Arsenal’s Per Mertesacker congratulates Lukas Podolski (Picture:  AP Photo)

Just like the game against Hull City in the Premier League at the weekend, Arsenal’s midweek excursion to Belgium was supposed to be straightforward.

Of course, that’s not exactly how it worked out at all. I’m still not quite sure how the Gunners managed to come away with all three points, but they did somehow.

In the realm of things I may never understand, alongside why Arsenal signed Park will always be ‘how did they manage to win this game?’

But, here are five things we did manage to learn from Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Anderlecht.

1) Santi Cazorla is human

Set up early on by some great work by Alexis Sanchez on the right, Santi Cazorla blazed high, wide and not at all handsome.

It was an atrocious effort from a player we are more used to see find the back of the net with a sublime finish. You can’t even say that it set the tone for the rest of the game because it was the closest we went until the last few minutes of the game.

2) Not being able to teleport is a bookable offence

The referee booked Nacho Monreal inside the first ten minutes for not being able to teleport himself out of the way of an Anderlecht player. I’m not entirely sure what the referee expected him to do given the player was less than a foot away when he flicked the ball past the stand-in centre-back.

Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey, right, hugs teammate Lukas Podolski after Podolski scored the winner (Picture: Getty Images)

3) Arsenal miss Mesut Ozil

While Arsenal haven’t really got going all season, they are significantly worse since they lost the German play-maker. Constantly slated, his lazy style hid the fact that he was the creative thread that wove this team together and Arsenal are struggling without him.

4) Arsenal do have good luck

Nothing other than good luck and fortune can explain how Arsenal managed to win that game on Wednesday night. It doesn’t often feel like they get any luck that is positive, but this was a massive dollop.

5) Arsenal are going to make this a very long season

It’s only October and I already feel like I’ve aged about five years since this season kicked-off.

Unable to find any real sort of rhythm or form, every Arsenal game so far, bar the odd exception, has been hard to watch.

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