I think that is the biggest task facing Arteta. This team rarely appears to have control over any game and of course as you say that will throw up a mixed bag of results.
Teams should not be confident of getting at us, they should instead be wondering how to stop us. Once that respect is earned then we will start to move forward.
For all the best teams half the job is already done before a ball is kicked, because the pub teams are shit scared to have a go.