Is the glass of mulled wine half-full or half-empty?

At the half-way point in the season, and with only one more game (at West Ham tomorrow) to complete a topsy-turvy year, Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal is still a club moving forward; but after yet another Jekyll and Hyde performance we still don’t really know if it will be New Year, new start in 2015 — or same old Arsenal

Wenger described the Christmas programme as a ‘good opportunity to show that we are much better than people think we are’, and his team began it with a 2-1 win over a very poor QPR side, despite seeing Olivier Giroud sent off for clashing with Nedum Onuoha in the second half – and despite giving away a late penalty.

The victory, which moves Arsenal to sixth in the table, at least gives his players a chance to take up their manager’s challenge – and three points at Upton Park would almost certainly see them start the New Year in the top four, a significant statistic given a very difficult start to the campaign which at one stage saw fans calling for Wenger to resign.