Have Arsenal resurrected their title hopes in their win over Chelsea?

Robin van Persie’s two strikes in three minutes in the second half certainly will have boosted the young Arsenal side’s morale.

But the reality is, a team’s winning mentality should not just be seen against the top sides in the Premiership but in every single game they face.

Wins against ‘la crème de la crème’ of the league – Manchester United and Chelsea, are impressive, but the North London side have lost to more predictably easier opposition, like Premiership newcomers Hull and Stoke.

Why has Arsenal lost those games?

• Wrong mentality.

Manager Arsene Wenger summed this up in his post-match interview this afternoon:

"It’s part of the learning process…that you need to understand that in every
game you need to be in that kind of state of mind”.

Whether they always perform to the best of their ability is another matter but Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool will always play to win and be the best irrespective of how lowly the opposition maybe.

And that’s what it takes to win consecutive matches in the Premiership, something Arsenal have struggled to do this season.

Any team will always want to beat a top four side, claim that victory and slice of history. It seems West Ham’s goalkeeper Robert Green consistently plays the ‘game of his life’ against Arsenal every season because he wants to beat them, but it is also down to Arsenal’s attack to make life difficult for him.

• Arsenal lost a winner in Mathieu Flamini – who sadly departed on a free transfer to AC Milan over the summer.

The way Flamini prepared himself on the pitch before a game was quite telling of his committed approach. He would jump up and down on the spot and do windmills with his arms, revving himself up to be ‘the running man’ in the side.

Flamini would run at players, not allowing them any time on the ball, and would put in a challenge and break up play.

No other Arsenal player can really do that, and subsequently opposing midfielders float around and run through the midfield unchecked and expose Arsenal’s already vulnerable defence.

Flamini’s replacements - Denilson and Alexandre Song rarely put in an effective challenge.

• The loss of Belarusian midfielder Alexander Hleb to Barcelona has also affected the Gunners’s ability to retain the ball and start attacks.

Granted Hleb never scored goals like his replacement – Samir Nasri – but he got stuck in, could keep the ball for hours through his skill and trickery, and was far more consistent in his performances compared to the one-hit wonder Nasri is proving to be.

Arsene Wenger is unlikely to bolster his team’s title credentials with any purchases in January, believing to the end, in his youthful side.

But by then, the title is likely to be all but out of sight.

Can Abou Diaby fill the void in Arsenal’s central midfield?

After yet another spell on the sidelines, 22-year-old French midfielder, Abou Diaby, is set for a first team return following the international break.

Since his transfer from French club Rennes in January 2006, Diaby has so far failed to establish himself in the Arsenal first team for a consistent period. This has been largely due to a succession of injuries.

On the sidelines

Most notably, a horrific ankle injury sustained in a brutal challenge with Sunderland’s Daniel Smith kept Diaby out for eight months very early on in his Arsenal career.

Since then, niggling muscular strains have interrupted Diaby’s progress. Speaking to Arsenal TV this week, Diaby said he feels strong and ready to fight for a first team place.

Arsenal are currently craving for Diaby’s potential dynamism and long, elusive legs in the centre of their midfield.

Arsene Wenger failed to recruit a sufficient successor to the combative Mathieu Flamini in the summer, and Arsenal have paid for it in some of their Premier League results already.

Flamini's tenacity in the centre of midfield was missing in Arsenal’s away loss to Fulham in August, and their recent home defeat to Hull and away draw to Sunderland last week.

A lack of clinical finishing by the Arsenal strike force has also been responsible for those lost points. But the young Brazilian, Denilson, and Cameroonian Alex Song do not yet seem to have the composure or the ability to make a telling challenge or bursting midfield run.

Diaby has this ability. Comparisons have continually been made between Diaby and ex-Arsenal captain, Patrick Viera. Viera has himself referred to the player as having “the right potential”.

Up until now, all Diaby has is largely untested potential in Arsenal’s central midfield. In his 28 appearances last season, Flamini’s form consigned Diaby to the left-side of midfield.

Although Diaby did not always look comfortable in this converted role, he did come up with some magnificent goals - a wonder strike against Derby at home in the league and a pivotal Champions League goal at Anfield.

Physical presence

Diaby’s tall, imposing frame and physical presence suggests he is better suited to the centre, and he has continually professed this to be his preferred role.

Before Diaby’s unfortunate collision with John Terry in Arsenal’s Carling Cup Final against Chelsea in 2007, he had comfortably held his own in central midfield. Indeed, his superb dribbling around Chelsea’s box led to Theo Walcott’s opening goal.

Diaby will have to learn to eliminate ill-timed challenges from his game in order to provide Arsenal with a much needed defensive rock in their midfield.

At a towering height of 6ft 2ins, Diaby could help anchor a midfield entirely bereft of tall players (Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri both measure 5ft 10ins). This addition of height to the midfield would also augment the under-fire defence – Kolo Toure and William Gallas’s central defensive pairing has been criticised as deficient in height.

Many young players come to Arsenal because Arsene Wenger offers budding talent, rare opportunities to test themselves at the highest level. Diaby is now ready for that challenge and the gaping hole in the centre of midfield is counting on him to succeed.