Arsène Wenger has already conceded the Gunners will struggle to catch Manchester City, just eight games into the season.

Arsenal are now nine points behind the league leaders, after losing to Watford on Saturday. Wenger said in his press conference after the game (via ESPN): “It will be difficult [to catch the leaders], of course. But I think at the moment we are not too much looking at Man City, we are looking at ourselves.

“We have to bounce back from our disappointment today because we look like we can make results when we play the game like we did in the first half. But we need to be at the level for 90 minutes like that. Our level dropped in the second half, and we missed many chances to kill the game.”

It’s been a terrible start by the Gunners overall, when you look at the games played so far.

Wins against Leicester, Bournemouth, West Brom and Brighton were the least fans expected going into the season. But a bad loss to Liverpool, and unacceptable results against Stoke and Watford, leaves a goalless draw against Chelsea as the only “good” result of the season.

The Europa League and League Cup games have gone well, but the Gunners are already falling way behind in the title race and are missing opportunities to make it into the top four as well. That can’t go on or the result will be the same as last season – or worse.

But it’s okay, because Arsenal are going to “bounce back”, as we are repeatedly promised.

The problem is that bouncing back only seems to last a game or two, then the team return to exactly the same issues that were the problem in the first place.

Wenger’s side have to go on a run without these slip-ups now, or he’ll be in press conferences talking about how difficult it will be to catch the top four.