Auba and out?

Two consecutive wins in the league. A clean sheet. Further encouraging performances from our young players… all in all this was as a good a trip to the seaside as I can remember since the day I won £2.43 on the Penny Falls.

A Lacazette goal (less than a minute after he came on as a substitute) turned out to be the only score in the game as we beat Brighton and Hove Albion at the Amex stadium.

We may not have actually built momentum just yet, but we have surveyed the ground and got the architect’s drawings, so we can see that momentum building is on the way.

But the game raised (and possibly answered) one or two questions about our personnel.

Let’s start with the positives:

Bukayo Saka demonstrated again that he is fast becoming the most important player in our current squad. He plays with a maturity beyond his years and, if I think back to his early outings last season when, let’s remember, we were hugely impressed with him, it’s clear that his decision making and all-round game play have improved exponentially.

Pablo Mari: in my last match report I got...