Following the loss yesterday against Liverpool I have ripped into the players, especially David Luiz and even the new signings have felt my ire but now I feel some balance is required.
The first thing that must be recognised is that Liverpool are no normal team, they are literally one of the best club sides on the planet, they are European Champions, they amassed 97 points last season in the Premier League losing just the one game, and smashed Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield in the Champions League second leg, and have now gone over 40 Premier League games unbeaten at home.
The second thing that must also be recognised is that Arsenal is a team in transition, they have significant absentees in defence and their new signings have yet to fully integrate.
Liverpool did dominate, but that has to be expected and two of their goals did come from poor defending by one single player, it is not as if they ran over Arsenal through their own creativity and superiority, they were aided in the win.
The game could have been different if Nicolas Pepe had been more clinical, but that happens, and at another time I am sure he would have put the ball away with comfortable ease.
Unai Emery’s selection did not help and he will learn from that, well, one has to hope he does and I doubt very much he will repeat the same mistakes against Tottenham next week.
In fact, this game will soon be forgotten if Arsenal beat Spurs and there is a very good chance they will do that when you consider the recent record between the North London rivals at the Emirates.
And if Arsenal does collect all three points against their bitter local rivals that will mean they will have collected nine points from their opening four games and at the start of the transfer window if we were offered that I am positive most fans would have said, yes please.
So, yes, it was a bad defeat and there were numerous mistakes, but it is not the end of the world, things can and will probably get a lot better.
Now, if we lose against Tottenham then that will be a cause for concern but right now a little perspective is required.