Yet I am a believer that we thrive from our performances rather than any type of unbeaten run. Arsene Wenger’s teams are largely built upon our ‘brand of football’ it is what often defines us. It is why we stick to our style of play, it is often why we do not change because we are searching for the

Merry Friday or is it happy Friday?

Whatever it is, hello to you all and I assume a fair few of you are looking forward to the weekend. I am obviously looking forward to a weekend of football and I must say, it feels a little strange. Strange because I feel unusually confident pre match. I am usually of the optimistic persuasion but when it comes to pre matches, my mind has this nasty habit of playing tricks on me. If we were playing at home to Torquay with our strongest side following a week of training and rest, I am sure I could convince myself that this is a fixture where we could come unstuck.

Interestingly it seems that many who feel the world is falling in expect us to win comfortably in every match, perhaps that explains post match reactions. Expectations. Those who are expecting a 6-0 Arsenal victory will be able to pick holes in a comfortable 2-0 win where as those who are expecting West Brom to run riot are over the moon should we come away with three points, irrespective of the score line.

Anyway I am waffling now, but to get back to my original point. I am feeling confident about the Arsenal and fingers crossed it is not misplaced because as some have already said, it was only recently that we experienced some bad performances and results.

Yet I am a believer that we thrive from our performances rather than any type of unbeaten run. Arsene Wenger’s teams are largely built upon our ‘brand of football’ it is what often defines us. It is why we stick to our style of play, it is often why we do not change because we are searching for the team to find that groove.

The Reading performance is something I’ve waxed lyrical about as recently as yesterday but I would go back to the Tottenham game. Before that, we had been starting games slowly and we were not really sure what we were getting. But I saw something different in that game regardless of how it ended.

We had flown out of the traps, were aggressive in our pressing and were assured on the ball. After the first 15 minutes of the game I was utterly convinced that we had Spurs just where we wanted until we stuck a grenade in our shoes and defeated ourselves. Yes we were not carving out a whole host of chances but I am not sure you expect that to be the case in a tight important derby game. We were not good enough at both ends of the pitch but our team foundation was there, the main part of what makes us a good team was working just fine.

Perhaps that defeat to Tottenham may well be the key to our turn around in fortunes should it continue. Without that defeat, perhaps the players may not have had that personal meeting, perhaps Vermaelen and Szczesny would still be in the team.

But it is not only our newly found organisation but we are now going into games pressing from the very beginning rather than in the second half of games.

The Arsenal pressing game has often been a head scratcher amongst Arsenal fans. We have started games in neutral only to up the gears in second halves when it is too late, well I am even more convinced that it is by design rather than accident.

These recent high energy performances have come now that we only have one game a week to think about. Is that a coincidence? It is similar to Arsene Wenger’s 70 minute substitutions. I don’t think that is a number plucked out of thin air, I think it is supposed to give the team the maximum amount of impact physically when teams are tired of chasing a team that 90% of the time has more possession than the opposition.

So cutting a long story short, I am confident because I no longer expect to see a first 45 minutes of slow sideways passing with players missing that spontaneity to make things happen. I do not expect the opposition to have the time and space to pick their passes and score the opener, making us have to chase games repeatedly in the second half because of our intensity from start to finish and not having to have an eye on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I guess that is why the saying ‘every game is like a cup final’ cliche rings so true. 90 minutes a week of giving your all until the next one. I’ll take that.

You may excuse me of tempting fate but saying all of this but unfortunately for you, I don’t believe in it. Even if it is true then a Tottenham blog somewhere will balance this out so it’s ok. Almost like a tempting of fate until the death. How do you define which website is the tempting fate champion anyway?

Ok, I shall do you a deal. Let us put this tempting of fate to the test. I am going to sacrifice my life for the good of you reader. I absolutely 100% will not die in the next hour. If I live then Arsenal get to beat West Brom convincingly on the weekend. Oh as I am putting my life in danger can I throw in a Spurs or Chelsea slip up for good measure? I think that is fair.

And with that, I bid you goodbye. Hopefully not forever mind.

’til next time (maybe)