If PGMOL really wanted to preserve fluidity of the game, it might have looked at working on its appalling implementation of VAR, which had served only to make the game a sideshow, but, alas, it settled on a re-imagining of 1990s football thuggery instead.
Among the crowds of fellow fans, the tension was more palpable, the mood more on edge, the sense of nervousness more profound.
Seldom has an Arsenal team looked so vulnerable as the one we have seen recently.
The personal travails of the manager aside, he will surely be pleased with the crop of players he now has at his disposal, a group fast-approaching the sort of dynamic, focussed, willing-to-work collection of players he seems to favour. These are a group of young leaders in the making, a young group that seems willing to listen and learn and with the capacity to do so.
The proverbial Fat Lady hasn't quite sung yet for Mikel Arteta but, be under no illusions, she is warming up and awaiting her curtain call.
Notwithstanding the debilitating absences, our early season exploits have been marred by amateurish defending and impotent attack. That won't do.
Like Samson without his hair, Auba had spent months toiling alone up front or on the left in a team, powerless to affect games and unable to do anything with the scraps he was given.
The thing about Mikel Arteta's team is that it almost never surprises you...and that's not a compliment
It has been a long time since we have seen what amounts to a strategy in our transfer dealings and in our squad building.
If our problem persist, the only way is down for this side and the only way for the manager is out of the door.
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