If there IS one thing that is certain in life, it is that football will also throw up it's own quandaries and not for the first time, the Arsenal found that out to their cost on Sunday.
The scenario was an all too familiar one. Arsenal take to the pitch, proceed to play their opposition off it and yet somehow come away with next to nothing to show for it. How many times have you seen the Arsenal play this scenario out? Well, let's put it this way. In all competitions, Arsene Wenger has been in charge of over 400 Arsenal matches and I would bet that we have found ourselves carrying out similar post mortems in getting on for a quarter of them.
Despite having seen this sort of thing happen many times before it still isn't easy to shake off the almost excruciating sense of frustration when it happens again. Wenger, for one, didn't make much of an attempt to hide his exasperation and I honestly couldn't blame him when he blasted Fulham's negative approach after the game. After all, can you imagine what people would say if we went away to anywhere in Europe and adopted the same tactics.
Having said that I was personally more surprised than disappointed with Fulham's tactics. They had gone to Old Trafford and given ManUre a good spanking yet, having professed to being confident about coming to Highbury on the back of that result, they made no attempt to make a true contest of the game when it really came to the crunch.
In the main, I appreciated Chris Coleman's honesty after the game though. I can think of one or two managers in the recent past (Gerard Houllier for example) that have sent out teams at Highbury, used the same tactics and then had the cheek to turn round and say that they genuinely came to win. At least Coleman was honest enough to admit that they came for a point.
Putting the soapbox aside for a minute, let's look at the positives. For a start November did not turn out to be the notoriously black month it has been in the all too recent past. Seven matches in all competitions, six wins, one draw and no defeats - when was the last time we could point to a record like that in November?
And what is most encouraging of all is the fact that we are starting to evolve into a consistent team unit and the all round team game I have been waiting to see is slowly coming to the fore.
It seems as though our youngsters have cottoned on to that philosophy. Given the demolition job they did on Wolves, maybe we should have used them on Sunday! Seriously though, I was really delighted for young Aliadiere in particular because for two years I have been telling just about anyone who would listen that this boy had what it took to make it at the Arsenal.
It was also nice to see the young 16 year old, Cesc get a run out alongside none other than Paddy Vieira (great to see him back) and he crowned a fine display by getting a goal and carving himself a niche in Arsenal's folklore in the process.
The only downside was that Justin Hoyte was forced off with an ankle injury though I understand that his injury isn't anywhere near as bad as first feared. I think that most Gooners would agree that both he and the excellent young left back Gael Clichy are potentially destined for great things as well.
All of the above will surely get another chance to test their credentials again in a fortnight's time when the Arsenal face ManUre's conquerors West Brom at the Hawthorns in the Carling Cup quarter-finals but now, it's time to focus on Saturday and our trip to the Walkers Bowl to face Leicester.
Some of you Gooners out there may laugh but I have been pretty impressed with what I have seen of Leicester so far and I think they have been mighty unfortunate not to have more than the 15 points they have at present.
I have seen the Foxes play a few times this year and though their results have been hit and miss I can honestly say that they are not just a bunch of bruisers they can play a little bit as well. They proved that when they demolished Leeds 4-0 earlier on this season
However I mentioned that they have been a little hit and miss didn't I? Remember that infamous capitulation at Wolves where they surrendered a 3-0 lead? I also remember watching them play our poorer relations from up the road. The Foxes had them at sixes and sevens for at least 75 minutes yet somehow they ended up losing a game they should have won easily.
Having said that they have picked up again of late and if I'm not mistaken they have taken 10 points from their last five games. Six of those points came by virtue of thumping away wins at Manchester City and last time out at Portsmouth.
So in conclusion, the Gunners will facing up against a side that are in form and like I said before this lot CAN play. They are not exclusively kick and rush merchants reliant solely on scoring from set pieces by any means.
Now I've never been one to subscribe to the view that playing in the Champions League (however big the upcoming game is) can be a distraction to any team wishing to do the business in the Premiership. Playing back to back matches for high stakes is surely what it's all about and I'm pretty sure that the other 89 English teams in the league that would love to be in our position.
Ultimately the key to success, particularly if you consider yourself to be a big club is being able to take each game on it's merits and in this particular case, I think that the Arsenal really cannot afford to be anything less than 100% focussed on what will be in front of them at the Walkers Bowl.
This is potentially a real banana skin of a match make no mistake and everyone connected with Arsenal will do well to remember that on Saturday.