Aston Villa 3, Arsenal 1. Why the Sky isn't Falling.

Gooners,

Sit back for a second and take a deep, deep, deep breath. Then take another one. And another. There we go, feeling better?

Probably not, I know, I'm not either.

Lets get a few things out of the way first:

It has been some time since I've thrown a post up, I've been busy, I apologize. I know I'm the highlight of many of your days, and I'm sorry to deprive you for so long. Lets see what I've missed:

1. Fourth place finish.
2. Beat Tottenham
3. In lieu of signing a known player, we've brought in the new hope of the second coming of Henry, all hail, and Macho Nacho.

Wait, did I really miss a whole season? No, you guys are messing with me, right?

Same old story.

Alright, on to business.

A rough go today in the home and league opener against a young Aston Villa side who, it should be said, are looking on the up-and-up. Koscielny was sent off and that certainly doesn't help. I understand most fans are feeling hard done by the referee. Now, I know I'm not pleased with the refs when Arsenal play no matter what, but this performance, or lack thereof, stood out a bit. Great, that's out of the way, so what, let's move on.

A quick note on the scolding, and scalding, chants aimed at Arsene Wenger toward the end of the game:

It isn't merited, and remember who got us here. In sales, the saying goes, "What have you done for me lately?" and while this rings true it should be remembered that he has achieved absolute magic time and again with teams that are much weaker than we've had in the past. Failure to use resources is a footballing sin, but our financial position is the strongest in the league because of him.  He's sticking around, so support your Gunners, manager included.

But they say you learn more from a loss than 100 wins, and here is what I think we've learned from this one.

1. Depth, not necessarily quality, is needed.
I'm going to stick my neck out and boldly claim that this starting eleven can compete with anyone in the world and is capable of winning titles. The trouble with this is that the number of players who fall victim to frequent injuries in the squad seems to be at an all-time high. Football is a squad game these days, as we can see from Manchester City and Chelsea's multi-million dollar benches, and Arsenal found a particularly weak area today in the defense. Forget a striker, Giroud looked lovely, putting away his clear-cut chance, winning loads of sub-par crosses, and showing improved link-up play. However, when Gibbsy went down bloodily and early, it became apparent that a defense that has no proven substitutes available could be an Achilles heel, especially remembering that Koscielny is out next game as well. A defensive midfielder, truly defensive, is also needed, as Wilshere is prevented from being fully effective when he sits deep instead of marauding about.

2. New options in the form of old players is a positive sight.
Despite only playing for a half, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain already looks like he's due for a breakout season. Showing signs of being the Theo Walcott that Theo could never be at only 20, he displays a spectacular mixture of the dribbling skill that, frankly, Walcott lacks, and the tenacity of Jack Wilshere. A little more willingness to have a blast from distance would be a welcome sight also.

The player of the game for me today was a dynamic and healthy Tomas Rosicky. His wall passes bounced off of Olivier Giroud to completely unlock the Villa defense on two occasions, despite ending in Gervinho-esque wasteful finishing. If he can stay healthy (knocks on table) he will be the key cog in an arsenal engine that will look to be scoring more goals this season.

3. Arsenal's key players must find form.
In the pre-season, much was made of the emergence of Aaron Ramsey. Now, perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on a lad who was perhaps chained up in Arteta's absence, but I didn't see a whole lot more than horizontal passing from a player who needs to be more positive and assert himself in an attack that is too often content to stall and keep possession.

Theo Walcott showed that he will attempt to pick up where he left off last season, showing an inhuman amount of pace, pretty poor close control, and a selfish desire to stray inside and wreak havoc on the prospects for retaining team width. It is perfectly acceptable to attack from the wing with the ball, as OxCham often does, but when you start inside, you can't do much more than clog things up. A good way to prove me wrong on this would be to grab some goals, so hopefully things improve from here.

Wojciech Szczesny proved yet again that a keeper can have quite a lot to do without really having to save anything at all. The young Pole between the poles was a bit unlucky to both give away and not save a Christian Benteke PK, but an experienced keeper would really put that wide, not back where it came from. As we all saw from a passage of play that saw Szczezzers completely out of position, only to scramble back to cover his mistake, you take the good with the bad with the young keeper, and hope that the good and bad even out in the end.

So, every cloud, no matter how dark and gloomy they may seem, has a silver lining. The one thing we can be certain of now is some rapid transfer action, but hopefully not too hasty! Be careful what you wish for.

Keep the faith Gooners, the sky isn't falling, just a cloud or two has shifted out of place.

Break a knee Van Persie,

Thomas