Arsenal's inconsistency explained
Arsenal produced one of their best performances of the season to easily dispatch Tottenham 2-0 at the Emirates on Saturday, but why can't they consistently produce that type of performance?
The 'Daily Express'' sports reporter Matt Dunn and 'Daily Mail's' chief sports writer Martin Samuel both had their say on why Arsenal can't produce such a high level performance on a regular basis.
Talking to 'Sky Sports', Dunn said: "I know that Arsenal were crowing yesterday that their players had run, according to their stats, 120km and Tottenham had only run 118km.
"I don't believe in being able to give 110 per cent so when I look at last year's figures and Arsenal have only run 110km per game, I'm wondering if they were playing at 90 per cent every week and just turning up for the big games.
"As a manager, what has that got to do for you? Arsene Wenger will look at that performance and think 'well they can do it, why don't they do it every week? Will they do that against Burnley next week?' They do it sporadically.
"Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil chasing down the goal in the final minutes is great to see, but do we see that every week from those two players in particular?
"At the moment, Tottenham are Champions League and Arsenal are Europa League. Yesterday, there were signs that possibly, if they gave their all more consistently, it could be the other way around."
Samuel largely agreed with what Dunn had to say, but was keen to highlight how different Arsenal's performance against Spurs was to the lacklustre display at Liverpool earlier in the season.
"All of the energy in yesterday's game came from Arsenal. They were flying into tackles and blocks like Jose Mourinho's old Chelsea team when they were at their absolute best, when John Terry would throw himself into it like he was trying to smother a grenade.
"Arsenal were like that yesterday and you think 'where are these guys every single week who can play like that', because their energy level was so modern.
"A criticism one would make of Arsenal is that they've been left behind a bit by this modern, high-pressing, high-energy game and they haven't got it in their team. But they had it yesterday.
"When I saw this same team at Liverpool when they were beaten 4-0, Liverpool were flying everywhere and Arsenal were absolutely supine. You can't see how this is the same group of players."