Arsenal's 2-1 defeat at West Brom on Saturday seemed to be less a Premier League fixture and more a comprehensive exhibition of one club's problems. The most frustrating thing about Arsenal must be not just that these problems are so familiar, but more that they and Arsene Wenger rarely seem to learn from them.

We saw the full range from the Gunners. There was the profligacy -- they spurned a number of golden chances, with Joel Campbell's embarrassing skewed effort and Santi Cazorla's comic penalty being the worst examples. There were injuries: Francis Coquelin went off in the first half to be replaced by Mikel Arteta, who in turn was struck down and had to be replaced by Mathieu Flamini. Those ailments are added to the list that also includes Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere.

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Arsenal Arsenal 2 1 FT Game Details GameCast

Lineups and Stats

And then there's the traditional November slump. In 2014-15, Arsenal lost back-to-back games to Swansea and Manchester United. In 2013-14 it was a defeat to United again, in 2012-13 points were dropped to United, Fulham, Everton and Aston Villa. The 2011-12 season was actually pretty decent aside from a draw with Fulham, but the pattern is there: According to Opta, November is Arsenal's least successful month since Arsene Wenger arrived at the club.

Nasty November Avg Points/game under Wenger Aug 1.90 Sep 2.10 Oct 2.13 Nov 1.60 Dec 1.97 Jan 1.93 Feb 1.99 Mar 2.22 Apr 2.10 May 1.95 - Orbinho (@Orbinho) November 22, 2015

That could be a coincidence, a quirk of the fixture list, and the Gregorian calendar doesn't actually mean much. On the other hand, it could be the time of year that Arsenal's perennial problem with injuries starts to bite not because they're denied several crucial players, but because the pressure and the strain placed on those able to stay healthy is greater.

At most clubs, a glut of injuries like they have would be considered unlucky, but it's something else if it keeps happening again and again. Arsenal essentially keep having the same season -- early promise eventually ruined by either mental fragility or their injuries -- but with enough signs of quality to suggest that they could get better. It leads to people kidding themselves that they would be fine if only they could keep enough of their players fit.

The problem is that it happens so often that only the most deluded fans could think it won't do so again and now here we are -- coming toward the end of November, Arsenal have 10 first-team players in the treatment room.

Francis Coquelin's injury could prove serious, therefore piling more pressure on an already thin Arsenal squad.

This brings us back to Arsenal's summer transfer window, when they only bought Petr Cech. While he is a fine goalkeeper who has made Arsenal better, the fact that he was their only addition is absurd, particularly due to deficiencies elsewhere in the squad, the most glaring area being in defensive midfield. Wenger's policy is not to buy for the sake of it, only making significant moves if someone is available that is better than those he already has. It's a perfectly sensible strategy but if he can't find a defensive midfielder better than Mathieu Flamini or Mikel Arteta to at least compete with Coquelin, then something is wrong.

All of this is happening in the "post-parsimony era" of Arsenal, when they can afford to spend £45 million on a player given that the pressures of paying for their stadium are now lifted. And yet they choose not to, taking the multi-layered gamble that Coquelin would be as good as last season, when he returned from a loan spell at Charlton and implausibly became one of the best defensive midfielders in the country, would stay fit and that Flamini or Arteta would be adequate back-up.

Coquelin and Ramsey are perhaps the only reliable true centre-midfielders in the Arsenal squad, though Wenger seems to play the latter out wide more often than not. Wilshere is fit so infrequently that Wenger must have thought about giving up on him (ditto Rosicky), Arteta and Flamini aren't good enough and while Cazorla has admittedly adapted surprisingly well to his conversion to a deeper role, he can still be overrun too easily and is a more attacking player by nature.

The fact that Arsenal aren't completely spineless and devoid of the required mentality is a source of added frustration. At home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, they were faced with a game they absolutely had to win, under pressure against probably the best club side