Arsenal have had a bad week. They were picked off by Schalke in the Champions League on Wednesday, and they were poor against Norwich on Saturday, full stop. You could overanalyse their performance against the Canaries but from 1 to 11 they struggled.
Gunners assistant manager Steve Bould came out after the Schalke game and said Arsenal were lacking confidence and had not been at their best since the international break.
I don't really understand that, but it is a sign that mental strength is still this Arsenal side's missing ingredient.
When you look at their top teams under Arsene Wenger, he had so many strong characters. In fact, in Wenger's best year - the Invincibles season - all of that side were extremely strong characters. Would you say that about the majority of their players now? No.
Arsenal have yet to convince me that they can have a bad day and still win and therein lies their problem in re-establishing themselves as title contenders.
Having said that, I still fancy them on Saturday - they are at home and they are against a QPR side that give you chances.
Rangers boss Mark Hughes just cannot seem to get a performance out of the 11 players he sticks on the pitch. There seems to be someone in every game who lets them down, especially defensively with a catastrophic error.
QPR's next three home games, against Reading, Southampton and Aston Villa in the next month or so, will be crucial, especially for their manager. If he doesn't have a decent haul of points after the Villa game on 1 December, he will be in trouble.
Prediction: 2-0
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
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