By Cameron Sheath

It hasn’t taken long for the always-interesting, intelligent, and in no way boring discourse that Arteta’s Arsenal are an unwatchable team to resurface this season. Arsenal put in their fourth sub-optimal Premier League performance in a row at Nottingham Forest, in a game that could easily have gone the other way.

For our one shot on target to be a deflected effort, which was, at best, hopeful from the moment it left Noni Madueke’s weaker right foot, isn’t ideal, and Arsenal’s forwards definitely need to up it in front of goal.

However, you don’t have to look too far to find other teams struggling in the same way. Renee Slegers’ team are falling similarly flat in the final third, and are languishing in the bottom half of the WSL table as a result. Look ever so slightly further afield, and Thomas Frank Igor Tudor Roberto De Zerbi’s Spurs team are also struggling to find the net, and enter their Monday Night fixture against Coventry City in 20th place (haha).

Arsenal started their season with two 3-0 wins, including the Community Shield, before beating Aston Villa away and outclassing Chelsea at the Emirates. They put four past Ipswich with as close to what you could call a second-string as your likely to see this season, and have maximum points from two Champions League games.

In the past four games, Arsenal have face Sunderland and Forest away, two notoriously tough fixtures in which Arsenal dropped a combined four points last season. They fought back against a relentless Leeds team who will take plenty of notable scalps this year, and were well beaten by a Brighton team who have scored fewer than three goals just once in their last six games.

Simply put, Arsenal have juggled some of the toughest fixtures of their Premier League calendar alongside midweek Champions League games and despite not being at their best, have won all but one of their games this season. People can talk all they want about Arsenal’s reliance on their defence, but there’s a reason top defenders and goalkeepers are worth so much money, and Arsenal have a ton of them.

Bayern will be a test, especially after such a demanding Sunday afternoon game, but it wasn’t that long ago that a trip to Bayern would be a game to dread, and one we’d hope to escape from without too much of a hiding. The fact that we would now can now go the homes of the most feared teams in world football with not hopes, but expectations, of bringing a point or three back to North London is a sign of the wonderful times that we’re in.

We are the Premier League champions and are perennial Champions League contenders, with a group of players who are not only phenomenally gifted, but may also be the most connected and invested Arsenal team of my lifetime. While other big clubs continue to struggle, and our biggest title rival’s reputation is in the gutter as it awaits sanctioning for deceiving the entire football world, including its own fanbase, Arsenal are in a beautiful place.

We’ve seen what this team can do when it all clicks, and we’re continuing to see what they can achieve when they’re not at their best. The left side of our attack is this team’s obvious weakness, and yet a player we threw in there out of desperation just came up big in a very difficult environment.

Things are finally great. Enjoy it.