When I professed that Arsenal would win the Premier League title on our Team 33 review of the season so far last week, it was said with only slightly more confidence than had I predicted that I will win the lotto some day (I haven't even won a raffle before).
It's not that I don't think Arsene Wenger and his team cannot come out on top of a mediocre title race. They have the talent and a decent squad - albeit with some glaring holes in it.
I mainly backed them because nearly every other panellist had gone for the more logical choice of an ability-packed Manchester City, who also have occasional Arsenal-style off-days.
They're not Gunner make it easy for themselves
Either way, sitting and watching the Gunners failing to fire against Norwich on Sunday will not add any lustre to any clairvoyant skills I may want to hone.
A 1-1 draw was a slight improvement on last Saturday's 2-1 loss at West Bromwich Albion, but the fact that Arsenal again took the lead against weaker opposition and still failed to deliver a result does not bode well in their hunt for a first league trophy in over a decade, nor will the crazy injury list which saw Alexis Sanchez, Laurent Koscielny and even possibly Santi Cazorla added to it. Santa Claus makes lists for all the good kids once a year, but it will always be shorter than the one the Arsenal medical staff have to blue-tac onto the treatment room wall.
One player they have been missing away from home is Theo Walcott. Earlier in the campaign, Wenger could switch between the pacey England forward or Olivier Giroud to lead the line but with Walcott out, that element of surprise disappears.
It also robs Arsenal of the speed on their counter-attack in away games where opposition teams will be more inclined not to sit back as much as at the Emirates.
It also stretches the match with his pace pinning back the opposition defences, allowing the technicians in the team - well, at least the ones that aren't injured - space and time to combine and pick their passes.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was also only able to start from the bench against Norwich, robbing the team of even more pace.
H'on Robbie Brady
Speaking of pace in a more positive sense from an Irish perspective, it was good to see Norwich's Robbie Brady getting plenty of credit on Match of the Day 2 for an excellent performance and some incisive passing.
What was most impressive was his ability to drift in from the left flank and create havoc from a more central role when he stepped inside.
Over the past few months, he started to make himself indispensable for Ireland and at club level since his move from Hull City.
Find all of Brady's stats for the season on Squawka
With 25 chances created, he is Norwich's most prolific creator (three chances more than Wes Hoolahan but four fewer assists than his Ireland team-mate's five).
While his passing against Arsenal (63 per cent success) and his crossing (33 per cent completion) might not scream magic, the Squawka graphic above showing the success of his tackling on Sunday demonstrates just how hard he worked on that left hand side.
Tottenham v Chelsea
Overall, Sunday's early kick-off did not surprise in terms of the way the game played out as Chelsea ground out a draw away from home and had a couple of chances to win it.
With both sides naturally preferring to counter, the passing stats are not a surprise. Spurs completed 79 per cent of their attempts, while Chelsea were particularly inaccurate with a 50 per cent success rate.
But that low passing rate for both sides is a red herring in the sense that patient passing was not in either side's interest, with the attacking threat from Jose Mourinho's side further up the field with the movement of their smaller attacking midfielders and Eden Hazard leading the line with more energy than Diego Costa has done lately.
And even on the bench, Costa was a tad inaccurate from close range, wasn't he?
Costa can claim #StormClodagh for that bib 'blowing away' https://t.co/Pxc3UqdRbB
— Newstalk's Team 33 (@teamthirtythree) November 29, 2015
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