On the face of it, 1-1 away to Blackburn is a creditable result. There will be plenty of good sides that go there this season and come away pointless.

The trouble is, it really could have been three. We looked to be holding on pretty well at 1-0 when Jens made his second absolute howler of the season. His form is now a worry. He made a good save in Prague, but other than that he’s had a poor start to the season, and his margin for error is now very fine indeed.

The game seemed fairly even, with the hosts having their fair share of chances too. Both Walcott and Bendtner had presentable chances to score; the former to make it 2-0 and the latter 2-1, but neither were taken.

Wenger was miffed too, about their “over-physical” approach, and he went one step further by suggesting they had a “desire for violence”. Sounds like frustration to me – and anyway, we seemed to be coping pretty well with the nature of the game until Jens’ blooper. Our ability to fight fire with fire this season is hugely encouraging, and coming straight after a sapping, equally physical game at Prague and you have to say we’ve done well this week.

Overall, really not a bad point at all.

But is our smallish squad stretched already? Gallas is out for three weeks leaving no first-choice centre-back as cover (though Gilberto, possibly Sagna and even Hoyte could play there). And with Rosicky and Eboue injured, there are no spare first-choice wide men either.

Food for thought.