To be fair to Arsenal, we have recovered somewhat from a shaky start to the season and are now playing better football. Most of the time at least, but there are still real concerns about our consistency. And with a great chance for the Gunners to go further in the elite Champions League tournament than we have for years and prove to the fans and the football world that we are on the way back to the top, it is time for the real Arsenal to stand up and be counted.
What we are looking for at the Emirates tonight against Monaco is the sort of performance we saw from the Gunners against Middlesborough in the FA cup just over a week ago. We went into that game knowing that the Championship side was very strong defensively and were full of confidence as they were on a great run of results.
Arsenal were at it from the first minute, never gave Boro a chance to find their feet and made sure that our superior quality shone through. And that was in a pressure situation for us so it was all the more pleasing. Arsenal have produced plenty of good performances and results this season and even added a big new string to our bow with the ability to play well in a big away game that we showed at Man City.
A few of our best games of the season have been in the Champions League as well, like the comfortable 2-0 home win over Borussia Dortmund and the absolute mauling we gave Galatasaray in Turkey. But there was also the one were we let Anderlecht draw after going 3-0 up and they should have beaten us in Belgium as well. So which Arsenal is going to turn up tonight?