By Boris Mellor
October 24 2005

I never thought the West Ham game would be easy, and anyone who thought that Pardew would not get 10 men behind the ball, probably believes in the tooth fairy.

The good news is that we kept a clean sheet against a high scoring team and it’s now our third clean sheet in the Premiership. Unfortunately it is also the third time we have failed to score, which is something that only happened once in a season in the past.

However I refuse to join in the hysteria that greets this statistical fact. Yes there are problems, but they can be solved. Apparently it’s all down to there being no Henry, if he doesn’t play we don’t score. Which means that last season in the Premiership he scored 87 goals. Why he wasn’t given the World Player award is beyond me. In fact he got 25 goals which means 62 came from elsewhere. It’s the 62 goals we have to get back, not just bemoan the loss of his 25.

Of course its not just about his goals, we miss his assists, but once again we did manage to win games last season without him, including some very important ones in the cup. At the moment the balance of the team is not quite right, Freddy does not get into the box quite enough, Van Persie is not quite sure where he fits in, lie back like Bergy or right up front. Reyes is providing plenty of assists but they are not always met with the force needed. Hleb needs to start looking for a goal or two as well.

The hysteria that surrounds modern day football is pathetic, everybody knows what is wrong except Arsene, or so it goes. Apparently he can’t see why we are not scoring enough. Its all about his system, Arsenal are predictable, as predictable as Alan Hansen on MOTD. So predictable that West Ham did not see Fabregas arrive in the six-yard area, unfortunately he blasted wide, if he hadn’t the result would have been very different.

Battles aren’t just won by plans, but by personnel, Wenger believes he has the right personnel. They are young and need a little time to develop. Some Arsenal fans see the only solution as buying more players. The quick fix, that ironically will have to wait until Xmas. So it could be quicker to encourage Wenger and his squad. What message do these knee jerk reactions send to our youth? Buy and buy and leave them on the bench? Then other fans can write in and say Wenger never gives the youth a chance. Well nobody ever claimed you have to be logical to be a fan.

In the near future some team will get a thrashing form an Arsenal team that has gelled, and the pundits will all be pointing out how they got it wrong, that talk of plan B was all bollocks, and Arsene got it right. Must go a pig is flying outside the window.