10 games in, we're still here - Arsenal defy the odds to be table toppers

Aaron Ramsey celebrates after scoring Arsenal’s 2nd goal against Liverpool at Emirates Stadium

I can only imagine Alan Hansen’s rage at the final whistle. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a man as stupid and biased as Alan flaming with rage. It’s probably a good thing he skipped out on Match of the Day with illness, I’m sure he would’ve been pulling up footage from 1957 if he hadn’t.

Overall, it was a good match, and I’m glad the boys took the game to Liverpool with no fear. The criticism on our shoulders has gotten ridiculous. Between Match of the Day using 4 year old footage of our defence to poke holes, and everybody and their mother saying we’ve yet to face strong opposition, I just don’t know what we have to do to prove we’re contenders, if not at least second favourite to win the league.

We’re 5 points up as it stands, which doesn’t seem like much on the face of it. However, when you consider that it’s only the beginning of November, you have to be pleased. Especially when you take our mile long injury list into account.

Despite our winning ways, I do worry about fitness, and an air of inflexibility from Arsène. We never seem to get the hang of this whole “rest” thing, do we? We played an injured, hobbling Podolski into the ground over the season, and guess what? He trains hard during the summer, comes back fit, then *twang*. It happened to Santi, Ox, Theo, and plenty others.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m an omniscient physio, but surely it’s just common sense that fatigue is unavoidable. Whether it’s down to incompetence or bad luck, something needs to change. I don’t want a repeat of last year, where we played with a shortened bench, and raised expectations on a squad that’s already performing at a higher level than they’re billed.

Now that I’ve gotten my moan out of the way, let’s take a look at the positives, and there are many. If I were to pick one to highlight, it would have to be the symbiotic partnership of Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil.

We’ve become a joy to watch, now that Santi has someone as effortlessly elegant as he to scythe into back lines with ease. Arsène played his hand perfectly against the Reds, putting Santi on the right and Mesut in the middle, knowing they naturally drift to the inverse of which they started.

This caused Liverpool nightmares in midfield. Lucas and Gerrard were made to look like fools, as playmakers interchanged, Ramsey bombed forwards, and Rosicky drove down the centre of the pitch, giving us much-needed bite.

It was a joy to behold, but you get the feeling that if Liverpool actually had a clue, it wouldn’t have been so easy. We played in a similar fashion against Dortmund, but their pressing system completely stifled us, causing us to commit errors out of character.

I have a feeling Mikel Arteta will fair much better the second time around however, as he seems to have re-learned his lesson in playing as the lynchpin in midfield. He did well to sit back and remain unmarked, which allowed any player to find him and restart play without losing the ball.

It’s the details that win you matches, and Arteta made sure that he did all of the little things correctly. I lost count of the amount of times players were marked 3 to 1, and calmly picked out Mikel to keep the ball in Liverpool’s end. Hopefully he continues to prove the Flamini lobbyists wrong, as he remains an integral part of our midfield in the Frenchman’s absence.

Aaron Ramsey continued his run of scintillating form on Saturday, with one of the most sweetly struck half volleys you may ever lay eyes on. After the match, he exuded confidence, and rightly so.

We don’t go anywhere with fear – we will approach it the same as any other game. It is a massive week and one that we are looking forward to.

Hopefully with the tweaked lineup at its best, we can make a better match out of the away trip to Westenfalenstadion. The atmosphere will be intimidating, but hopefully the team won’t pay much attention to it. Win this match and we stand a good chance at being top seed in our group, something that I think is massively undervalued.

That’s it for today, till later.

Follow me on Twitter at @BergkampSpin.