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So then... is it back to #WengerOut?

Back to slagging off Aaron Ramsey?

Back to saying Arsenal have no leaders?

Back to scoffing that they are no-hopers when it comes to winning the title?

Back to jeers and poison-dripping from the stands at the Emirates?

Let's hope not.

Not if there's any sense left in the game.

It would, frankly, be bizarre to forget everything Arsenal have done this season on the back of one defeat.

Forget THAT Jack Wilshere goal? The resurgence of Ramsey? The transformative effect of Mesut Ozil's arrival? The partnership between Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker?

No thanks.

Sure, Arsenal were well below their best in losing to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

And yes, they missed a chance to eliminate a vulnerable United team from the title race.

The champions are back in the thick of things now, reinvigorated and suddenly infused with the kind of self-belief they have been lacking since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.

And Arsene Wenger's side will have to listen to renewed accusations that they are flat-track bullies who fade and cower when they face top three teams.

They didn't win a single game against Manchester United, Chelsea or Manchester City last season, and now the record goes on.

But this is not the end of the Gunners this season.

No chance.

They deserved to lose against the champions but they were hardly battered into submission.

They were deprived of Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky by a virus that swept through the squad.

But they still finished Sunday's game stronger - a lot stronger, in fact. They came desperately close to an equaliser several times.

(Image: Alex Livesey)

In case anyone has forgotten, they are still two points clear at the top of the Premier League with close to a third of the season gone.

And they hold that lead in a division where none of the other so-called top teams seem capable of putting a real run together.

City lost to Sunderland this weekend, Chelsea scrambled a draw at home to West Brom.

You might as well bet on snail-racing as try to pick a winner in Premier League matches these days.

But within that anarchy, Arsenal are still the closest the top flight of English football has to consistency.

"Everybody can beat everybody," Wenger said after the match. "It's not because players like Robin Van Persie have got worse in the last two years. It's because the whole quality has gone up."

In that context, there is no reason to think Arsenal are about to fall off a cliff.

If their first defeat of the season since the opening-day trauma of the loss to Aston Villa injects a little perspective into views of their prospects, then so much the better.

They were never going to be runaway title winners.

Most analysts have been saying all along they suspected Arsenal did not quite have enough strength in depth to stay at the top.

Nothing has changed because Arsenal lost away to United.

It was hardly a catastrophe.

It has not changed the fact that Arsenal have already outstripped most people's expectations of them this season.

Nor has it altered the fact that the acquisition of Ozil has transformed morale within the club.

(Image: Alex Livesey)

Ambitions have changed. The aim is the title again.

The aim is trophies, not just finishing fourth.

There is no going back.

The weeks leading up to Christmas will not be easy but life at top of the table never is. That's why it is difficult to stay there.

Arsenal host Southampton, Everton and Chelsea in the next six weeks, and travel to City.

Their performances in those matches will give us a much clearer indication of whether they have a real shot at the title.

Their Achilles' heel is still a lack of cover for Olivier Giroud up front, but that apart they have fierce competition for places.

Wenger felt confident enough to leave Wilshere on the bench for the first half on Sunday as he continues to feel his way back to full fitness.

Arsenal looked a better side when Wilshere replaced Mathieu Flamini after an hour.

And when the England midfielder is back to his best, Arsenal will be an even more formidable side.

They will be better when Ozil starts to hit the heights, too.

So far, he has transformed Arsenal just by being there. He has been quiet in recent games, but when he adapts fully to the Premier League, that, too, will strengthen the team.

Theo Walcott is still to come back from injury. So, too, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The idea that a solitary defeat away to a team who were fighting for their lives will send Arsenal into a tail-spin is flawed.

In recent years, perhaps that would have been the case. But they have banished the mental fragility that dogged them before.

They can regroup over the international break.

And then, when high-flying Southampton visit the Emirates on November 23, they must bounce straight back.