Happy to be top, but Old Trafford will provide a sterner test

WHILE everyone insists on making us Gooners ever more aware of the length of time the Gunners have dallied in the doldrums, you’d have to be a pretty damn visually challenged footie lover, not to be grateful for the privilege of watching Arsene Wenger’s lads play live every week.

That said, few of us are getting carried away with our elevated status.

We know full well that we only bestride the Premier League pile by default. We’re also reminded all too often how fragile we can be, as evidenced by the repeated sense of hanging on for a heart-stopping final half hour against Fulham on Saturday.

Yet as frustrated as I am with our tendency to turn into a panic-stricken bunch of schoolgirls, how can we possibly complain, when we get to savour the sublime pleasures of the scintillating likes of Samir Nasri, pirouetting his way around Premier League defences.

I wasn’t even that upset at the sight of Laurent Koscielny having his lights switched off in a clash of heads with his team-mate and conceding a soft goal. If Laurent was less honest, he might’ve gone down in a heap and got the game stopped before Kamara struck.

There was another moment, when Nasri could’ve collapsed in the opposition’s box in search of a penalty, in the more cynical tradition of the modern-day mercenary, if he wasn’t so focused on his objective.

But I wasn’t pining for the loss of a potential penalty because in Nasri’s intent and Koscielny’s commitment, there is perhaps a glimmer of the sort sincerity and hunger, which might yet forge a more tightly-knit unit of worthy contenders out of Arsene’s multi-cultural team.

Far from suggesting we’re anywhere near looking like the finished article, on current form, most Gooners will admit to their delighted amazement, to find themselves dancing into an arctic December as top dogs.

Unless the Hammers ship a shedload against City next weekend, Spurs will be playing Chelsea at the Lane on Sunday, knowing that if they get anything from Ancelotti’s dysfunctional Blues, we’ll be heading to Old Trafford the following night for an encounter that’ll suddenly assume an increasing “clash of the Titans” significance.

That said, I’m a long way from counting my chickens. The only predictable aspect to this campaign is the immediate competition have all looked equally vulnerable, at times, against the league’s lesser lights. Nevertheless, few will take Arsene’s insistence on our newfound tenacity entirely seriously, until the Gunners produce a convincing performance against one of our two nemeses.

Meanwhile we’ve the small matter of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages this evening. But if we can’t beat Partizan Belgrade on our own patch, then we really don’t deserve to be there.