Well we’ve heard that Mesut Özil is now out until after Christmas after having an MRI scan with the National team.

There’s no doubt that Özil is a world class player but this season he has been poor. Mainly because Arsene Wenger is adamant about playing him in the wrong position. He’s one of the best Number 10’s in world football yet has been stuck out on the wing.

So is this a blessing in disguise?

Arsene clearly doesn’t know how to use him and it’s affecting Arsenal’s performances and results.

We’ve been misusing Santi Cazorla, one of our best players, and players like Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rosicky haven’t been involved as much as they should have. Having Özil in the side is causing Arsene a problem he clearly can’t solve, so maybe being without Özil will help improve our performances, which have been poor to average this season.

In fact, our best performance this season was in the Charity Shield, when we swept aside Manchester City 3-0. And that day, Özil wasn’t available.

Last season, our away days against the big sides was embarrassing and difficult to watch. Going to Stamford Bridge, The Etihad Stadium and Anfield was an experience and games we really wanted to forget. And even at Old Trafford, we only lost 1-0 but it was against the worst Manchester United team we’ve seen in the last 20 years – and Wes Brown and John O’Shea aren’t there anymore.

So onto Saturday’s game against Chelsea. We did well but that’s all we were – good. We weren’t excellent, fantastic or brilliant – things you need to be when travelling to one of the Top 6 sides. Against a lower team we probably could have got something with that performance, but against Chelsea, no chance.

So what is the problem?

It’s a strange one because it seems like a recent problem. Back in the “glory years”, we’d go to Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham and turn them over. And even stranger still, in our barren spell when we had players like Fabregas, Van Persie, Narsi and Adebayor we still managed to beat the bigger teams. We even beat Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge only a couple of seasons ago.

Now however, we just can’t do it.

And I have no idea what the answer is, do you?

Is it our tactics? Is it our formation? Is it the quality of our players? The problem is becoming so endemic that it’s almost impossible to pinpoint what exactly is stopping us from going to a big side and taking points off them.

Out next “big” away day comes on December 20th, when we travel to Anfield, another place where we got humiliated last season. So can Arsenal go there and get a victory?

I guess only time will tell.

There are only two teams in the Premier League so far who are unbeaten – Arsenal and Chelsea. But whereas Arsenal have won 2 games and drawn 4, Chelsea have won 5 and only drawn 1.

And the teams will meet on Sunday afternoon in what promises to be the clash of the weekend.

So how will Arsenal do? If it was at The Emirates, I’d be confident of at least a draw – although a draw would be the most likely outcome as that’s all we seem to be doing this season!

But at Stamford Bridge? I have no confidence about that at all.

I can see us losing by 3 or 4 goals.

It’s amazing to think that in 6 games already this season, we’ve only really be convincing in 45 minutes of football, which was the first half against Aston Villa. Apart from that, we’ve stuttered to draws in games we probably should have won (against Tottenham and Manchester City) but did get a point in games we should have lost, against Leicester City and Everton.

We haven’t got into our groove yet in terms of performances and this is down to several reasons.

The first is Mesut Özil. Arsene Wenger is tinkering with him too much, playing him wide when he should be given a free role in the hole. Against Aston Villa, he was exceptional, only for Arsene to move him back into a different position in the next game against Tottenham.

Another is our injury problems. Mathieu Debuchy is out for a few months, and Olivier Giroud is out until the new year. Then we have Nacho Monreal, Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Yaya Sanogo out for differing periods of time, and there are concerns about Jack Wilshere’s fitness after his ankle injury against Tottenham.

So we’re not in good shape.

And if that wasn’t enough, several players just seem to have been frozen out by Arsene Wenger. Lukas Podolski, Tomas Rosicky and Joel Campbell can’t even get a look in – and Santi Cazorla who is one of our best players, has been consigned to a redacted role this season, spending a lot of time on the bench. This can’t be good for morale and surely you need to include these players more rather than just give them 3 minutes here and there.

And then we have Chelsea.

They are a completely different animal this season with Costa and Fabregas.

Fabregas is the creative hub of the team, pulling the strings and making Chelsea a much better passing side than they were last season. And then we have Diego Costa.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, if you were to compare his style and game to anyone it would be Arsenal’s kryptonite, Didier Drogba.

Has a striker ever given us more problems and headaches than Didier Drogba?

Costa is quick off the mark, big, strong and great in the air – all the things Drogba was in his prime – and all the things Arsenal hate defending against.

Because of all those reasons, I think that sadly, our unbeaten run is coming to a spectacular end. Added to the fact that when we’re away from home against the top sides, we’ve shown a mental fragility which has become endemic in our team.

Once we go one goal down, we panic and throw everything forward to try and get an equaliser – and from then on a team like Chelsea are good enough to pick us off on the break.

Usually I would be excited about a clash with a big side, but this Sunday I am dreading it.

For some reason, since his arrival at Arsenal, Danny Welbeck has draw comparisons from some people with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry. The traits that apparently group them in the same category are the fact that he was struggling for form with his former club, we bought him at a relatively young age, he has pace to burn and the fact that he is now playing for a manager who will have faith in him.

But if you compare Danny Welbeck to Thierry Henry on that basis, then you could easily have said the same about a whole load of players.

They’re two completely different players – Thierry was an artist, a player who was the conductor in a beautiful orchestra who could produce moments of brilliance on a consistent basis. Danny Welbeck is a warrior, a player who holds the ball up and brings others into play better than Titi ever could. He also never stops running and his desire is infectious on the rest of the team.

Watching Danny Welbeck score a well-deserved hat trick against Galatasaray last night however, it was clear that he does remind me of a former Arsenal striker, but it wasn’t Thierry Henry.

It was Ian Wright.

Seeing Danny Welbeck’s performance last night was like going back 20 years and seeing Ian Wright destroy defences with his pace, passion and 110% commitment. The finishes were instinctive, and Ian Wright was certainly that – probably one of the best instinctive finishers we’ve ever seen at Arsenal – and Welbeck looked like that last night.

It was the sheer desire from Welbeck, as well as his finishing, hold up play which reminded me of Arsenal’s former number eight.

He was getting into goalscoring positions and his goals were Ian Wright-esque.

We haven’t found another Thierry Henry, we’ve found another Ian Wright.

Tomorrow is the North London Derby and a massive game for all Arsenal fans. The big question is, are Tottenham good enough to take something away from The Emirates?

For as long as I remember, Arsenal have pretty much dominated all of the North London Derbies, especially at home, and I can only really recall about 4 or 5 defeats that we have suffered in the last 20 years or so (although I could be wrong about the numbers). Even when Tottenham had players like Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, we still beat them time and time again.

So what about this new Tottenham side?

While we are still unbeaten this season (with 2 wins and 3 draws) Tottenham have 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. They started the season well with 2 wins against West Ham and QPR, after which all the pundits thought they’d challenge us for a Top 4 place. But they then lost to Liverpool 3-0, drew against Sunderland and then lost last weekend to West Brom. So in terms of current form, they’re doing poorly.

And we’re on the back of a very good win against Aston Villa.

But as the old cliche goes, anything can happen in football.

Tomorrow is a massive game and we all know Tottenham will be desperate to get a result against us. In Mauricio Pochettino, they have a young, talented manager. He did fantastically well at Southampton and now (theoretically at least) has a more talented squad at his disposal. They started the season excellently, but have faltered of late.

So can the pose any real threat?

Even with the midweek defeat to Southampton in the Capital Cup, Arsenal have many reasons to be confident. Mesut Özil has got his swagger back, Danny Welbeck has got off the scoresheet (and has played excellently to be fair), and we are able to field a relatively strong back line, despite suffering injuries in that area. The only real problem Arsene Wenger has is choosing the best midfield for the job.

Against Manchester City and Aston Villa, Arsene got his midfield selection pretty much spot on but in earlier games, especially against Everton and Leicester City, they were completely wrong and we struggled. So Arsene needs to make sure the team he picks is the right one to beat Tottenham.

So what are your predictions for tomorrow? A routine win for Arsenal, or can Tottenham actually give us a game for once?

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