Any memory of last week's terrible trip to Dortmund should be well and truly forgotten after Arsenal thrashed Aston Villa at Villa Park 3-nil on Saturday. The Gunners scored 3 first half goals in 3 minutes to end the contest before half-time.
It was a very encouraging performance from Arsenal, who were without a doubt aided by a horrible illness that had struck many of the Villa players before (and during) the match. Still, Villa threatened early and might have taken the lead if not for a great save from Szczesny on a Villa set piece.
Arsenal had conceded a goal from their first shot on target allowed in all four of their opening Premier League fixtures, and with Ciaran Clark unmarked on the far post, it looked like it was going to be five out of five. But Szczesny did really well to save and keep the clean sheet.
Ozil finally played further forward in a central role, and he responded with his best match of the season so far. Playing just off of new striker Danny Welbeck, the two combined excellently for the first two goals. Welbeck played in Ozil with a great through-ball assist on the first, and Ozil responded with a perfectly-placed cross to Welbeck for the second. When Kieran Gibbs put his cross in a dangerous area in the next attack, Aly Cissokho put it in his own net.
It was a great response by Arsenal after being, frankly, played off the pitch at Dortmund in midweek. And afterwards, Arsenal supporters watched with glee as each of their rivals dropped points in the ensuing matches.
First was Liverpool, who fell 2-nil down in the first 10 minutes at West Ham. a Raheem Sterling rocket made it 2-1, but a late finish by Morgan Amalfitano clinched 3 points for the hosts.
The Liverpool defense is in shambles at the moment. They conceded on an early set piece for the second straight match just as they did a week ago at home against Villa.
Then new "left back" Alberto Moreno allowed Diafra Sakho far too much time and space in the box and he responded with a fantastic chip into the far corner. Moreno had a great goal against Spurs, but he has looked downright clueless defensively.
Right back Javier Manquillo hasn't been much better. And Dejan Lovren, who cost about as much as Mertesacker and Koscielny combined, has also struggled. And of course Steven Gerrard is struggling yet again to be the "shield" in front of these new players. Liverpool had just the eighth-best defensive record in the league last year, they spent over 35m on new defenders to fix it, and they somehow got worse.
Brendan Rogers was forced to add a third center back after just 20 minutes, but it wasn't enough to get the two goals he needed. Liverpool is now in 11th, losing 3 of their opening 5 matches.
Then on Sunday Manchester United looked like they had taken confidence from their thrashing of QPR last week into Leicester. Their shiny new expensive toys were looking great, Falcao made a great assist and Di Maria scored an incredible chipped goal to go 2 nil up. Leicester when right down and scored from the resulting kickoff.
When Ander Herrera made it 3-1, it looked like game over. But the Foxes responded with 4 goals to win 5-3. The best part? All the United players in utter shock when a foul wasn't given their way in the build-up to Leicester's second goal.
Manchester United had just found out what it was like, for so many years, to play against... Manchester United.
Like Liverpool, United have some serious problems in defense. Like Liverpool, part of the problem is a lack of protection from midfield. Their simply isn't enough balance in the United team. They don't look good at all right now. Ed Woodward's thoughts on the matter? "Maybe we need another striker."
And then Chelsea faced Man City at Eastlands. The Blues scored from a good counter attack after Zabaleta had been sent off, and it looked like Chelsea's perfect start to the season would continue.
But Diego Costa hit the post when he might have scored, and Chelsea were eventually undone by none other than Frank Lampard, whose late volley was enough to secure a draw for City and keep Chelsea from opening up a sizeable gap on the competition.
I've never been so happy to see Frank Lampard score a goal in my life.
Arsenal will take a huge amount of momentum after seeing everything go their way this weekend into the North London derby* Saturday. Next up, however, is a Capital One Cup match for the reserves against Southampton tomorrow night.
* to top off the hilarity, the Spuds lost 1-nil at home to West Brom on Sunday, who were bottom of the league heading into White Hart Lane. Not exactly a title rival slipping up, but icing on a very delicious cake
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