If you would have been told before the season kicked off that after five games Arsenal would be just two points behind Man City and within those five games have played Liverpool and Tottenham I am sure most Arsenal fans would have settled for that.
The performance against Watford was poor, no point denying that but it happens, Man City lost to a promoted team, Tottenham lost at home to a chaotic Newcastle United, Manchester United got beat at Old Trafford by Crystal Palace and Chelsea got thumped 4-0 by United and drew at home with Sheffield United.
The first half against Watford was good, the second half against Tottenham was impressive and even the first half against Liverpool was satisfying so there have been some high points.
The problem is two-fold, inconsistency and individual errors, play two halves the same and cut out the individual mistakes and the table would look a lot different now.
Arsenal do have a good squad, yes there is some deadwood, there are injuries and so on but generally speaking there is a solid group of players that if they play to their true ability are among the best.
It feels really bad now after what we saw against Watford but we know deep down that Arsenal are better than that and they could have easily gone third and our collective attitude towards the manager and players would be very different today.
Put it this way, a good win against Eintracht Frankfurt, a convincing home win against Aston Villa in the Premier League and a home win over Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup and the second half against Watford will begin to fade into the darkness.
The bottom line is Arsenal are not as bad as most people seem to think.