Did losing to Chelsea hurt more that the WBA loss? Probably not seeing as it was away from home and more or less expected when Gooners are being perfectly honest with themselves. One does get the feeling though that the 2002-2004 side may have coped a little better, in many ways Chelsea are much like previous incarnations of successful Wenger sides, strong, quick yet able to play good football. Imitation is the best form of flattery after all...

On the positive side we did a lot of things right, controlling the game in the middle of the park, numerous crosses were put in the box, the attitude was spot on and the Chelsea goals did feel like snap counter-punches to our patient build up play. The negative however revolve around how easily our players were muscled off the ball by Drogba, while our full backs were once again positionally naive, they just do not learn and it becomes quite frustrating after a while seeing Clichy halfway up the pitch as Anelka and Co bombed forward.

The title is not over however a loss at The Eastlands and anything but a maximum against Birmingham will mean that it would be too wide a gap even for the most faithful supporter. We have Chelsea at home on Boxing Day, which represents a good opportunity to put a poor record straight sooner rather than later.

Man City will provide a good test to see how we cope against a stronger, bigger side who do not have Drogba as the point of attack. However we have a very poor record at the Eastlands in recent years.

Another tick for Fabianski who caught, kicked and stopped well enough. No chance for the second goal, while the first was equally as difficult. He needs to keep it going though...

International week will probably see the usual string of injuries. However many of the current members of the packed Arsenal sick bay look to be coming back fairly soon, Cesc, Theo and Bendtner should be in full training with Rambo not far behind. Not sure when RVP is back while Vermaelen's injury looks to be the new Rosicky. Seriously was it not only two matches - AFC needs to look at expectation management when it comes to informing fans how long players will really be out for.

Finally great news on the finance front - a £56 million profit - the burden of Highbury Square is now lifted - any more flats that are sold will go straight into the club coffers, while a recent report into the richest owners in football had two Arsenal shareholders in the top 10 - Usmanov and Kronke have a combined wealth of £10bn. Now with all this info once again, why exactly did we not buy a goalkeeper this summer?