The rap this year on the Gunners-David Hirshey reveled in it -is that we can win ugly. The proof is our two last matches, draws away at Anfield and home against Man United. And as pleased as I am that Arsenal sits top of the table unbeaten, I think it's totally out of line to be in the mood for celebrating after two draws in a row when it's plain as daylight that Rooney and Ronaldo are revving up their engines again and that Chelsea has righted its ship. The Gunners are nearly halfway through the league playlist now, and certainly through the worst of it, and I think it's a good time to take stock of what's been done and what we have to look forward to.

First of all, any glee about the fact that we didn't crumble without Henry should be long gone. He looked fragile last year. He looks fragile at Barca. It does not take much in this game to stop finishing, and frontrunners who don't finish, no matter how elegant they may be, are not that useful. Henry lives on in the pantheon as a past great. He may find his feet at Barca. But his use in the English game was just about done and to get good money for him was clever.

This issues at hand are that Arsenal is still, to echo my complaints at the outset of the season, without a striker and still vulnerable down the middle at the back, particularly in the air.

The duo of Toure and Gallas has been much better than anything we could put out there last year, but neither man is a safe center half and both have the tendency to make mad dashes forward. Of the two, Toure is the lion and the one to trust and Gallas is captain because he's played at Chelsea and Real and has a big mouth. But if Prince William Gallas can keep scoring goals so be it. Man United did to us exactly what every team should do on their goals. Separate the central defenders with balls through the inside channels. Bring Toure out. Then send runners through. There's not much we can do about it at this point in the season and we shouldn't really have to. It's just our vulnerability and it's going to be part of the show. The flipside of it is that Sagna and Clichy have been top freakin notch and we are damn near impregnable down the sides, which allows freedom to Hleb, Rosicky, and Eboue when they play out wide. Stacking Eboue on top of Sagna or Clichy is the way to stop slick wide players like Ronaldo. Both of those combinations have the speed, quickness, and attacking prowess to make life miserable for any wide player in the world.

Obviously everyone is going mad for Fabregas right now and well they should. He's been unbelievable and he's having one of those happy years when his confidence causes great things, like goals hand over fist from slots and deflections and a few quality bangs. The reason though, that he's having such a nice time is that Flamini has been a rock, both as a tackler and distributor. Hleb has been fantastic, except for when he hasn't, and that's just how he is. Mainly though, those three have been the top points of Arsenal's first triangles out of the back, and Gallas and Toure are both long and accurate floor passers. We have been unzipping defenses very easily. Both Hleb and Fab are capable of receiving in impossibly tight spaces and still managing to either switch the play, look up top, or do both.

My biggest fear for Arsenal's attack is that we still rely on "solving" the defense to make goals. This is the by-product the Boss's continental philosophy, which is really just that, some kind of French Enlightenment ode to reason in motion. When Arsenal maintains 55% possession and finds its passing rhythm, opponents cannot get enough men behind the ball to stop us from having chances on pull backs at the 18 yard mark. By the end of the game, the opponent tires, spaces get bigger, and our players find room at the 12 yard mark and its hard to miss from there. Defense solved. Goals scored.

BUT... in really tough matches in England the pace is so quick and the field so small that we cannot rely on that type of attrition to bring goals when we play the Big Four. So where is the individual brilliance and opportunism to create goals in those circumstances?

Sir Alex, while also highly rational, has built his team as a Highland collective that relies on champions. Rooney and Ronaldo are the champion warriors at the front and Ferdinand and Vidic at the back. Pressure is on their shoulders every match. Injuries to any of these can cripple United. Scholes and Giggs are the old champions, grey-haired warriors, and they are keys that Fergy is trying to replace with Anderson and Nani, respectively. Anderson is close to taking that mantle from Scholes but Nani is further away from Giggs . The point is that Rooney and Ronaldo can score from anywhere at anytime against anyone. I can't say that about anyone on Arsenal's team. Arsenal's goals can be scored by anyone on the team once the collective has breached the opponent's psychic and physical thresholds. But when we don't, can we win?

Adebayor scores against bad opposition. He is a useful and at times magical player with tremendous running stamina. But he can't fucking finish! Which is okay if someone else can. The fact that people think Walcott will do it is crazy. V. Persie keeps getting hurt and when he does play is becoming more and more of a shooter. Rosicky is a shooter too, but he misses a lot. In order for Arsenal to win the EPL this year, Hleb will have to continue to score with Fabregas, BUT either Bendtner or Eduardo will have to emerge at the point of attack. We have no one to reliably crash the six yard marker even though we routinely zip balls behind the defense into that space. We have no one who turns a half-chance into a goal on a regular basis.

So that's the dark superstitious voice of the nervous fan/critic. But the boy who loves the Gunners is pretty stoked. This team is precisely why people from all over the world who never loved English football love Arsenal. We play out of the back to Flamini and Fabregas who are stacked in the hollows, then create width by finding Hleb on the line, and then we send runners forward, sometimes on both sides at once and the numbers game is tipped. After that its just triangle keep away until someone has a clear crack at goal. Clockwork. Like the freaking 70s Orange, except that our collective defending this year has been so good in creating attacking chances. Arsenal is also deep. Diaby, Eboue, Eduardo have not gotten the minutes they need to glow, but they will as the schedule gets crazy during the holidays and through the spring.

Our rival is Man U for the league. Chelsea will be tough to beat head-to-head. Liverpool sucks! For all the talk about Spaniards and shit, they are still Scousers. Good getting players behind the ball and sure at the back but utterly boring and predictable. Voronin is their most creative player and Torres, unless something magic happens, will be back in Spain in time for the beach season on the Costa Brava.

The real narrative beauty this year is that the Boss and Fergie will battle head-to-head as wizard philosophers. Professor X vs. Magneto. The power of the collective conscious vs the cult of excellence. The European Union vs. Rule Brittania. Fabulous Fab vs Ugly Rooney (White Shrek). Hleb of the Steppe vs Gorgeous Ronnie of the Algarve.

Come On All Ye Gooners Rise!