Short answer, not a lot.

But wait, wait… don’t put your coat and hat back on just yet.

There are intriguing snippets to be taken from the surprisingly entertaining face-off between the financially doped Mancunians and the financially doped Chavtonians.

They don’t tell us enough to say with certainty that our hopes of a first Premier League title since 2004 are greater or lower, but they provide hints:

• The Chavs stopped Manchester City scoring for the first time in a bazillion home games. Fair play to the odious West Londoners and their pipsqueak manager. But here’s the thing: our defensive record is almost identical to the Chavs’ this season. They have let in 20 goals, we have let in 21. Therefore when we next play Man City our defense should do just as well as the Chavs did. Yes, I know, we were holed six times below the waterline last time we faced the light blue oilers but I’m happy to wrap myself in what, in philosophy terms, is known as a “logical fallacy”: Chelsea stopped Man City scoring; we are as good defensively as Chelsea; therefore we will stop Man City scoring. Simples (as Plato might have said)

• Man City’s bubble has been burst. The media have been falling over themselves to anoint Citeh as the Champions-in-waiting, regardless of the fact that a certain other team sits above them in the table. Such is the nature of journalism that the more a thing is repeated, the more it becomes inflated. The concept of Citeh as an unstoppable juggernaut had taken hold in Fleet Street and on the armchairs of the BBC and Sky TV. This defeat will bring everyone back to down to earth a little – and will also make Citeh’s future opponents more aware that they are beatable. This can only be to our advantage.

• The Chavs triumphed partly through solid defense and partly by exploiting Citeh’s weaknesses at the back. When we played at Middle Oilsands we were also very effective at exploiting Citeh’s defensive vulnerability – but we forgot about the other bit (the defending). We weren’t helped by some highly suspicious decisions from the officials. But nevertheless, we should have every reason to feel confident when we next take on the Citizens.

• Manuel Pelligrini is not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy with deep pockets. Nice enough bloke and all that, but not in the same class as Arsene Wenger.

• Despite the result, does anyone think Citeh are now out of the title race? No, I didn’t think so. And that’s a fact worth bearing in mind next time we face a setback. It’s easy to look from the outside and see how a bad day at the office is just a bad day at the office. But when it’s YOUR bad day and YOUR office it’s easy for it to feel like the end of the world. We will not win every game between now and the season’s end – but nor will anyone else. So when we slip up please let’s keep the hysterics to a minimum.

One other thing is also abundantly clear. When you look at these two super rich clubs and their international Bond villain owners slugging it out just for the right to hang on to our coat tails, you realise that there is no better thing in this world than to be an Arsenal man (or woman… or trans gender person…).

RockyLives

At last Arsenal have fully recovered from the disastrous defeat on the opening day of the season at the hands of the twelve men of Aston Villa + Taylor. It has taken 22 games for Arsenal to have achieved the same number of points from exactly the same fixtures as last season (for the sake of symmetry I am setting off this years promoted teams against the results for last years relegated teams).

“How can this be?” I hear you cry – we are 17 (yes seventeen) points better than our total for 22 games last season and our Beloved Leader has said few if any teams have had more than 51 points at this stage of the season. This achievement is further underlined by the MotD pundits citing that in the Invincible season Arsenal had only one point more at this stage.

The truth is that the fixtures we have, and in which we have done so well that we lead the league, are all fixtures in which we did comparably well last season.

This means that for our same remaining 16 games we only got 23 points out of the 48 available in the same fixtures last season. We must therefore have realistic hopes of getting significantly more than our 73 point tally last year.

Let’s first look at the media pundits clamour that we have to beat the top teams to establish our credentials for a real title challenge. In fact this is a difficult area because the games against Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton and Spurs are all away and only the Manchester double of City and United have to come to The Home of Football.

2012/13 results against top six teams: Won 6 Draw 5 Lost 5

The good news is that for these outstanding six games, last season produced only one win and two draws for Arsenal. It is not at all unreasonable to suggest that we can get two extra wins and a draw from say Spurs (A), Man U (H), and Everton (A) which would give us six more points.

What of the remaining ten teams we have still to play none of whom are likely to be challenging even for fourth place? Indeed most look likely to be in the relegation dog fight. Last season our results here were five won three draws and two defeats and this amounted to only 18 points from the 30 available. It is not over optimistic to see the new efficient Arsenal with an excellent mean defence turning this into an outturn of 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat which would give an extra 7 points. Certainly against these teams so far this season we have suffered only one notorious defeat and one draw so I am only asking we stay consistent.

The mathematically astute among you will notice that I am suggesting we garner 13 points more than our poorer results last season and this would take us from the 73 points that delivered fourth place to the 86 points which are talked of as a probable title winning total this curious season.

Whilst I have the mathematicians attention we have amassed points to date at the rate of 2.318 per game and the further 35 points I am positing would only be at 2.187 per game.

One final ray of hope in comparing this season to the last one. We finish strongly. Last season we only dropped 9 points from the 48 available in the last 16 games which included only one defeat. Even if, as may be the case, we have a slightly harder run-in this season I am still allowing 13 points to slip away from us in reaching a potentially title winning tally.

So ignore media & pundits, Keep the faith and COYG.

Chris H

This post was submitted before the Southampton game and therefore it’s acknowledged that we aren’t TOTL at the moment.

The line-up was greeted on twitter with a general meh and a ‘where’s the attacking fluency going to come from’? Flamini and Arteta were both picked along with Ozil and Cazorla. Where is the balance in that selection?

From the off, Southampton dominated possession and chances. Arsenal players were falling over. Fair enough the team coach was late but surely there was enough time to sort the correct studs. Early on, Nacho was caught with the ball in our own penalty area and Szczesny came to the rescue. After 20 minutes a superb tackle by the BFG was penalised by Lee Mason and Southampton scored after a Shaw cross (not sure I like the conjunction of those two words) was headed in by Fonte who looked to have shoved Monreal in the back. Szczesny could have done better on his near post. Dreadful all round.

More Southampton possession eventually resulted in a real gift for the home side but the chance was spurned with Szczesny closing the Saints player down. The TV company put up some stats, 7-0 to Southampton. We hadn’t turned up yet. A few minutes before half time Koscielny saved us yet again with a last ditch block when 2-0 looked a certainty.

Kos then had our only effort on goal from a corner and Boruc was lucky it bounced off his massive frame when it could have gone anywhere. Lee Mason refused to book Fonte after a shocking WWF bodycheck on Nacho just before the first 45 was up..

Half time and what a shocking performance it had been. Disjointed, clumsy and lacking in virtually any team interplay.

The second half began with the team looking as though it had had a rocket up its collective derriere. Immediately we created a chance and in the blink of an eye and a Sagna cross, Giroud had managed to pirouette the ball into the Southampton net.

Suddenly Arsenal looked as if they might be the top of the table side that had come to St Mary’s for 3 points. Mesut pulled the ball back across the edge of the area and Cazorla sliced it, with the precision of Nigella using a credit card, beyond Boruc’s right hand. Two one up and the away supporters wondered what they had been worrying about at half time.

In our recent defensive performances, one of the changes from recent seasons had been that we hadn’t conceded just after scoring ourselves. Well, unfortunately, we slipped back into old habits and immediately let Southampton back into the game from a hopeful long punt up field. The ball was not dealt with by Sagna and he allowed a cross towards an unguarded penalty spot and we were back level.

Just 5 minutes without giving them a lifeline, that was all we needed and I’m convinced we’d have gone on to win.

Ozil went on a scintillating run 10 minutes later and his deflected shot bounced off the bar with Porky beaten. Much of our good attacking play ended up at the feet of poor old Nacho who had a real stinker. His wildly shanked effort when clean through in the 72nd minute a case in point.

Flamini was sent off with the sort of challenge that even I knew merited a red card. What part about two footed challenges not being allowed does Mathieu not understand. He landed with both feet on the ball but could have caused serious damage if it had been on an ankle.

Our football suffered no noticeable degradation when down to ten men, which was, perhaps an indictment of the initial team selection. Santi looked mightily relieved when Gibbs was brought on in his place. He had been battered all game with no protection from the referee at all. Last night would have made him wish he was still in Spain.

We hung on for a point with no real scares in the 6 minutes of injury time. It would be difficult to say we deserved the 3 points, especially after such a shocking first half display, so maybe it was a point won rather than 2 lost. The pouring rain and a front 6 that looked like 3 pairs of two rather than any sort of cohesive attacking unit must give us all food for thought.

Anyway, upwards and onwards and on to Palace on Sunday.

Ratings

Szczesny– A couple of good saves, a dodgy punch, poor positioning for the first goal and a boot in the crown jewels……7

Mertesacker – Firefighting for much of the game, some timely interceptions and up to his usual standard of commitment……7

Koscielny – Some excellent blocks, tackles and all round competence from Laurent……8

Sagna – Played well apart from their equaliser. Superb assist for Giroud’s goal….7

Monreal – Struggled throughout the game. Weak defensively, weak in attack. I wish Gibbs had been playing…..5

Flamini – Lacked his usual bite in midfield. If he plays with Arteta, I’m not sure if he knows whether to stick or bust. Did neither and the sending off could have cost us …..5

Arteta – Mikel looked rusty and a bit slow on his return from injury but gets some leeway because of that …….6

Ozil – Looked disinterested in the first half when it was lashing it down. Showed some class in the second half …..7

Giroud – Tried hard with no support for the first 45 but struggled to hold the ball up and bring others into the game. Improved in the second…..6

Cazorla – Santi must be bruised to pieces after that. I’m still not sure if Cazorla and Ozil works. …..7

Gnabry – Not Serge’s finest performance in an Arsenal shirt. Made several poor decisions about when to pass. Maybe should have been taken off at half time…..5

Subs

Chamberlain – Looked lively……..6

Podolski and Gibbs weren’t on long enough to rate.

Lee Mason – one of those refs who thinks Arsenal don’t deserve free kicks unless someone has been chopped in half……….2

Written by chas