Cole fears tough year for Gunners

Middlesbrough 2 Arsenal 1

A month into the campaign and Arsenal are nine points behind Chelsea and looking as though the sale of Vieira may prove a decisive one - this was the first time in eight Premiership meetings they had not beaten Middlesbrough.

Cole said: “We’ve lost key players, but we’ve only really bought Alexander Hleb in. We’ve lost Patrick, who was our main inspiration in midfield and we’ve only got one in. There’s nothing we can do about it - it’s nothing to do with me - and we’ve just got to do what we can with the squad we’ve got.”