Apologies for the radio silence for a bit. Left my laptop in a black cab on Friday and have been trying to find ways to do work and blogging with as minimal disruption as possible. It means I’m tapping away at the iPad for now, which isn’t ideal, but enough about my problems in the world, when there are so many more out there.

Like being the Man United manager.

Or Chelsea fans who thought that no Europe would all but guarantee them a title charge.

Instead, it is Brighton that everyone is talking up at the moment, which is fair enough given that they’ve just bagged another win and sit five points behind us in second place after 115 FC’s defeat at Forest on Saturday evening. They’ve had a super start to the season, have been running extremely hot and have scored some absolute bangers already. So naturally the media are talking them up. They’ve won seven of their first 10 matches and gave us a bit of schooling at their gaff. So I do think we have to recognise that they will be this season’s surprise package and, as annoying and walkers as Huerzler is, he is a good manager and he has his team playing a pretty fine tune at the moment.

With that all being said, I do think the emphasis needs to be on how Brighton are ‘running hot’ at the moment, and I do wonder if they will be able to maintain their form throughout the season. I have seen some of their goals this season; so many of them absolute belters and it’s been fun to watch for their fans, for sure, but if you asked any Brighton fan if they think they’ll keep doing that all season, surely even the most diehard one would admit that it is unlikely. You aren’t going to bag 30-yarders throughout the season for a whole nine months. Just look at what happened to us. Sure, they were deserved winners, but two of their goals were screamers and on another day maybe they don’t go in?

They’ve had a few games against ten men too, so that won’t happen all season, but now I’m starting to get into the territory of sounding a little hand-waving-like with what has been an impressive start.

But the data shows they are out-performing their xG (number of goals they are expected to score versus what they do actually score) by 6.66. Their xG per shot is around mid-table, so they are converting an unusually high number of chances. They’ve also outperformed on set pieces too. I think as the European competitions start to go deep, when proper teams start playing each other and not those that you haven’t heard of, which means you can rotate your squad, it’ll start to be a little more difficult to keep the same XI on the pitch on a regular basis.

Am I worried? A little bit. Because why would I write all these words on an Arsenal blog, about another team, otherwise? But I just wonder how long it will last.

And I think that’s the same with us too, in terms of our numbers, because out set piece return has been nowhere near as good as last season, or the season before at this stage. It’s funny how set pieces are no longer a problem for the game though, eh? It’s also funny how now there’s an ‘entertainment table’ that has been drawn up, based on how much entertainment is being given per game. It had Sky Sports graphics on it, but I can’t find anything on their site, so I suspect it’s just another Liverpool/Chelsea/Spurs fan who have AI’d something to try to prove again why Arsenal are the worst football club on the planet. Triggered guys, triggered.

And when that’s the extent of the news that is out there at the moment, you know it’s all pretty quiet. I saw Ben White did an interview in which he talked about how he wants to just put all the England stuff behind himself now. He’s been called up by Tuchel again and I think he deserves it; he’s been steady and consistent with us and if any non-Arsenal fan put any real internet search effort into seeing why he’s saying things like “the full story hasn’t come out and it won’t”, then they’d soon change any boo-ey tune. The previous regime at England were a bunch of pricks and now they’re gone, Ben is back with England. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why.

The only other stuff knocking around is some rumours about a Zubi swap deal with Alvarez, but I personally think we should be slapping a £100million-price tag on the Spanish international, if any of it is true. Let’s see how Atleti like it. Oh, and your cry baby centre forward who refused to even entertain us in the summer can do one n’all.

And on that note I’ll say ‘cheery-bye’ and catch you all in the morrow. have a good one boys and girls.