So there’s 13 games to go… can Arsenal do it?!

After winning their game in hand 4-0 win against Everton, Arsenal went 5 points clear of Manchester City. So after 25 games, the Premier League table looks like this:

Photo credit: Premier League Twitter

Arsenal are on 60 points and Manchester City on 55.

I’ve said all season that I would be over the moon with Top 4 and our place back in the Champions League, and that’s still the case. But it dawned on my last night that there are 13 games left!

That’s still a big number of games remaining, but not sure a huge number. And anything can happen between now and the end of May, but even a pessimistic like myself is starting to believe – just a little bit anyway!

And this is not just me being reserved or trying to play down our chances, but all things considered Manchester City are still favourites for me – even with Arsenal having a 5 point lead.

They have won 4 of the last 5 Premier League titles, with the following points totals:

2021/2022: 93 points
2020/2021: 86 points
2018/2019: 98 points
2017/2018: 100 points

So a rough average of the points Manchester City will achieve this season is around 95 points – but in the title winnings seasons they usually lost between 2 and 4 games, whereas this season they have already lost 4.

But they have the experience in winning the league and getting results when it matters. In the last game of the season last year, when they needed a win and were losing 2-0 to Aston Villa, they rallied and came back to win in dramatic fashion. They have the players, the expertise and knowhow when it comes to the crunch moments. Plus they have Pep Guardiola, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest coaches of all time.

But there’s no doubt Arsenal have been phenomenal this season and the belief Arteta has instilled in his young squad is nothing short of miraculous. He’s given the Arsenal fans hope, and put us in a real title challenge for the first time in 18 years. Whatever happens, we can be proud of the players, the manager and the club.

But do you think we can get over the line and do it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

 

Did you even imagine Arsenal would be in this position going into November before the season started?!

In the summer, we brought in a few players like William Saliba (finally), Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, and after the 5th place finish last season, the level of optimism from Arsenal fans was fairly high – as it usually is. However, 4 months later, Arsenal are top of the league, 2 points clear of the mammoth Manchester City, who are seen as many as this unbeatable footballing machine, thanks to the addition of Erling Haaland.

The biggest criticism has been that although we can beat the lower teams in the Premier League, we always bottled it against the top sides. However, we have beaten Tottenham and Liverpool, and even though we lost against Manchester United, the general consensus was that we were the better team.

And we face Chelsea this weekend.

And in the Europa League, we’ve topped the group with a win against FC Zurich last night, although it was certainly a nervy finally 20 minutes as they turned the screw and really pushed for that equaliser which would have been a disaster for us!

So the big question is, hand on heart – did you expect Arsenal to be in this position before the season started?

Given we had the terrible burden of Thursday Night Football, I have been surprised at the performances in the Premier League and we’ve managed to keep up such a high level. Although the games against Leeds and Southampton certainly saw the effects of this – we managed to get back into the groove in a much better performance against Nottingham Forest.

And another question, where can Arsenal finish this season?

Let me know in the comments section below!

 

Where will Arsenal finish this season? Cast your vote here!

There is no doubt that Arsenal have started the season in fantastic fashion.

Great football, great performances and most importantly, great wins. Minus the blip against Manchester United, Arsenal have managed to win 6 of their first 7 games of the season – and currently sit 1st in the Premier League table.

By anyone’s standards, that’s a blistering start to the campaign.

As the old adage goes, there’s a hell of a long way left to go this season but where will we end up?

It’s a tough question to answer because we’re only 2 months into the new season, and we don’t know how we’ll do against the other Top 6 sides this season. Added to this, we also don’t know how the Winter World Cup will affect Arsenal, and indeed affect the other Top 6 sides.

We have the North London Derby this coming weekend and the big question for that game is can Arsenal learn their lessons from the Manchester United game?

It will be another tough match and while we played well at Old Trafford, and were arguably the better team, United picked us off far too easily. They had a game plan and executed it excellently, and we didn’t have the answers. Yes, I would say United were negative in their approach, especially as they were supposed to be the home side – and in the end they parked the bus and played like the away team – but that’s exactly what Tottenham will do.

Conte’s approach is to win by any means necessary, and that will include putting 11 men behind the ball and then hoping Kane, Son and Kulusevski can hurt us on the break.

It will be a difficult game that’s for sure, but I’m hoping the fantastic Emirates atmosphere will get us over the line.

But where do you think we will finish this season? Can we genuinely challenge for the title? Or should we be fighting to get ourselves back into the Champions League places?

And how will our Europa League campaign and the Winter World Cup affect our season?

Cast your vote below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

 

Why the reaction to the new European Super League is well over the top!

The reaction to the formation of the new European Super League has been quite astounding, really.

Every man and their dog has expressed outrage – ex-players, pundits, bloggers, supporters, radio stations, fans groups… the list goes on. But it strikes me that people are being outraged without understanding what is actually happening.

Which is some of Europe’s biggest teams have decided to start their own competition. That’s literally it.

They haven’t said they would leave their domestic leagues (in our case the Premier League) so what’s the problem? That Arsenal might not participate in the FA Cup? Well that hasn’t been decided yet has it? People are completely freaking out for no reason!

This is a model Arsene Wenger said 11 years ago that would happen “within 10 years”, and as usually Arsene was pretty much on the money.

The argument about greed is just laughable. The boat sailed a long time ago, back in 1992 when the Premier League was formed. Did anyone care about the negative affect it would have on lower leagues? No. Did they care that the extra money used to buy foreign talent would stifle our English youth? No. The hypocrisy is real.

The bottom line is the Premier League and UEFA let this happen with the way they behaved, and a European Super League should be no surprise – Arsene Wenger knew this would happen over a decade ago!

The Premier League let clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City have owners that had questionable backgrounds come in and splash obscene amounts of money so that they could get the best players and increase the viewership worldwide. You realise the PL make insane money from worldwide TV rights don’t you?

And UEFA? They pretended to implemented FFP (Financial Fair Play) but let the richest clubs (Manchester City, PSG, etc.) break these rules time and time again without punishment.

Why? Because UEFA are corrupt and again, all they want is the best players so they have the highest viewing figures possible.

This is something which has been on the cards for a long long time, and the hypocrisy and outrage from these so called pundits is laughable.

 

Arsene Wenger predicted this would happen… and why the Premier League & UEFA are to blame!

The overreaction to the formation of the European Super League is absolutely ridiculous. It’s similar to the hysteria about Brexit and scaring people into leaving the EU.

It’s a model used all over the sporting world. People need to stop being so naive – Arsene Wenger said 10 years ago that there would be a European Super League by 2022.

The argument about greed is utterly moronic. That boat sailed a long time ago with the start of the Premier League, and it set back lower league sides for decades while making PL sides richer and richer.

And Arsene predicted that this would happen directly because of the behaviour or the Premier League and UEFA.

The Premier League let clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City have owners that had questionable backgrounds come in and splash obscene amounts of money so that they could get the best players and increase the viewership worldwide. You realise the PL make insane money from worldwide TV rights don’t you?

And UEFA? They pretended to implemented FFP (Financial Fair Play) but let the richest clubs (Manchester City, PSG, etc.) break these rules time and time again without punishment.

Why? Because UEFA are corrupt and again, all they want is the best players so they have the highest viewing figures possible.

This is something which has been on the cards for a long long time, and the hypocrisy and outrage from these so called pundits is laughable.

Ever since the Premier League was formed in 1992 all football has ever been about is money. So why are people shocked when years later, a money driven decision is made by the top clubs.

You reap what you sow and this is the result.