Arsenal has a great opportunity of moving up the table tomorrow against Aston Villa at the Emirates but they simply have to get the basics right.
Villa are no walkovers, they will be competitive and with the likes of Jack Grealish and John McGinn in their side they do pose a significant threat.
Complacency
Arsenal cannot be complacent, Norwich City against Man City and Sheffield United at Everton just today has already shown that the promoted teams must not be underestimated. It took Tottenham until the last 15 minutes or so to break Villa down on the opening day of the season and Dean Smith’s men will be organised, fully briefed and disciplined.
Errors
Starting to sound like a broken record now but the Arsenal defence cannot make any more errors, well, errors that lead to goals, enough is enough and the likes of Luiz, Sokratis, Leno and Xhaka need to put in a mistake-free game.
Control
Yup, broken record time again but it has to be said, he who controls the midfield wins the game, simple as that. Arsenal lost control of the midfield in the second half against Watford last week and look what happened. It is imperative that Arsenal control the middle of the park, no more to say on that.
Clinical
Villa will defend in numbers and chances may not come that often, especially if they get twos sets of four behind the ball and when openings come Arsenal have to take them, they need to put Villa to the sword and the only way that can happen is by being clinical.
Plan B
Unai Emery must have a valid plan B, too often the players get shaken up and do not know how to respond. You cannot keep plugging away with the same strategy if it is not working and the coach has to be ready to change things at the appropriate time.
That is it, simple really but it is the simple stuff that Arsenal have not been getting right that has cost them.