Following on from a cobbled together team succumbing at Southampton (as per the annual tradition) and a hard fought victory over a particularly unpleasant Burnley team, the growing feeling that the Arsenal squad was running out of momentum was proven against Brighton and Liverpool.
The cracks have been visible for anyone who cares to look for most of this season, and as injuries have kicked in and the fixtures have piled up, they have widened to the levels on show during the last year of Arsene Wenger’s reign.
For the first 3 months of this season, the lack of high-end quality and recent incoherent squad building was largely covered for by expending more energy than our opponents and the impact of a manager with a penchant for tactical substitutions more nuanced than the Alamo.
However, the fact that the first 20 league games of the Emery era have only yielded one half-time lead, always made the giddy 22-match unbeaten run seem like one more likely to end imminently than continue into the distance.
As the weekly energy levels have inevitably dropped off, the fault lines have widened as much as the gaps in the defence, and have given clear indication of how much work the new head coach and supporting set-up have to do in order to return this club to the previously maligned status of Champions League regulars.
We now have our worst defensive record of any season at this point in the Premier League era. 28 goals conceded in 20 games.
Of course, our defensive record has fallen off a cliff since Bellerin, Holding and Monreal all picked up injuries, but the nature of the goals conceded suggested that personnel issues are being compounded by ongoing systemic ones.
Equally, going forward we alternate between looking swift, penetrative and efficient and reverting back to the worst elements of latter-day Wengerball, with sideways passing and wastefulness the order of the day.
In both cases, it is clear that the manager’s pursuit of tactical flexibility has been magnified by not finding a system that allows this squad and his broader philosophy to successfully co-exist.
There have been encouraging signs when all personnel have been fit and firing, but even so, this has not been characterised by a consistency of selection, system or performance.
What has become clear, and was probably inevitable, is that not all of Wenger’s departing squad will fit into whatever Emeryball turns out to be, much as, frankly, it didn’t really suit Wengerball by the end.
With this in mind, and with half the season gone, let’s have a look at where things stand.
4Spend, Spend, Spend?
As Arsenal’s form has sputtered in recent weeks and as injuries have piled up, it’s hardly surprising to see both the club and the more respected journalists making noises that seem to suggest the January transfer window may actually hold some relevance for Arsenal despite ongoing financial issues.
With Manchester United flourishing now they are rid of the poisonous narcissist, the battle for the top four is even harder for Arsenal than it was three weeks ago.
Positions of need are obvious. Another central defender and a genuine wide man remain as needed as they have been for two or three years. Injury to Holding and impending departures from our plethora of central midfielders only increase this urgency.
Elsewhere an upgrade on the inevitably departing Elneny, and potential future first team challengers in both full-back positions are also going to be among the more immediate priorities.
Beyond that, any signings would be about upgrades in quality and that is unlikely until the summer.
The biggest question has to be whether the parsimonious owner is prepared to back his manager in the transfer market to a greater degree than his predecessor and whether Sven and co can pull further rabbits from hats.
Are KSE prepared to speculate to accumulate in the chase for fourth, now or in the summer, or are they happy to let the club simply drift and hope for the man at the helm to be a genius who can get a better tune out of limited instruments than otherwise seems possible?