We lack guile and belief at times. I hate to say it but we need to cheat a bit more. Apparently, and according to most pundits these days, that's part of the game.

Have to say I was fucking furious when we kicked the ball out for Arteta. But he slowed the play down and broke up what looking a dangerous move.

I've always been proud of the fact Everton don't cheat and dive all over the place but I'm getting sick of being on the receiving end. It was a definite penalty today, by the way.

Lukaku is isolated every game; with a proper striker to partner him and create space for him by drawing defenders, I believe he would have double the goals he has now and Everton would be a lot better off for points too.

ps: Why are we so bad at crossing/corners? I can't remember the last header we scored.

Desperately lacking creativity in the last third, and for the life of me I just don't get why we play one striker against four defenders who effectively becomes another midfielder, far to easy to defend against.

When you play with one striker you are looking at at least one or maybe even two midfielders getting 10 or 12 goals but look at our midfield??

Pienaar..1 goal all season.

Barkley...3 league goals all season, none from open play since September.

Barry...3 league goals and not expected to score many.

McCarthy...0 goals and again like Barry.

Mirallas...5 league goals, just three from open play though and I think the vast majority of fans would say he has been a letdown this season after expectations and at the start of the season I was expect at least 11-12 goals from Mirallas.

The same old problems that dogged Everton last season have reared its head again this year.

Last year we had Fellaini scoring the goals but no striker to put the ball away, this year Lukaku has scored a few but we have no midfielder or Fellaini/Cahill type player contributing.

Our threat from corners, high crosses this season is zero, I have never seen an Everton team win so few headers in all my time watching us.

Its greatly reduced the threat we really are because we are now seeing opponents week in week out knowing that all they have to do is press on to our defenders to stop us playing.

Do we score a variety of goals? NO.

Before Christmas teams were not doing that, now they have quickly got wise to what our only strength is and we sadly don’t seem to have a Plan B.

What I can't accept is our unfailing habit of blowing big chances with poor performances and individual errors. It's been the difference between us and our victors so many times, not the class gulf money affords them.

The semi-final against Liverpool is the most painful example for me. They humiliated us at Anfield recently but that was down to their rapid forward play which we couldn't deal with. They didn't need Distin to pass it to Saurez to get them back into a game we were in control of and then proceeded to wave goodbye to with a shameful submission.

Yesterday's half-hearted attempt on goal by Pienaar in the first half is the moment that sticks with me. He allowed himself to be beaten to a cross he should have been first onto thereby missing from 6 yards. Instead of looking at the ball, he looked at the challenge coming in and came second, just like his team.

Too many games highlight this with our front players not good enough in front of goal. Next season, get rid of them all (send the rubbish loan players back) and take a chance on some lower league strikers who can score goals as they cannot be any worse than the 'toothless' front players we have now (and would probably be on less money than the current load of rubbish we have now).

I can't stand the RS but, even when they play badly, they are a goal threat, and with their 3 up top they can score at will (Swansea scored 3 at Anfield but still got beat, due to Liverpool's dynamic front three: pace, power and goals galore!).

We need to replace Osman, Pienaar, Mirallas,and send Lukaku, Del boy back to their clubs. Give Koné a chance next season to prove his worth, but spend everything we have on a class front player who can shoot and most importantly get his shot ON TARGET!!!

But Jim (761) raises a really crucial one going beyond this particular game, namely the absolutely woeful end product coming from the middle unit of the team. It is nothing short of a disgrace that efforts (or lack of them) have been tolerated for so long.

We have heard people speak of the "incredibly high standards of the Premier league". In some instances perhaps yes – but have great players of any era always been of an "incredibly high standard"? But players with the almost complete inability to hit a ball with the necessary conviction, power, finesse etc in order to hit the back of the net with any consistency such as Pienaar and Co are actually playing in this so-called "elite' league, are they not?

Of course, in the final analysis, if you pack your team with world class players you will generally win most things and Everton cannot compete in that "uneven playing field'. However, even allowing for this, even "plucky old Everton" would be more intense in their competing if these characters were actually doing their job effectively – and supporters are at least within their rights to demand this as a matter of course. After all, we are not supporting a local boy's team on a Saturday morning, are we?

In addition to the lack of goals issue, I also am getting a little tired of this "Del Boy" affectation. If it was a local lad trying to make his way in the game, I just wonder if his cavalier, "Ah well that didn't come off then, over to you lads" attitude would be endearing him to the crowd as this young man seems able to do?

Mirallas is another one who beggars belief. In what other profession would an employee who persists in consistently "doing the wrong thing" (in his case the very difficult task of failing to understanding that he is in a team game) be tolerated?

I am all for Mr Martinez's "positive attitude" but positive attitudes need to be accompanied by a "that is simply not good enough" admonition – otherwise we are simply in the vacuous world of patronising.

I believe it could be another 20 years before we win anything, so we shouldn't look down our noses at the Europa League – what else have we got to look forward to bar something a little different?

The Champions League will generate even more revenue for the richest clubs, and we don't have the nous, or facilities to take advantage of that competition, even if we managed to reach the group stages for one season.

Yesterday, we relied on a free signing, a teenage loanee and a player who is coming to the end of his Premier League career to rescue the game from the subs' bench.

Every season we are at Goodison, and every season we perform woefully in our commercial activities, we will fall further and further behind. This board have no answers except to sell another player to the richer clubs – we are on a perpetual treadmill of mediocrity. Get used to it.

You are aware it was Arsenal...AWAY.

Ffs, I'm not saying they were unbeatable or that we didn't have a chance but comments like that are imo just wishful thinking nonsense.

Since when was ANY away game against Arsenal a case of them being 'there for the taking'? (I'm 54 and I can't remember any).

Sorry but what many posts over the last couple of days have revealed is that many Evertonians live in a complete fantasy world.

All any realist has to do is look at the results of teams with money over the last 10 years, then look at the results of teams with fuck-all.

Head to head, re trophies, CL places etc - it's all there, clear as a clear thing, IF you take your head out of the sand and WANT to see it.

It's not a mystery or 'a bit of a puzzle' or hard to figure out.

(nb: I know putting this logic forward is pissing in the wind, so by all means continue to search for answers by questioning should Osman/Pienaar/Barry/whoever be dropped/play deeper/wear a cowboy hat etc blah).

It brought home to me that even though Hull are a average team, I don't think they are great and I certainly don't think they are a poor side either, but watching them I notice something simple about them today: they get quick balls into the box without all the silly dilly and dally football that we see on display at Everton.

I also noticed how ruthless they were in taking their chances even though Sunderland defended wretchedly. Hull have now scored 4 away to Cardiff and beaten Sunderland 3-0.

Why can Everton not score goals like this? Are we not better than Hull? Of course we are...

We may be better on the ball but where oh where is our end product?

We may not have spent the 35/40 million quid Lukaku, Barry and Deulofeu would have cost but they were still at RM's disposal, its ridiculous to take them out of the equation.

Wenger paid a lot of money for Ozil, but in recent seasons his transfer dealings have made the Arsenal board far more than they have spent.

When Steven Gerrard powered into the Everton box to open the floodgates, it was about desire, sheer raw desire, just as it was when John Terry, frightened the living daylights out of our defence a couple of weeks ago. Neither player cost their clubs a penny. You simply can't buy that sort of will.

The rich clubs will occupy the top positions in any league, because over a period of time the bigger squads will inevitably be better equipped to deal with injuries/suspensions/ loss of form, but this was a cup game, Birmingham, Pompey and Wigan have all blown this money argument out by winning cups in recent seasons.

Forget the differences.

Wealth. If you are looking for the REAL reason we lost, take a look at the reaction of our players to conceding possession in advanced positions... then contrast that to the lung-bursting reaction of young Oxlade-Chamberlain chasing back all the way to his own six-yard box to stop Lukaku scoring at a crucial time in the contest.

Money matters of course it does, but not for the first time this season, we lost this game because the opposition wanted it more.

Desire. The sheer will to make it happen: Gerrard has it, Terry has it, young O-C has it... It doesn't cost millions, but you won't win an argument without it.

Not that I care much for City but it's going to kill me knowing if had beaten Arsenal that our biggest threat would have been Hull in the FA Cup Final.

Sometimes you feel like crying supporting us.

So it just goes to show it's not all about money really doesn't it??

Money cannot score you goals,.

Players score you goals because for big games most players get so psyched up and revved up.

Yesterday, we played the game too slow almost like a pre-season friendly match at times the pace was so slow.

If it was all about money, what excuse can we use of the Wigan debacle at Goodison last year with Millwall at Wembley in the semi-final waiting??

No I am sorry, the mental strength of our players and the regular lapses in concentration are the MAIN reason why Everton FC is so much about hard luck stories.

We do it on way too many big stages for it to simply be bad luck.

I have nothing against Wigan but I want City to win this now to face Arsenal in the semi.

Gutted, really sickened by a missed opportunity of winning something. It'll be twenty years between trophies now, next chance is 2015, and we all know when we last won one.

I hope the players and anyone else at the club are equally sickened, if they're not they can leave now as far as I am concerned. This feels worse than last year, for some reason, I think it's the hope that kills me, and I never do learn when it comes to Everton (I've already reconciled myself with England being a farce).

Is it the players? new players have come in but nothing has changed.

Is it a lack of support from the fans? Away from home definitely not, at Goodison it could be a factor yes.

Is it because when a team like City plays a team like Wigan they think they've won before they kick off so don't try as hard but when they play Everton they give it their all? Definitely a part of it in my opinion.

Is it because the board won't give us the funding to build a big enough squad so that our players are not all knackered by the time big cup games come around. (and anyone who asks why they are knackered go and train with them for six months without playing the matches and see how you feel)? Yes, Yes and Yes.

Fully fit we can outplay anyone, we showed it at Old Trafford. But go back and watch that game now and see how much running everyone did. Now watch the Arsenal game from Saturday, the lads just don't have the energy that they had earlier in the season and we need that to make our system work. A fit Gibson would have allowed Barry to rest so he wouldn't have been as likely to swing a tired leg at Ox-C. We will struggle to win anything until we get a big enough squad of decent players who can be rotated into the first team without weakening it too much.