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If I was to be critical of Jack over the years it would be this part of his game. Passing moves at Arsenal often ended with Wilshere over hitting a pass to a forward or passing it the opposite side of the forwards run. It often brings me back to that game at White Hart Lane before we traveled to Bayern Munich and went on that long unbeaten run. We were very much in control of that Derby game and had started the game with great desire and spirit. We had Tottenham pinned in their own half not managing to get through our pressing. Wilshere had many a chance to play our forwards in as both teams deployed a high line but time after time Wilshere wasted the final pass then came the kick in the nuts. Two quick goals from the home side after poor defending from us. It was the defence that

Quality-wise, in the front 5 I think we have a very solid set of players. We have enough quality to deal with injuries/tiredness there. That doesn't mean quality won't drop, it will, but there's more than enough quality to do the job for those 5 positions. Rarely do you have a backup player who is as good as the player he's being benched for. Looking at the back 5, we have excellent quality in GK and LB positions, we're solid at RB with Debuchy, Bellerin and Chambers. I'm a big fan of Hayden and he was one of our best performers in the Southampton loss but that's just his 2nd senior game and perhaps a bit too little for a sample to judge him on but our other 3 CBs- Kos, Per and Chambers are quality as well. Put it this way, I wouldn't have a problem if we played Bellerin against a non-top-7 team in the PL. Monreal, during Gibbs layoff this season, was our most consistent defender. Chambers, from what we've seen is going to be very good. He's already very good. The DM position is where we don't

We do not have another Mesut Özil. But at least the injury is in the strongest area of the squad. With Theo Walcott almost back someone like the Ox must have wondered where his regular game time would come from. If Oxlade-Chamberlain can stay fit (no giggling at the back) then maybe he can use these 3 months as the time to complete his development or at least head in that direction. Losing Mesut could shore us up defensively a little more and who knows, perhaps the new system will be in full working order by the time Mesut is back so his qualities can be better used with the team firing. That's the last of the positives found in the side of my sofa.

There’s also a large group of fans spending money every season on new shirts, regardless of which player the club attracts. Only the small group of people that buys a shirt 'just because of player X', can be considered as newly added revenue. For example, when we bought Özil we sold 15k replicas in the first week. The majority (let’s say 10k) would have probably chosen for Ramsey or another player on the back had we not signed Özil. So the real shirt earning of this particular transfer is

There is no doubt that, at this moment in time, Chelsea are the superior force in the Premier League and their near-perfect record demonstrates as much. But what really sets Chelsea apart is their power and aggressiveness, for without it, their attacking flare simply wouldn't be enough in what is widely regarded the most physical of Europe's top 5 leagues. Although it is clichéd to say that you've got to give as good as you get, in the Premier League, you kind of do. And up until now, in recent years that is, we have rarely seen an Arsenal side that is combative and physically dominating

Its odd because whilst we are more competitive today I don't see us being any closer come May. It seems there are too many things up in the air right now. We aren't sure of our best team, best formation, where to play our best players and that is disappointing given the solid base we had from last season and the confidence winning a trophy gave the club.  I believe Arsene will fix all of this eventually but the dropped points whilst we adjust plus the 9 point head start has probably finished any chances we had of winning the title

Against Chelsea, there was a massive opportunity for him and indeed the entire team to right some wrongs after last season’s mauling & our long standing struggle to beat the big teams. Özil is a hugely gifted, world class player who has the ability to be the difference in a game. With the best will in the world, it won't always be the case

Cazorla is the likeliest replacement for Ozil. A Spain international whose influence over the Arsenal side appears to have waned as Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have arrived, Cazorla may never get a better opportunity to restate his importance to the team. It’s not hard to imagine Cazorla starting on the left and cutting inside, allowing Kieran Gibbs to use the whole of the left flank. The England international has the pace and the stamina to do so and in a roundabout way could prove to be the solution to Ozil’s absence.

As I mentioned pre match, Arsene was likely to revert back to the 4141 which I imagine was designed for these big games. Jack Wilshere comes into the middle of the pitch to add some much needed bite so I expect Mesut Özil to move wide left. Alexis Sanchez should play from the right flank trying to support Danny Welbeck. The system has been inconsistent so far so let us hope now is the time where it pays off.

Ramsey and Özil but that aside we had a team to produce a much better performance both defensively and offensively. At the time I did not understand our approach to the game. I just could not get my head around it. We had one of the best defensive records in the league because we defended in numbers when we didn't have the ball. It worked so well in so many of our games, so much so that we spent week after week at the top of the table but at Chelsea we had abandoned that strategy and tried to push Chelsea back into their own half by