The two sides of Arsenal

The past week was an interesting one. It was one I had been looking forward to since we beat the blue half of Manchester to lift the Community Shield on August 10.

For those of you without any recollection, the victory came in a convincing 3-0 scoreline for the Gunners, which saw us add another trophy to the cabinet, shortly after being crowned FA Cup winners back in May.

Whilst I enjoyed thoroughly the win against Manchester City at Wembley, it left me eagerly anticipating our Premier League encounter with the defending champions, for wanting to see both squads at full strength, complete with new signings and World Cup returning players up against each other.

Add to that a difficult midweek Champions League meeting with German giants in the form of Borussia Dortmund and every Arsenal fan was in for a treat. Early days, yes, but these were two matches that will undeniably test the team's credentials as a contender domestically and in Europe.

Last weekend's game certainly lived up to expectations and in the end both teams shared the spoils in an entertaining draw which finished 2-2.

From an Arsenal fan's point of view, to come back from a goal down and take the lead at Manchester City's expense is no easy feat but it was no less than we deserved in a game that should have been won, only for a lapse in concentration and defending error to allow City's equaliser.

Jack Wilshere was at the heart of things, seemingly answering his critics by earning the man-of-the-match honour courtesy of an assist and a sublime goal from an acute angle. It was all very positive.

Unfortunately, after that respectable performance against Manchester City which oozed character, style and confidence, the Arsenal players failed to turn up for their first Champions League group game of the season.

How Arsenal had started so encouragingly in the weekend to earn a hard-fought draw versus such a strong side and totally fall apart against another in the span of a few days is beyond comprehension.

You would have expected them to go into the match in high spirits. Instead, from the opening whistle, Arsenal were unable to find their rhythm and their game was riddled with mistakes as passes went astray, tackles drew fouls and positioning was a mess to ensure a poor and lethargic showing by the entire team, including the ever reliable Alexis Sanchez.

Wanting to be optimistic, I decided after the match that it was probably just an off-day for the players and these things do happen in football, but admittedly, when not even a single player is on song for the whole 90 minutes in such an important fixture, it is quite worrying and unacceptable.

A Chelsea fan on Twitter, perhaps overly taking pleasure from our defeat, described our midweek loss as "nightmarish" and as much as I hate to agree, if I am being completely honest, his comment only served to be an understatement.

We were lucky to lose 2-0 and not concede more owing to a wasteful Dortmund side that played some outstanding counter-attacking football. It becomes scarier when you consider the fact that they are missing several key players through injury. So Arsene Wenger had better have something up his sleeve when Dortmund visit the Emirates in November.

On a night when the team had underperformed, new signing Danny Welbeck had several good opportunities to open his account for the club, only to be let down again by his disappointing finishing.

It is obvious that Welbeck has certain qualities quintessential of a top striker, among them great control of the ball, good timing on his runs and the ability to beat defenders with pace and match them with strength, but ultimately if he isn't scoring goals, he cannot be fulfilling that central role.

Then again, he is only 23 and hopefully, with more time on the pitch, he can turn into the player that he is touted to be.

Over the course of a week, we have seen the best and the worst of this Arsenal team.

Few could argue that we have not moved passed last season's problems and weaknesses, particularly in defence. However, we have definitely made major progress.

Tonight's match at Villa Park cannot come soon enough as it presents the players and manager a chance to get over the midweek Champions League loss. With Aston Villa currently sitting second in the Premiership table, a win over them will help boost the morale of our team and get us back on winning ways.

The Gunners are certainly favourites for this one, so let us hope the players put in an improved effort to live up to the billing. – September 20, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.