"Gordon Strachan's still GINGER!"

Gordon Strachan was widely quoted that Coventry had learned their lesson from their last trip to Highbury. The Sky Blues were well beaten 3-0 last year and as usual it should have been more. "We didn't put in a very good performance down there last time and it wasn't enjoyable to watch to be honest", admitted the City boss - Or listen to if you remember the hilarious "Gordon Strachan's GINGER" chant.

They clearly arrived with a more attacking frame of mind, playing 4-4-2, rather than crowding out the midfield as they did last time. However, on paper and as it turned out, our 4-4-2 is vastly superior to theirs. Even though we are still not playing as a team. What we need to see soon is key components of our team starting to take shape.

For example Silvinho and Pires need to build up a better understanding of each other's running and movement, when they do we will have a world class partnership on our hands. Our midfield needs to be less reliant on Viera and perform for the full 90 minutes - at times we lose our shape, which allows the opposition to test our back four who are not at their best. Despite us performing at 60-70% of our full potential we created enough opportunities to bury the game in the first 20 minutes. We didn't open up our account until the 24th minute primarily through the brilliant performance of Hedman, who kept them in touch with the game throughout the 90 minutes; keeping out shots from most of our eleven including Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg and KANU.

A powerful piece of no nonsense finishing, reminiscent of Ian Wright, from Sylvain Wiltord put us in the lead. £12m for his services may turn out to be a bargain in this current market because, for our money, we've got a fast, persistent and hard working forward. His intelligent runs were rewarded when he picked up a ball from Luznhy's long clearance down the right, touched on by Parlour, and turned inside Shaw. Shaw who was taken apart by Ian Wright on so many occasions looked on helplessly once again, but this time it was Wiltord that placed the ball hard and low with his left peg just inside of the post - Hedman had no chance.

As it happened Wrighty was at the ground on Saturday, which made the moment all the more poignant. The following goalless 50 minutes were reminiscent of our performances against Sunderland and Bradford as chance after chance were either squandered or saved. The introduction of Henry, who was presumably rested for Wednesday's champions league game, created disarray in Coventry's defence with a cross only partially cleared which fell to Paola Vernazza just outside the six yard box. The 20-year old was given the time and space to compose himself and hit the target from eight yards. 2-0 Like Wiltord, Pires and Ljungberg worked extremely hard and were dangerous in and around the box and were involved in two penalty claims ignored.

Whatever the standard of opposition in the Premiership you will rarely have a completely one-sided contest and the final 15 minutes belonged to Coventry. Hadji, who was the Sky Blues best outfield player, kept Adams and Silvinho particularly busy and scored their only goal from a dead ball just outside the area. With five or six in the wall, Hadji chipped the ball toward right of centre and our "England Number One" kept his feet firmly rooted to the ground. Again, a shot that would have been difficult to save, but one that a goalkeeper playing for Arsenal should be able to make a dive for! Seaman, who was speaking on Frost this Sunday morning claims to have three more years left in him at the top of his profession and is hoping to make the World Cup team.

Unfortunately injuries last year and unconvincing performances in all but one game this season suggests Wenger needs to be looking for someone else now. Rumour has it that enquiries have been made about Tim Flowers and Shay Given! A draw would have been totally undeserved for Coventry but they looked as if they were going to get it. Hall crashed a shot against our cross bar in the dying minutes which seemed to rebound and hit Seaman in the back of the head. But, despite Strachan's touchline rants, we held on to the win and have kept in touch with the league leaders. Arsenal are traditionally slow starters at the beginning of the season, and after six games - two against top clubs - have one more point than we did have last year and are sitting in 2nd place.

Man United are 1st and unbeaten so far, but still haven't played any of the top clubs - and are two points worse off than last season. So in perspective we shouldn't be too gloomy about our performances. We are going to get a lot better as our new acquisitions start to settle in and Luzhny and Silvinho get a better understanding with the rest of the defence. When this team shapes up and plays at just 90% someone is going to get a real drubbing from us - I just hope they do it in time for Man United on 1st October.