Arsenal Pegged Back: Hines Catchup!

My Sunday began with another of my mate Khalid's useless, yet alluring stats: In Premier League matches involving Arsenal over the past four seasons, we have always finished matches with more corners than the opposition!

Sure enough, as I embarked upon a Google, Skysports, and Arsenal.com search to confirm such a snippet, I got bored after travelling 20-odd matches back (all in which we were indeed ahead on corners by the way).

Lunch came and went. Liverpool predictably ended their poor form with a dominant display to dispatch Manchester United, and then came our late kick-off at Upton Park. Now, I'll be honest with you, but despite our good winning run and the Hammers' predicament, I was not feeling good about this one all week.

Maybe it was because of the way we so casually surrendered a priceless away win in Europe in midweek, or maybe because it was in the stars, having bumped into, first, Gianfranco Zola at a local shopping centre, before meeting and greeting Matthew Upson outside London Bridge station in the last five days!

Or maybe because our defensive play just cannot be trusted currently. I think I'll take that third option.

And, after a comfortable first half, and the start of a second half in which, a blinding Fabregas effort aside, we were coasting to victory, it's fair to say that this is simply not our style; not when we're away from home against a battling side.

Not when our defence has the combined agility and awareness of a heavily pregnant water buffalo. Not with a team that so immaturely stops playing as soon as they go in front, thinking that the opposition will just cave in and go home.

Unfortunately, this is all that I could see as 2-0 became 2-1, and 2-1 swiftly turned to 2-2 within six beleaguering minutes. True, the source of West Ham's equaliser might not have been a penalty.

However, it is the way that we so meekly and languidly allowed West Ham back into the game, inspired by Carlton Cole and super-subs Diamanti and Hines, that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth; something that I had warned against after Everton's consolation in the day one drubbing incidentally!

Scoring freely is one thing, and putting in a disciplined, assured innings in the rearguard if things aren't quite going our way in the final third, is totally another.

And, with all the praise in the world that the William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen partnership has received, it is about time the pair forget about their fight for finishing as the club top scorer and concentrate on shutting out opposition strikers, bearing in mind that two clean sheets out of nine is hardly Championship-winning form!

The same can be said of our marauding, forward-thinking fullbacks, particularly Gaël Clichy, the only player remaining from our heady "Invincibles" campaign, than a keen, sprightly teenager.

With all their attacking commitments and good link-up play with the forwards, many mistakes have surfaced over the past few weeks, with Clichy and Vermaelen practically shielding Cole as he swivelled and shot at goal (minutes before he pounced) a personal highlight! Which brings us onto the goalkeeping issue.

Now I'm not one for scrutinising a novice but, having genuinely thought that he is the man for the No. 1 spot at Arsenal on the back of our sole away clean-sheet at Fulham, Vito Mannone has since performed a high-profile cock-up per match, each culminating in the concession of a telling goal.

And, having seen him perform the ultimate wind-up of palming a catchable free kick right back into the centre of his own six-yard box for Carlton Cole to head into an empty net being just one step too far, it is definitely time for the rookie goalkeeper to step aside, for now anyway.

Now, I don't know if the defensive players at our disposal are actually good enough to carry the fight; their names and status and the faith that Wenger has put in them certainly seems to suggest so, and we are stuck with what we've got till January anyway.

But once again, I warn against our complacency and lack of defensive discipline derailing a perfectly credible challenge for honours, where this time, we are starting to see that we will not simply put six past every team for us to stop worrying about leaking goals for fun.

We have celebrated many times already this season. A good start with a record number of goals in the opening eight Premier League matches, the return to fitness from serious injuries for many key personnel, Wenger's record-breaking reign, Le Boss' big 6-0 etc. etc.!

But the time for the feel-good vibes has to come to an end, and fast, with a sole focus on hard grafting and celebrating when there is something to truly celebrate.

And with that, it is high time that we stop taking our foot off the gas and cut out embarking on some amateurish defending to let what are frankly sub-standard sides back into matches that should have been in the bag!

So, a game that looked to have promised much and put us within touching distance from the top (which we still are to be fair) ended up exposing so many jaw-dropping frailties! Frailties that have to be addressed and wiped out instantly, with a north-London derby looming and many painful memories from last season arising.

But as we leave Upton Park and indeed prepare for our dear neighbours' visit, look on the bright side, at least we have firmly kept our corner-count winning run going.