Liverpool, Newcastle, The Emirates Factor

The first goal against Liverpool was the turning point as Goodplaya points out.

I thought Liverpool were fairly good value to be level after half an hour or so and the game was shaping up nicely. We played some good football as well and the game had a decent tempo about it.

It was pleasing to see the back four back together again and when Jens comes back we will have a formidable unit there, the pace of our counter attacks has defintaely been boosted with Clichy and Eboue using their pace and dribbling ability to good effect.

Flamini, who as a wholehearted and versatile performer 'the French Ray Parlour' will always be a fan's favourite, opened the scoring and Liverpool never looked likely after that. They seemed to lack belief and we outplayed them thereafter.

A lot has been made of the new pitch and how it has affected the tempo of our game. A friend made a very good point the other day which I thought was worth sharing.

'I reckon we haven't adjusted to the size of the pitch at home. Big pitches require longer passes and, therefore, more time for ball to be seen/intercepted by opposition. So, we pass as we did at highbury - short - but fail to cover the same ground and the opposition falls back into 2 lines of 5 and 4.

Perhaps an out and out header of the ball to change direction of play might help - just to pull defenders around a bit -Adebeyor for all his faults is getting nearer to this. Titi needs to receive the ball and run at players not play with his back to a No 5.

Van persie - I don't know. Is he a star or a luxury - brought on for the final 15 minutes when we are 3 up? Holland play him wide right and expect him to cut in and shoot....

Generally, uncle Wenger believes that superior passing will break down any defence - but not recently it ain't.....'

A decent point I would say. What I would add is that in time it will. Against Liverpool we were good and started to play the ball about well, we just need to keep the tempo high and break with our usual speed and we will be fine. We must stay concentrated in defence and make sure we get the first goal which then plays to our strengths. We have won every game we have opened the scoring in this season.

Also when the younger players get some more experience they will learn the art of breaking down a defence and be confident in their own ability to do so.

We still retain the best counter attacking game in the league by a distance, ask Liverpool and Man Utd, the only 2 teams to actually try and out play us.

Newcastle up next, the bad news is they would be delighted with a point and so will put 10 behind the ball.

The good news is Titus Bramble is fit.