable. In for Wilshere, who must be considered ahead of him in the pecking order now, all his worse traits were on display. Over elaboration, slowing down the game, misplaced passing, poor positioning. It was all there. He is behind Wilshere now, he needs to accept it.

When he does get a game he needs to perform though. In truth though, on performances this season he should be behind Denilson as well, who has been neat and efficient at least in his two performances so far.

Without Diaby and Almunia tonight at Partizan Belgrade I expect a return to the excellence of Tottenham last week. Wilshere will provide the rhythm, Fabianski will (hopefully) survive in goal. We'll see a team who could win the Premiership and the Champions League. We'll see the second best passing team in Europe. We won't see the shambles of Saturday or its chief protagonists. We won't get that disappointment again.

Without Almunia and Diaby, we'll be better, and that's all we want.

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