Surely Charlton at home was the perfect opportunity to get nightmare November off to a more promising start than in recent years.

But once again Arsenal's defending let us down and despite dominating the game, about 30 shots to their 10 or so, we somehow ended up with a humiliating defeat.

You'd never have thought it in the first half (not unless you've been watching Arsenal a lot the last couple of years). We played well and took the lead through Henry, latching onto a ball into the box from Pires and shooting in off the far post.

But then 2 Konchelsky free-kicks from way out on their left wing went in.

It was their defender Brown who got a glancing header onto the first , which flew past Wright inside his right hand post. Then Wright came out to claim or punch the second off the head of Euell, and the ball bounced off his hands looping backwards into the empty net.

Klaus Jensen put them 2 up early in the second half after Vieira gave the ball away softly, trying to play his way past 3 black shirts (the Addicks new away kit). Wright was caught out by Jensen's lob towards the far post, and it hit that post and went in.

Euell caught us out on the beak to put Charlton 4 up, before Henry scored a penalty which he'd won off Mark Fish.

We hit the post a couple of times and missed the post by a foot or less a few more times, but it wasn't to be. I think a lot of watching Gooners will have been thinking about December 4th, and wondering how we can expect to beat Juventus if we can't beat Charlton. But we'll play a lot better against Juve, and the real worry is our home form in the league. Man Utd may have also lost today, but the form of Liverpool (who beat Utd) and Leeds (who were gifted a comical winner by Tottenham today) suggest that we may need to do more this year, for once, than just stay ahead of Manchester United.

One has to wonder about Arsenal substitution atrategy. We've seen Wenger bring on attackers for defenders in far less dodgy circumstances than this. So it was no surprise at all when Wiltord came on for Cole (although Kanu might have been more effective given the lack of space in front of our strikers by that late point in the game). What was a surprise was Arsenal not bringing more subs on. Could it be that the subs were being rested for tomorrow....?

More to follow.