ARSENAL are on their longest unbeaten run for nine years.
But no one at the Emirates genuinely believes they are going to win the title or Champions League this season.
Wednesday’s 2-2 home draw with Paris Saint-Germain means Arsene Wenger’s team have now gone 18 games undefeated since losing 4-3 to Liverpool on the opening day of the campaign.
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It represents their most impressive sequence of results since a 28-match unbeaten run was finally ended by Sevilla back in November 2007.
Yet Arsenal still finished that season empty-handed and there is little to suggest things are going to be different this time.
For while they are once again through to the last 16 of the Champions League and just three points behind Prem pacesetters Chelsea, all those familiar failings are starting to resurface.
And even Wenger is struggling to put a gloss on his team’s inability to perform in the matches which really matter.
The Arsenal boss was desperate to beat PSG this week, not just to finish top of their group but also to show his team can go toe to toe with Europe’s best.
But, just as in their first clash at the Parc des Princes in September, they were outplayed by the French
champions and left clinging on for the draw.
It was a similar tale at Old Trafford last weekend, where they needed a last-minute leveller from Olivier Giroud.
Wenger acknowledges his team have been “stuttering” but insists there is no cause for panic.
His squad are certainly more resilient and better equipped to cope with injuries.
Yet as football’s longest-serving manager enters the final few months of his £8million-a-year contract, he is running out of time to convince the sceptical fans he deserves a new deal.
SunSport assesses Arsenal’s shortcomings:
DEFENCE
The signing of £35m Shkodran Mustafi was supposed to give Arsenal a solid steel partnership in central defence. But the German’s lack of pace is a concern and was again exposed by PSG.
Hector Bellerin’s injury and Nacho Monreal’s sudden loss of form has left Wenger with full-back problems on both flanks as neither Carl Jenkinson nor Kieran Gibbs are defensively sound.
Maybe the boss is now regretting his decision to allow Calum Chambers to spend the season on loan with Middlesbrough.
MIDFIELD
Mesut Ozil is demanding £200,000 a week to sign a new contract, yet still goes missing far too often in the big games.
Ozil, more than anyone else, has missed the vision and quick-passing skills of the injured Santi Cazorla in recent weeks. The deep-lying Spaniard is their most creative player and starts off so many of their attacks.
Even more perplexing is the absence of £30m summer buy Granit Xhaka, who has started in only two Champions League games for Arsenal and was also on the bench against Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United.
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ATTACK
Alexis Sanchez is clearly running out of steam, yet Wenger is scared to rest the globe-trotting Chilean despite injury fears.
Sanchez looks clearly happier through the middle but that means Arsenal miss the physical presence of Giroud up front.
Wenger also seems determined to crowbar Aaron Ramsey into his team but the Welshman is not half as effective when playing out wide ahead of Theo Walcott or Alex Iwobi.
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