After our worst week of the season, we needed to bounce back and make a statement.

The media, opposing fans and Arsenal-incels had spent the last few days out from under their rocks.

“Burn Out Central” they cried after the defeat away to PSV.

We needed to make a statement and did.

5-0 did not flatter us. It could have been more as we returned to the top of the table.

This was arguably Mikel Arteta’s strongest Arsenal XI, with Ben White at right back making another claim that he should be on the plane to Qatar.

We were fantastic and showed no cobwebs from the Thursday loss to PSV.

When you look across the Premier League, you can see how European football is affecting clubs.

Chelsea were thrashed by Brighton, Liverpool lost at home to Leeds United.

Tottenham got away with it at Bournemouth, whilst Manchester City were below pair in victory against Leicester City. Manchester United also scrapped a 1-0 against West Ham.

The Hammers, meanwhile, sit just 3 points off the relegation zone.

It has been a tough October for all of these teams, each of whom played 9 games.

And the games continue to come thick and fast – with all those sides having another 4 games before the break for the World Cup in 2 weeks time.

That will be 13 games in 6 weeks. A huge workload even for a squad with the size and depth of Manchester City

It is why I was not calling crisis after the draw to Southampton.

With 7 wins from 9 games, I would be surprised if any team across Europe’s top 5 leagues won more games in October.

In the Premier League, only Newcastle got more points than Arsenal in October; and they played a game more.

Over the month, we have 4 more points than Spurs, 3 more than Man U and 6 more than Liverpool. Yet it was only Arsenal that came in for huge criticism following a single draw.

Despite winning 5-0, some still moaned. Gabriel Jesus didn’t score and Bukayo Saka was “mismanaged”. Fact these people still find something to moan about despite us being top of the league says a lot about them.

Zurich at home on Thursday should see a similar result to Sunday.

The team will be interesting with Chelsea a noon kick off Sunday, and Arsenal needing to win to top the group.

Zurich will be up for it, there won’t against Bodo/Glimt last weeks means they still have a chance of dropping into the Europa Conference.

Arteta would have hoped we would wrap the group up last week, but it didn’t happen, so expect a fairy strong team on Thursday, especially in defence.

Enjoy your day and we will discuss the team for Zurich later in the week.

We are too the league.

Keenos