Is it just me, or is anyone else concerned about the inability to keep a clean sheet? The team is rightly receiving high praise for the style of attacking football they are playing, and the amount of goals being scored, but there seems to be a worrying lack of concentration at the back. In 17 Premiership and Champions League games so far this season we have only managed five clean sheets. Out of those three are in the league, with two at home v Wigan and Spurs, and one away at Fulham. We have let in four goals in the 90th minute, and conceded two or more on five occasions.

It may be that this is a result of the new defensive combination at the back taking time to settle in, or possibly the loss of Almunia unsettling the defence. Whatever the reason, at the moment a goal conceded is hardly unexpected. For me the worst thing about this current trend is the quality of the opposition scoring against us. Standard Leige 2, Blackburn 2, West Ham 2, Birmingham, Portsmouth and Wolves 1 each. Only Man Utd 2, and Man City 4, represent any real quality. I know that we have comfortably outscored most of these teams, but some days that will not be the case, and a 0-0 draw or 1-0 win, can quickly be turned in to a much less favourable result.

Saturday’s 4-1 win against Wolves is a case in point. How many of us watching felt that the Wolves goal had a sense of the inevitable about it? In terms of goal difference 3-0 would have been just as good, with a morale boosting clean sheet to boot. It also seemed to me that only Almunia was angry about conceding, the rest of the team appeared to shrug their collective shoulders and accept it.

Title winning teams are built on tight defences mixed with a potent attack. They keep a clean sheet to preserve a 0-0 or 1-0 scoreline. Scoring the magical 100 goals in a season will count for little if we concede 50 and finish second.

Most of the people I have talked to about this, have used Brazil as an argument for expansive, gung ho, football producing results. On the face of it they have a point, but to win a World Cup, or any cup, you only have to produce the goods for six or seven games. To win the league you need to produce week in and week out, for 38 games over nine months. All teams will have a purple patch, as we are now, and we will lose games we did not deserve to, but stopping the opposition from scoring in the first place will guarantee more wins, draws and points than any other factor.

I have enjoyed the breathtaking football we have produced as much as anyone so far, and hope it can continue all season. What I would hate most of all is at the end of the season, talking to Chelsea or Man Utd fans, about how we played the best football, and scored the most goals, but ended up losing the title to one of them by a point. A point lost to a last minute goal, in a game we had dominated.

(Ed’s note. Small favour to ask. Putting together the 200th issue of the Gooner and need to ask anyone that hasn’t so far to vote in our latest referendum, so I can run the result on the 91st minute page in traditional style. Just need your opinion on who you think should be the third attacking player alongside Arshavin and RVP. Just go back to our home page, scroll down and on the right hand side of the page you will see the Gooner Referendum box. Mark your selection and hit ‘submit’. Thanks