Here's Alan Alger's must-read column after the Champions League defeat to Lens at the Stade Bollaert on Tuesday evening

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First defeat poses same questions as earlier in the season…

Our unbeaten start to the season came to an end, and some felt it was just a matter of time. Outside of our weekend win at Bournemouth and the home match against PSV, we have struggled to find a flow in the majority of games. Injuries have certainly played a part, but last night seemed a real lack of awareness and, for want of a better phrase, ‘plan b’.

I always remember the early 1990s where we failed miserably in the European Cup after our near invincible season under George Graham. We were painfully naive in a two-legged affair against Benfica and exited on a cold November night at Highbury. Graham learned many lessons - even from the handful of continental games we played that season (we’d swept aside Austria Vienna easily in the previous round). He worked out that European football is different. You have to respect all of your opponents. You have to have multiple plans. His ability to adapt came to fruition a couple of seasons later in the Cup Winners Cup.

Mikel Arteta now has a number of question marks against his record in Europe. With tame exits in the Europa League a marker of his first few seasons. That competition wasn’t a priority, so he has that excuse. But the Champions League is the pinnacle and a blot on our honours board. We need to take games much more seriously and not just throw a team out on the pitch.

Lens had scouted us incredibly well and were not only happy to expose the woeful defending of our left-back Zinchenko, but also knew how fond of a cut back our wide players are, and cut those off with ease. It’s then on the manager to come up with something different. We pounced on a mistake for our goal. We were certainly unlucky when Tomiyasu unfortunately hit the keeper. But it doesn’t disguise being miles off, which has been an unfortunate feature in the majority of games so far this campaign.

It’s almost a worry when Rice is our best player…

As someone who has watched a lot of West Ham United over the last few years, it was almost certain that Declan Rice would be a candidate for their man of the match in the majority of games they played.

He came with a record price tag and has been a real bright spot in most of the matches since he arrived at the club. The kind of work he has to do in the absence of Thomas Partey means that if it’s noticeable he’s having a very good game then by the very nature of his workload we must be playing a collectively bad game and under lots of pressure.

While it’s great that he’s recording performances of 8 and 9 out of 10, it means we’ve been on the back foot. Certainly in games like last night where he broke up multiple opposition attacks, and was often the only one driving forward to start ours. It smacked of a West Ham performance from recent years, where flair players were inconsistent, the defence underperformed and Rice often had to carry them.

At our level we certainly can’t afford many of those games where he’s head and shoulders above the rest.

Far from ideal opponents coming up…

While it’s possibly a good time to take on Manchester City, as they suffer an uncharacteristic dip, they still remain arguably the best side in the world. That’s obviously something that has to be remembered as a positive when recalling how far we pushed them last season.

It will be a huge test for us on Sunday and we have to find a way of unlocking them at the back while remaining solid. It’s probably to our detriment that Wolves beat them last week - when looking at a remarkable statistic that they haven’t lost two consecutive Premier League since December 2018!

Let’s hope our extra day of rest proves to be the key factor. A draw would also be a good result, and not to be sniffed at.

After the International break we visit Chelsea. Some might say their off-pitch troubles and reckless spending make them a decent opponent to play at this time of the season. But they’ve been showing signs of clicking in recent weeks and on the performance numbers from matches haven’t been playing too badly. I was impressed with their first half hour at Fulham and would warn that we might be facing them at the wrong time. Again I’d take a draw in this one.