Somehow Arsenal actually managed to move up one place in the Premier League table. If West Brom beat Man United tomorrow, which we hope they will, the Baggies could overtake us but because Swansea lost we are up to the dizzy heights of 7th.
I don’t need to tell you that the Gunners have flattered to deceive so far this season, but we have rescued points from losing positions as well as throwing away leads. So what is the problem for Arsenal?
Our two new front men Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez seem to have settled into their new club as well as could be expected, Jack Wilshere is getting back to the player we knew he could be and Calum Chambers looks a great and versatile addition to the team.
Ignoring the fact that we are blighted by injuries again, there seems to be two clear problems for us – not scoring enough goals and conceding them too easily. So which is the major problem? Should we try to be more defensive on the whole or do we need to be more direct or work harder on our attacking play?
You might be surprised to know that, apart from the top three, our goals scored and goals conceded are up there with the best and our stats on whoscored.com show us to be the 5th best team and coincidentally having exactly the same score overall, in attack and in defence.
That suggests that neither area is more to blame, but I think it is the defensive frailties that is causing us trouble. When we go behind it exposes us to a counter attack while teams defend deep and make it harder for our forwards. Last season our success was built on clean sheets and a mean defence and we need to get back to that.
There have been quite a lot of individual errors but I think that is largely down to new players and lack of confidence and once we start winning games that will improve. But we cannot keep expecting Alexis and co to bail us out of trouble. What do you think Gooners?