Arsenals title race is still on
The Arsenal have arguably dropped off this season already in terms of the title race, but recent domestic circumstances have changed and The Gunners are back in the firing line!
Mikel Arteta’s squad might’ve dropped down to fifth in the table following a 0-1 defeat to be seven points off Liverpool at the top but as the saying goes “tables are for turning”.
There has been no out and out convincing early title winner in the Premiership after ten games.
Manchester City are a prime example, they were beaten 2-1 at the weekend by AFC Bournemouth who are just about in the top half of the Premier League.
It was their second consecutive defeat in all competitions, following their also 2-1 loss in the League Cup round of 16 less than a week ago against Spurs.
They’re only five points above us in second and really there’s nothing in it, also had we not conceded a goal in the dying minutes to them in our 2-2 draw we’d be sat just beneath them and only two points behind. In fact if we had of beaten Liverpool too we could’ve just been in joint second right now with City.
The Citizens, according to manager Pep Guardiola only contain 13 players in their side, with Phil Foden in command of attack last week for a change but with little option.
A concerned Spaniard declared on Wednesday night to Sky Sports after being knocked out the League Cup to Tottenham: ”We have 13 players (available) so we are in real difficulty.
“The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we’ll see how they recover.
“Tomorrow we have two keepers and Erling Haaland for the training session, the rest, so we don’t have anything else.
“It’s tough.”
This was evident against The Cherries at the weekend as they struggled to do anything to stop a humiliating defeat from unravelling.
Liverpool have not looked the most convincing team even though they’re top of the Premier League. They were beaten by Nottingham Forest although they were underdogs.
They were very lucky to rescue a draw against us last week when they looked far from being potential Champions in the first half. If they didn’t win they would’ve been on joint points with Manchester City in second and not two points ahead.
The Reds also went a goal down to Brighton on Saturday at Anfield after Ferdi Kadioglu opened up the scoring within the first 14 minutes of the match. Connor Gakpo and Mohamed Salah were forced to show up in the final 10 minutes to steal a late 2-1 victory.
Simply put The North Londoner’s are lucky they aren’t eight points off the top after City lost due to ongoing squad issues and Liverpool haven’t looked amazing either.
Arteta was adamant that despite their current expectation and form they aren’t distracted by the title chase.
“But after eight, nine or ten games last year we didn’t (talk about it) and we won’t talk about it now.
“It’s about how you react to that. We’re not going to find the right words or answers to describe how we feel. We have to put it on that field on Wednesday night against Inter.” An undeterred Arteta claimed.
He further admitted that The Arsenal we saw on Saturday that struggled to equalise against Newcastle was not the real deal we are normally used to seeing play.
Arteta said firmly:” Today we weren’t. Especially in certain parts. I think against Liverpool in many moments we were.”
On top of that we are also missing the creativity in midfield from Martin Odegaard which could’ve boosted our attacking capabilities at the weekend and recently. In December it should return alongside the command and voice of our extremely missed captain!
There are still 84 points on offer to collect till the end of the season in our next 28 matches where anything is still possible as long as we pick ourselves up!
Come on You Gunners!!!
Liam Harding
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