Arsenal made a swift recovery from the weekend car crash by putting four goals past Porto. This Porto team was supposed to be tough, they had beaten Fenerbahce 3-0 and had a good win on the weekend ago and looked set to test a mentally scarred Arsenal team, but in football things don’t always go as scripted.

Arsenal.com player of the month showed us what we missed.

What exactly did Arsenal showed last night that we don’t already know?

For all the harbingers of doom and gloom, there was the same defensive frailties on display. Consistent failure to deal with set pieces, we look as nervous as usual on corners. Gallas and Toure just does not inspire confidence.

Strikers still being given time and space to shoot at goal, no one sees it necessary to close down attackers and a non-existent defensive midfield.

Our own strikers find it difficult to hit the target, I know we scored 4 and I’m not expecting us to score 4 goals in every game. The thing is, there will be games where we don’t get 24 chances, some of the goals we missed would not have been so funny if we were down 1-nil.

Conversely there’s hardly a team that can pass the ball the way we do, when we are in full pomp there is hardly a team that can hold a candle to us. Even with two supremely talented players long long-term injured there is a plethora of attacking riches available to us. Nasri is a refreshing change to Eboue’s straight line power, with his ability to hold on to the ball and get himself out of seemingly impossible situations bring an added dimension to our game.

So really there was nothing on display last night that we didn’t already have. The difference between Porto and Hull was all in the approach to the game and the state of mind of the players and the intensity of the opposition.

Porto is not a bad team, but they we not set up to challenge us, you cannot come to the Emirates and give Arsenal space or time. Porto did just that and they suffered the consequences, that they lost was not simply down to their strategy but to Arsenal’s potency.

It was obvious from the start that Arsenal was out to put the Hull defeat behind them, there was one thing on their minds and that was to put Porto to the sword, they did just that.

Porto didn’t start badly, they had a chance go off the crossbar and another that Clichy cleared off the line, it was more that, in stark contrast to Saturday, Arsenal wanted it more. It begs the question though, why can’t we play every game with something approaching that same level of intensity? Why so much inconsistency?

It is simple, if we approach any match with the same attitude as last night then we should be able to win some silverware.

However to think that any team is a walkover will get us nowhere.