Is Alexis Football Club as good as it gets?

I've realised that my - albeit infrequent posts - seem to only appear after defeats. So here's one after a victory:

* The line-up for the match was interesting. The defence, faute de mieux, essentially picks itself at the moment. Bellerin seems like a nice lad but is, let's face it, out of his depth. As a lesser of two evils, Monreal at centre-back rather than Bellerin at RB and Chambers in the centre is preferable. The rest of the selection showed some interesting choices on AW's part. The lineup was essentially a 4-4-2, a formation that we might as well play against lower-half of the table sides who are going to sit deep against us at home. Choosing Flamini and Arteta as our central-midfield partnership probably represented something of an insurance policy on Arsene's part, to ensure we we had enough defensive cover were Burnley to break. This did mean Ramsey not getting a start, which was a little bit of a surprise, but this may also have been to preserve him a little for our two forthcoming matches.

* The other interesting decision was Campbell being dropped from the matchday squad, apparently in favour of Sanogo. I have never been on the Joel bandwagon but thought he did OK in his recent substitute appearances, without necessarily producing anything spectacular. That AW sees Sanogo ahead of him in the pecking order is quite telling, and you get the impression that Joel's days at the club are numbered, perhaps begging the question of why we didn't just sell him in the summer. I do think Wenger settles on pet projects, and, unfortunately for Joel, "it's Sanogo" for him.

* We started the game well with a good tempo. Although, really, if you're not able to dominate Burnley from the start then we might as well just pack it in and go home for the season. This didn't really translate into too many tangible efforts on goal aside from some world-class shots from Alexis, and even these curled wide. One thing I have felt, and which hasn't been much remarked upon, is that we lose a little bit of subtlety as a team without Ozil. I know subtlety isn't necessarily a characteristic you think recent Arsenal teams need, but without Ozil we have quite a lot of players whose instincts are to use pace to beat players and flash shots from distance when they get frustrated. There were a few instances in the first half were I thought we tried to force the play, and where a little of Mesut's nuance might have been nice.

* Burnley were predictably quite quiet. There was, however, still a few opportunities where we nearly contrived to shoot ourselves in the foot, as is our wont. The particular culprits here were Mathieu "a disease on our game" Flamini, and Szcz. Flamini, put simply, is rubbish. He was a welcome shot in the arm at the start of last season when the club was in a bit of a mess, and his performance in last year's North London derby deserves to be remembered as massive. But there has been a slow regression in his performances since then to his current state, where he is barely able to dominate Championship-level midfields. The sooner we buy a competent DM the better. As for Szcz, he seems to be metamorphosing into what I would call "full Almunia". This is a condition where a goalkeeper is unable to stop himself from blundering, whether it be rushing off his line, incorrectly positioning himself, failing to catch basic crosses, or clearing the ball so terribly that it should be recorded as an assist. His confidence, so welcome after the gaunt, hollow eyes of Manuel, now appears to be little more than hubris. Had we not bought an injured goalkeeper - side note STOP BUYING INJURED PLAYERS - I have no doubt Ospina would be getting minutes in the league at this point.

* The breakthrough, when it came, was somewhat inevitable. Despite the clock ticking down, it did seem that Burnley would have the one lapse of concentration that is fatal in games such as this, and with Chambers' follow-up occurring so soon afterwards, the final twenty minutes were among the most enjoyable this season. Podolski contrived to miss despite hitting the ball about as hard as it's possible to legally do so in a match, and Walcott made a welcome return. How Theo fits into the first team will be fascinating to see. He essentially missed the whole of last season, and the prospect of a team with Sanchez, Ozil and Walcott all fully functioning is quite exciting.

* Indeed, Alexis has hit the ground running at the Emirates. Where we would be without him this season is not pleasant to think about. He is clearly a player capable of scoring all types of goals - long-range efforts, scrappy shots in the six-yard box, headers - and can, critically, make his own chances when others are unable to provide. He reminds me hugely of Suarez - without, of course, the "unpleasantness" shall we say - an elite attacking force capable of bending games to his will. The flipside to this is that he is operating at another level to the rest of the side at the moment, in a manner reminiscent of van Persie in 2011-12. He seems to relish responsibility in a way that is almost the complete opposite of Ozil, and I hope that this will improve the latter's performances as well. The only concern I have is that we become "Alexis Football Club" - a team that is too reliant on one player, and which falls apart when he is either injured or fails to perform. I suppose we will just have to see how that plays out.

* In the final analysis, and despite the wonder of seeing a world-class player absolutely slay a team, this is all a bit predictable at the moment. We seem to be sailing gently towards the pattern established since 2008 - defeat the stragglers in our Champions League group, do enough against teams outside the top six in the league, and struggle in the remaining matches. Looking at the table, we're already in fourth place, and given how poorly Liverpool are playing this season, I don't think Champions League qualification will pose too many difficulties this season. The question is whether we can now use this modicum of momentum to actually kick-on and go further - something we probably won't find out until the game against Man Utd in three weeks' time. Otherwise, Alexis Football Club may be as good as it gets this season.

Gb