You Win Some, You Draw Some

Arsene Wenger is struggling to come up with the answers why we are dropping so many points at home. We all are. Every game the stats read impressively in Arsenal's favour, but it seems if we concede first the game will finish 1-1. Villa, Boro, Everton, and now Newcastle, have cost us eight valuable points.

Thierry Henry was summoned from the bench at half-time following an injury to Robin Van Persie. This was meant to be a rest day for the skipper, but his blistering free-kick was required to cancel out Kieron Dyer's first-half strike for Newcastle.

Honestly, Wenger conceded "You cannot drop as many points as we do at home...we have to learn some important ingredients in the game that make the team successful at the top, top level. At the moment we do not master that. You cannot give the goal away like we do it every time and not be punished. We just make it difficult for ourselves."

It would be so easy to moan once again about the negative defensive performance put in by the visitors, but that is too easy a get out. Let's be honest, they have to play that way or we will slaughter them. We should still have sufficient guile and collective ability to beat the sides who are giving us most difficulty.

Next week brings a trip to the kings of anti-football, the Wanderers of Bolton. Before that comes an opportunity to feast on Hamburgers in the Champions League. The Germans will surely show a little more ambition than most given their need for points. A morale boosting victory for the hosts is required to raise the spirits before the trip to the Reebok.

On a positive note there were valuable minutes of match practice for Julio Baptista today. If Van Persie is missing for any length of time as a result of todays knock, the powerful Brazilian may be an interesting alternative.

That's all the positive I can muster I'm afraid. I want November to be erased from the calendar in future!