So, it turns out, that it’s not just Arsenal that November hates this season. There’s no historical evidence to suggest that the Spuds have a traditionally tough time during this particular month, but after one game they’re experiencing the same level of blood-pressure heightening fury, that we’ve been dealing with for years. They lost yesterday to Leverkeusen and also may have lost Dembele for our game with them at the weekend, which if true will be a big blow, because he’s a decent player in their side.

But rather than talk about the Tiny Totts too much, I’ll move swiftly on to our boys, who will all have been at home since yesterday and hopefully feeling on Cloud Nine after a late victory against Ludogorets. Yes, they were a pretty poor side and yes, we probably should have buried them with a lot more ease than we did. But I’m just focusing on the fact that we got the win and when you do it in such dramatic fashion at the end of a game, there’s always an extra bit of excitement that carries over after the match has finished.

So from a confidence point of view, we go in to this North London Derby full of it, whilst the Spuds have to pick themselves up. They will do – of that I am certain – but it’s just nice to feel positive going in to one of these games. I’m sure I’ll be a bag of nerves by the time the weekend hits us, but until then I’m content in the knowledge that we’re in a good run of form, the players will be buoyant in training, and even our squad players are helping to maintain our good form in all competitions.

What I also like, which I’ve been seeing more and more of but really only noticed it when I was at the Sunderland game, was how we’re pressing in packs. I saw at least half a dozen occasions last weekend, where a Sunderland player had the ball and one of our forward players, a midfielder and a defender all closed down the man with the ball and forced him to concede possession. 

Perhaps this is due to the old adage that you always feel more able when you’re confident. I remember Paul Merson talking about how he never felt tired when the team was winning football matches. He just wanted to keep going and perhaps that is a reason we’re seeing more players pressing the man on the ball? The team is playing well and there’s enough confidence that if they press and don’t win it, when the ball is released to another opposition player, a new collective of Arsenal players will hunt him down in their pack. Last weekend I saw that happen in pockets all over the pitch. Previously we’ve only seen it from certain players, like Alexis, but now everyone’s in on it. Heck, at one point at the weekend, I saw the Ox chase down a player in the left back position on Saturday, executing a perfect slide tackle and giving us the opportunity to start another attack.

This pressing game is brilliant because it allows us to master the game of ‘forced errors’ in our opponents. It’s a fairly obvious thing to say I know, but the less time on the ball an opponent gets, the more likely they are to make a mistake and cede possession. This season I’ve seen us win possession back in this way a lot more than I did last season, so clearly the team and the manager need to be credited with changing our style.

What will be the real challenge though, will be when we hit our first wall, which will inevitably come at some stage this season. We have been playing really well, but we haven’t had back-to-back shoddy performances yet, which every team gets. It’s bound to happen at some stage and is usually in November, so whilst we all want us to win all of our games in this most dreaded of months, if we don’t then the team will need to find a way of replicating this all-action style when the going has got tough.

The key for me will be injury worries to key players. Players like Alexis are often the trigger point for a high-press. The guy certainly leads from the front in that respect, so if he can stay fit, then you’d hope the motivation in the team can continue even when we’re not winning games. ‘Keeping players fit’ is again, quite the obvious statement to make, but you only have to look at Leicester and those Spuds last season, to seee what happens when you can have your star players available for what is essentially the whole season.

There will no doubt be some noises today about team availability for Sunday and I’d expect Arsène to take to the stage tomorrow to tell us who’s fit and who’s not, so there’s not much more to be said until tomorrow and Saturday when we have an idea on player availability. So with that, I’ll make a move and see you when I see you. 

Ta’rah.