I cannot say I was surprised to see Arsenal go out of the Champions League.

I predicted they would get beaten by Valencia in this column last week and unfortunately I was proved right.

They gave themselves way too much to do against a team who have one of the best home records in the competition.

Only Roma two or three years ago have gone to the Mestalla and won, that's one team in 22-odd Champions League games, so to expect them to get a result was asking too much.

I think the main reason why they don't perform in Europe is their inability to kill teams off.

They were 1-0 up against Roma a couple of weeks ago and playing against ten men and if that was a Premiership match you would expect them to go on and win by two or three.

But they let Roma back in the game and it ended in a 1-1 draw.

They need to learn that teams in the champions league are not like the ones they play week in week out. They cannot afford to miss so many chances without expecting to get punished for it, because they are up against some top quality players who only need one chance to score.

That is the difference between the likes of Arsenal and Real Madrid who I still think are the team to beat. They travelled to Moscow and played on a terrible pitch but still managed to come away with a 1-0 win. They only had three or four chances during the whole match and scored one of them from Ronaldo.

That is the type of quality Madrid paid all that money for and that is what you need if you are going to have any chance of progressing in the competition.

It is a shame because I thought Arsenal would do really well this year.

They have been looking like world beaters in the league but in recent weeks they proved they do not have the stamina or the strength in depth to cope with European football. Some of the players looked tired against Valencia, like Sol Campbell and Patrick Viera who were definitely not 100 per cent fit, and unusually for Arsenal they were not firing on all cylinders. They also had injuries to key players and the players who came in did not have the quality to cope.

The defender Cygan looks slow and well off the pace for me.

They have a great starting 11 but when one or two get injured then they struggle because the replacements who come in don't even look like good Premiership players to me.

I was surprised they don't play someone like Ray Parlour in midfield, who is going to get stuck in and win the ball.

They need someone with a bit of fire and not just flare because at times they look as if they are missing some passion.

Albion's match against Crystal Palace on Tuesday will be massive, not just for the fans, but for the club as a whole.

They need all the points they can get and a win against the arch enemy will give everyone a major boost.

It is a blow that Bobby Zamora will be out as he is such a big player, but hopefully that will give the other players more incentive to go out there and win.

A team cannot rely on one player to score the goals and it can turn into a psychological thing when everyone thinks he is the only one who will get the goals.

Once they win a game when Bobby is not playing then that will change and I think more players will begin to get on the scoresheet.

Chippy Carpenter scored against Sheffield United in a game I thought Albion were very unlucky to lose and as long as they keep playing with the heart they showed in that match then they will have every chance of getting out of trouble.

Derby County are in real danger of being sucked into the relegation zone and I think they could be an outsider for the drop if they do not pick up some points soon.

They have quality players but there is so much in-house fighting that it seems to have hit the whole club.

They have lost the main picture which is to play as a team and get results. That is what the other teams at the bottom are beginning to do and Derby have got to be very careful.

A couple of weeks ago I would never have believed it and I thought it was a four-horse race, but their recent results have been relegation form while the rest are getting it together.

Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke picked up draws in midweek and I could not believe Grimsby won at Rotherham. Apparently they hardly crossed the halfway line and scored with one of the only attacks they had, but that is the kind of luck you need if you are going to scrap yourself out of it.

Saturday March 22