Three Reasons to be cheerful after Arsenal's defeat at Villa 

Here's Nick Manfredi to put things in perspective with a spot of Arsenal positivity 

When you are involved in a title race with the financial juggernaut that is Manchester City, every dropped point can feel like the end of the universe.

This does make some sense from a certain viewpoint given we have had sizable leads over them in the past only to be forced to painfully watch from afar as they claimed the prize we so dearly craved. But when you have gone over three months unbeaten, a run which includes visits to many very tricky away grounds, we don’t have to feel this way.

We are still a few games off the halfway point and there will be many twists and turns to come. There are plenty of reasons to be positive. Let’s have a look at three of them.   

We are still top of all the Leagues 

It says a lot about how excellent we have been this season, given we have won two of our last five and we still hold a two-point lead at the summit. We will drop more points between now and May but so will our rivals.

It is worth remembering that City were also beaten at Villa Park earlier this season. They have lost four games to our two and they do have some tricky games coming up in the very near future. We remain top despite our rocky run and that is a positive. We have visited Sunderland, Villa and Chelsea and whilst we weren’t able to pick up three points in any of them, Manchester City still have to visit two of those grounds and they are still yet to play Chelsea.

I suspect we will not be relinquishing our place at the top of the tree anytime soon. And our Champions League form only serves as proof we’re not going to falter and fail. Five wins from five and that includes handsomely convincing victories over two giants in Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich.

Our first chance to get back to winning ways comes away in the Champions League to Club Brugge on Wednesday. I suspect we won’t be giving up top spot in that competition either.   

Easier games to come 

When you have lost a game under any circumstances the next game cannot come quick enough.

All you want to do is put it right. What you really want more than anything is a home game against the worst team in the league. Good old Wolves.

With all due respect to Wolves, a game against a team without a win since April is quite ideal for us after the pain of losing a game in the last second.

A nice, comfortable 3 or 4-0 win would do nicely. Following that, we have a week to prepare for Everton away who will be without a couple of key players due to AFCON. Not the easiest place to go but far from the worst.

Then after Christmas we have a pair of home games against Brighton and a chance to avenge the pain of yesterday against Aston Villa.

If our lead at the top hasn’t increased by the end of those four games, I will be very surprised. In the same time frame City have tricky away games at Crystal Palace and Sunderland. Let’s see how they get on there.  

More players to return from injury 

While it does feel we have a one in, two out policy with injuries, surely at some point the injury Gods will mellow out and strike one of our rivals down with their incessant rage.

It seems Saliba’s return is imminent and Havertz surely cannot be far away. Gabriel Jesus has played a couple of BCD friendlies so I’m sure we will see him soon.

I do think it is quite an achievement that we have been able to produce such good results and performances with the extent of injury blows we have had to contend with.

It would be a lot easier if we had less but the way the team have dealt with it has been admirable.

Perhaps that mentality to keep going no matter what serves as proof we will bounce back from yesterday’s defeat very quickly.

It certainly wouldn’t surprise me. But please can we catch a break with these injuries?!