Well Gooners, what a turnaround since the new year.

When writing my piece for the last issue there was a lot of doom and gloom as we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.

But look at us now, we literally can’t keep the ball OUT of the net!

I travelled from Ireland to our victory against Brentford and at that point we had won our last eight Premier League games with a goal difference of +29, having scored 33 and conceding only four. Those are insane numbers.

Since then we've taken four points from six, with the hard-fought goalless draw at Manchester City last week, prior to the 2-0 victory over Luton on Wednesday. 

Remarkable turnaround 

It has been a remarkable turnaround since the squad had their training camp out in Dubai.

I really want to know what went on over there, what a mini documentary that would have been, never mind All or Nothing!

We are dominating games now and not giving teams a moment of peace.

It’s a complete joy to watch. Literally from the first minute we are taking the game by the scruff of the neck and not stopping until the game is dead and buried.

Arteta previews Brighton

Only today (Friday, April 5), speaking in his pre-Brighton press-conference at London Colney, Arteta referred to us being as strong at the back, as dangerous up front. 

When asked if he was surprised we had scored the most goals and conceded the fewest - but still aren’t top he said:"This is the level and it’s been the level in this league for the past six or seven years.

"The margins are so small, let’s see those numbers at the end of the last game and hopefully if those are maintained, I think we have a good chance."

The amazing thing is that as good as we are in attack, we are equally as good in defence. We all know that a solid defence is key to any title winning team and ours is performing at that level right now.

Defence Love-In

The great thing is that it’s not because of one or two particular defenders, it’s because of all of them as a unit. I include some of our midfielders in that as well.

To continue the defender love in, not only are our guys keeping the ball out of our net they are very efficient at putting the ball in the opposition net. So far this season our defenders have scored 11 Premier League goals between them.

To put that into perspective Liverpool’s defenders have scored six Premier League goals so far between them as have City’s.

Our set pieces of course have had a huge impact on these goals with only one of the 11 goals being from open play when Ben White scored that beauty away at Sheffield Utd.

These are seriously impressive numbers and long may they continue.

So close to Premier League passing record  

Speaking of the Sheffield Utd game we came very close to claiming a Premier League record that game when we had 895 passes. The record is held by Man City (of course) with 902 passes. We were just eight passes away from beating it. So close!

So eight wins in a row - or ten unbreaten as we gear up for Brighton - this run for now is Man City-esque.

I don’t know if it will continue but there is no doubt in my mind that we are the best team in the Premier League right now.

With Arsenal also leading all the underlying metrics it points to a potentially very positive outcome. Nothing is guaranteed though and we still need to do the business on the pitch going forward.

Season analysis 

I’ve never known a season where I have felt relatively at ease before games.

By that I don’t mean that I think we are going to win every game, I mean for the most part that I know we are going to put in a good solid performance at the very least.

For me you can clearly see the baseline of this team has increased massively.

At this point in the Premier League season I can honestly say that the only game we played poorly in was Fulham away.

Other than Fulham away the only other really disappointing moments were conceding the equalisers against Fulham and Sp*rs at home.

Those were four massive points to have dropped as those points were literally already in our pockets.

I felt in our losses against Aston Villa, Newcastle and even West Ham we played quite well and were unlucky to lose.

Gooners reactions

And what of the mood of the fans?

Well, I don’t think it could be any better to be honest.

The only thing worrying Arsenal fans right now is the realisation that we have a serious chance of winning the league and each game will be absolute torture to watch in terms of what will be at stake.

Enjoy the ride my friends, it’s been a while!

It’s such a great position to be in and I don’t think we can thank Mikel Arteta enough. He has transformed this club so much since he has come in. I really hope this team can go on to win some big things, if not this season then over the next few seasons because he (and they) will have deserved it so much.

So keep singing loudly in the stadium and make the atmosphere special as we still have our own part to play in this special season.