The top of the Barclays Premier League table has not changed in the few days since Arsène Wenger made his bold prediction that Arsenal would win the title, but much else has. As his players trudged out of Anfield on Tuesday night, there was an inescapable sense that, to bastardise one of their fans' favourite chants, they had lost more than just the Champions League on Merseyside.

The leadership credentials of William Gallas have been questioned in recent months and when the Arsenal captain was asked to find a few grains of consolation after his team's 5-3 aggregate defeat by Liverpool at the quarter-final stage, he could not do so. “Morale is low,” the central defender said. “Now it will be hard to bounce back. Nobody expected much from us at the start of the season and we have overachieved, but when you get this far, it still hurts.”

Not for the first time, Gallas and his Arsenal team-mates were licking their wounds. Steven Gerrard is not everyone's idea of the perfect captain, but when Liverpool lost to AC Milan in the Champions League final last May, he spoke after the final whistle about the need to “take it on the chin, move on and pick ourselves up”.

That is what the Arsenal players needed to do after their FA Cup fifth-round defeat by Manchester United in mid-February, but despite the odd exhilarating high - that 2-0 win away to Milan in the Champions League and the dramatic comeback from two goals down against Bolton Wanderers in the league - their spirits have sunk far lower than Wenger likes to let on. Of the past 12 matches, starting at Old Trafford, they have won only two.

Emmanuel Adebayor made the right noises, urging his team-mates to pick themselves up in time to play United again on Sunday, but elsewhere there were recriminations. While some, including Wenger, blamed the referee for the decision that swung the tie decisively in Liverpool's favour, Gaël Clichy, the full back, said it was “ridiculous” that his team had allowed themselves to concede a penalty barely a minute after taking the initiative on away goals.

Wenger tried to dismiss suggestions that this boiled down to a lack of wise old heads, but Gallas felt that this was the case. “We lacked experience,” the defender said. “You can't concede a penalty 30 seconds after equalising.”

Wenger is unlikely to be swayed from his belief that Arsenal dominated over the two legs - even though the statistics indicated otherwise - but, regardless of what happens over the final weeks of the Premier League campaign, he is certain to contemplate changes to his squad in the summer.

“The boss will decide who is going to stay and who is going to leave the club,” Adebayor said. “At the end of the season in every club there are a lot of changes. The most important thing now is to stay focused on what we can achieve this season.”