Arsenal 2-3 West Brom: What The Loss Actually Means To The Gunners

I have been equally cursed and blessed with not being able to watch the game yesterday. I am blessed because I didn't see Arsenal lose. I am cursed because I cannot write a match article about it. What I can talk about is the end-of-the-world hype that has followed. If we erase the West Brom game from our memories briefly, then we can continue.

Arsenal have been impressive this season. They started slowly with a 1-1 draw at Anfield but exploded into life with a 6-0 win over Blackpool. They then went on the beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 away before seeing off Bolton 4-1 at home. Another 6-0 win left them riding high before a ridiculous referee allowed Sunderland to sneak in a draw, sucking away the momentum. However, it was restored in midweek when Arsenal recorded a 4-1 victory at White Hart Lane. Having scored 25 goals in 6 games, it appeared that West Brom would be annihilated at the Emirates.

This is a pretty excellent start that most fans would have taken had they been told preseason (still ignoring the West Brom result). What is less savoury is the injuries sustained. These include RVP, Walcott, Nasri, Diaby, Fabregas, Gibbs, Vermaelen, Bendtner and Ramsey. Had I told you guys that we'd be playing the start of the season without Vermaelen, then you would have really feared for this Arsenal side.

Now, fast forward to the present. The West Brom result is an awful blight on this season. To quote Wenger himself "I didn't recognise my team today and we have to sit down together to analyse what happened." By all accounts we played awfully and it was atypical of our performances so far. There's the key though, it was completely out of place. And it's being dealt with, rather than Wenger being able to point at the referee.

Also, all is not lost. We play at Belgrade on Tuesday. This should serve as a means to find our feet before visiting Stamford Bridge on Sunday. It's a nice period of time in between games actually. It could have been Belgrade on Wednesday and Chelsea on Saturday. What we can also look forward to is playing our first choice defensive pairing for the first time since Anfield. We can also bask in the joy of Cesc. This is, of course, unless further complications rule this out. We may still be missing RVP and Walcott, but that pretty much leaves us with a first choice team.

We may have missed out on an opportunity to close the gap to one point while Man U have leap frogged us by one point, but we have another opportunity to close the gap a week from today. The fact that Man U and Chelsea have also dropped points is a real boon to Arsenal's title challenge. If Arsenal manage to ease out a win against Chelsea, then it puts Arsenal in a fantastic position mentally and in terms of points.