I have no desire to be churlish about the triumphant victory at Blackburn, but those who may only see the highlights of the match should know that for a good half an hour in the first half, Arsenal were rocking. And I don’t mean that in the positive sense of the word. The defence was under siege and survived more due to the home side’s poor finishing than any degree of solidity or organisation.

I’ve said before that Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal rely on outscoring the opposition these days. Goals are conceded as a matter of fact, based on the philosophy that as long as you score more at the other end, then that’s all that matters.

And that’s all well and good as long as your strikers can do the business. They were doing it between August and late February last season, then had a period of matches when the goals dried up a bit and the team went downhill at a rate of knots.

The Gunners’ defensive frailties last season were quite plain to see even when they were enjoying the superb run which kept them at the top of the table. Their luck was in and they by and large got away with it. Then came Birmingham away and the cracks that were already visible started to widen and points were dropped week after week. Why else were fans clamouring for the purchase of a central defender in the January 2008 transfer window?

It is astonishing that, in the six competitive fixtures Arsenal have played so far this season, they have conceded a solitary goal. Having watched the matches, it defies logic. And so often, captain William Gallas has been the main culprit for the chances presented to opponents, through his seeming inability to mark the opponent he is supposed to be taking care of. Frankly, it seems his mind is elsewhere, his concentration levels desperately low.

Who is leading the defence these days? And is there any coaching going on? Armand Traore has said of working under Tony Adams at Portsmouth: “Tony can bring lots of things to my game like positioning, how to defend when you're one-on-one and where I need to be when we don't have the ball.” Which begs the question, what the hell was happening when he was supposed to be being developed as a defender at Arsenal?

Yet Gallas is an experienced pro who should require no coaching. But on current form, he should be dropped. Give Djourou a chance along Toure if need be. Whatever pairing is tried, it has to be better than any combination involving Gallas right now.

Setanta Ireland – who carried the match live – gave Denilson the man of the match award. Granted, great cross for Adebayor’s opening goal, but his work covering the defence was negligible. The team looked a lot more solid when Alex Song entered the fray, although the switch to 4-5-1 that accompanied his entrance may have played a part in that.

Still, it’s obviously not all bad news when you win 4-0, but I just have to put a marker down to ensure people do not get carried away by a result – especially if they did not see the game in full. Arsenal could just as easily have been losing at the interval, the injury time second goal masking the balance of play.

So let’s move onto the positives. And there were a number going forward. Emmanuel Adebayor is once again producing the kind of form that makes him look worth Arsenal’s £30million plus valuation. Long may it continue. If our number 25 could master the intricacies of staying onside, we could play four dustbins at the back and still outscore the opposition. Robin van Persie started, scored, and made a hell of a difference to the possession play. No-one could have been blamed for fearing he would be absent for a few weeks after limping off against Newcastle, so thank the stars for a good piece of news on the injury front there.

As for Theo, he seemed more decisive and confident. Some excellent play, not least to set up the opening goal for Van Persie. What’s happened? Well, it’s a complete guess, but I reckon he’s had a decent bollocking from a manager for the first time in his career and told not to mess about but just do what he does best. That’s to simply take people on with his speed and shoot when the goal is in front of him. Well done Fabio Capello. Wenger leaves his players to work it out for themselves, hence Armand Traore’s enlightenment at receiving some actual coaching on the south coast. So Theo is left the think, ponder and eventually take action when the moment’s gone, rather than operating on pure instinct and honing in on goal and playing that obvious pass without thinking twice. As someone somewhere once said, ‘Just do it’.

Let’s hope Capello’s infuence can benefit Arsenal. On yesterday’s display, there is evidence it can. It will be interesting to see if Wenger does indeed rotate his options for the away trip to Kiev. After watching the Blackburn match, I’d have to say that his best bet would be to abandon the caution of a 4-5-1 and just go for it. I can’t see the defence improving in four days, although I guess if he was to bring Alex Song in as a deep holding midfielder and sacrifice an attacking player, the team should look more solid.

So, on paper, a convincing win and a clean sheet. What more could you ask? Oh, just a little evidence that the house of cards isn’t going to collapse when it’s tested by forwards in slightly better form than Blackburn’s yesterday…