Unbeatable at the Emirates, so vulnerable away from it. And Wenger’s statement, saying that had we played Sunderland at home we would have won, well, that’s very funny if you ask me.

In an interview not long ago, Gael Clichy said that Highbury was special, it gave the players a sense of invincibility, something which they don’t feel at the Emirates. But maybe that’s changing considering how well we’re doing at home, but away, things are not going according to plan.

After the Wolves game I thought that we would have seen a change in our performances away from home, but I was wrong. Three defeats in the Premiership, a narrow win against Fulham thanks to Mannone, a very poor draw against West Ham and in the Champions League a not-so-good 1-1 draw away at AZ after a 3-2 win over Standard Liege in a game where we were 2-0 down in a blink of an eye.

Of course no titles are won by doing well exclusively at home and as it is, I’m afraid we dropped too many points during this first part of the season.

The Sunderland Game

After the first fifteen minutes I was convinced we would have won the game. Sunderland seemed reluctant to come forward and they were somewhat poor at the back. Also, our passing was working nicely and Sagna and Traore were helping the midfield pretty well.

But we failed to score and the home side started to slowly come out, putting pressure on our midfield and trying to score from set-pieces, just like any other team does when facing the Arsenal. Thomas Vermaelen lost his battle in the air but seriously, you can’t expect the Belgian to win all headers in all games and to never make mistakes.

Ultimately, there are no excuses for this defeat, though you can’t hide the fact that Bent was lucky to get the ball back in his feet and Carlos Vela seemed to be fouled in the penalty area.

Why make changes so late?

It was clear Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo were not having a good game and you could see that, at the end of the first half.

Yet, Theo Walcott and Carlos Vela were introduced with only twenty minutes to go, twenty minutes during which they were full of life and created chances. Now I hope these two start on Tuesday because they deserve it and because both Samir and Tomas look tired and with Chelsea coming up, I don’t think it would be clever to use them twice in four days.

Chelsea

When asked about Chelsea, Arsene Wenger said there’s the Champions League first, and I agree with the attitude of taking one game at a time. But you can’t deny the importance of next Sunday’s game, where even a draw would be a disappointing result. I can’t wait for that game but at the same time I have the same feeling I had last season, knowing that a defeat would be very, very hard to recover from.

Looking Forward

The Champions League game is next and I repeat this game should be used to experiment and try new things to find a solution to Robin’s injury. Today’s solution didn’t work out, next Tuesday I hope to see cards shuffled and different solutions ahead of the now very-crucial Chelsea game.

I will not be providing any half time thoughts and ratings on the game as I’ll be abroad and back on Thursday, so back with the Chelsea preview.

Until then, dear friends, take care.