Looking at some of the Arsenal fans post-match reaction you would have thought that Nostradamus predictions were about to come true. The look of abjection was incredible and showed in a nutshell how seriously football fans are affected when high aspirations come crashing down. Ok, I might be going a bit over the top on that last bit..
Arsenal had a brilliant pre-season. Fans and pundits alike were expecting big things from Arsene Wenger's Arsenal. But, Arsene got it wrong on the day and Bilic was on the money. It is easy for everyone to be wise after the event but, I have to agree with one of my fellow gooners who tweeted that he was amazed Arsene hadn't noticed the weakness in the West Ham defence gifted by the fact that their CB James Tomkins had been moved wide into the RB position. Arsene's tactical nous has been questioned by a number of fans previously and this observation will do him no favours at all.
As bad a game as Cech had, I thought the normally dependable Laurent Koscielny had a right mare in the Arsenal defence. Ozil showed touches of class but not much more and Ramsey allowed a 16-year old to make life really difficult for him in the centre of the pitch.
Time for a bit of perspective now. Hello, there are 37 games still to go. Chelsea dropped two points at home to Swansea. There will be no repeat of what the 'invincibles' did in 2003/2004. So we lost a game, get over it.
Arsenal fans will remember when they lost badly on opening game to another team in claret and blue two years ago, but bounced back winning the next 7 games. Wenger will be hoping for a similar response, but something tells me this season is going to be pretty topsy turvy. With Crystal Palace our next opponents, that is not going to be an easy fixture next weekend.
I think Arsenal fans should take a leaf out of Petr Cech's book who tweeted after the game "First game like this was not in the script - Mistake and no points, but tomorrow is another day to get ready for the next game."
Source: DSG
