Claudio Ranieri was the first Chelsea manager in the Roman Abramovich era, and was in charge at Stamford Bridge when the Blues finished runners-up to Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles. Back in those days Arsenal had nearly total domination over our London rivals and Ranieri only managed one surprise win in 14 games against the Gunners.
Eleven years later Ranieri has returned to the Premiership with Leicester City and the Italian is very surprised that Wenger has not won the title since those heady days. “When they were the Invincibles that was an unbelievable achievement and I don’t know why they have to wait so long,” he said in the Telegraph.
“I was surprised because Arsene is a good manager and every time he chooses very good players. But maybe it is not easy to play without Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg and all the defenders. That is not easy.
“They are definitely ready to be title contenders again this season, the Champions League maybe not yet, but with a little luck, why not?
“It’s not my problem, my problem is to try and beat Arsenal now. My record against them is bad and if I remember well I didn’t win for 13 matches – but I won the last.”
Let us hope that Wenger can continue his great record against Ranieri, but at this moment Leicester are the only unbeaten team in the top flight and will not be a pushover, especially at the King Power Stadium where they are unbeaten since April. Ranieri has his feet on the ground and realises that this run is bound to end at some point.
“For us it is important to try and stay there and maintain the start – not to think about what we can do. Our fans can dream but we have to stay very calm and work very hard because a defeat is around the corner,” he continued.
“Now we are in good condition and that is good for us. We will try to beat them in this moment.”
If Ranieri is right that Arsenal could be in the race for the title this season, then we can only prove it by winning tough games like this on tomorrow….
Managers always say that
the team they play next
is the most dangerous
team in the world 🙂
Wenger will say Leicester are the
best team in the league.
All to focus their team
and eliminate any over confidence.
The mind games are a method adopted to Ruin the Arsenal party by oozing too much confidence into the camp!…………. Moanino stratagem!
Long as The Arsenal can stay focused and work harder to smooth the rough edges in their game,like staying calm in front of goal every time when presented with scoring chances,because I know they will create,we should be good to go.Don’t underrate Leicester,they look like a decent team already. COYG
We can absolutely win the league with this squad. We would need all of our big players to remain injury free and we’d need the rub of the green but it’s definitely possible.
But 1 game at a time Leicester are the in form team right now so let’s get those 3 points Saturday
The thing to remember playing Leicester is that they have the mentality to come from behind..Watched their 3-2 win vs Aston Villa-amazing performance from being 2-0 down.
True, they have that never die attitude, saw the same thing against Stoke last weekend.
If a team has to beat them they have to take there chances and finish them off completely (which no team has managed to do so far this season). This was a tight game even last season, cant remember whether we drew or won 1 nil.
With there fast attack it would be suicidal to play a high line plus slow defenders. We really need Coq in such a game and our midfield needs to be on point both in attack and defending. There weak point is there CB pairing, hope Theo and or OG can exploit that to our advantage.
yeap they have a weak point – have conceded in every game they played this season…
That could have been the case if Mertesacker or Gabriel weren’t available for the game. Now we have both to partner up with Koscielny. Also, our first choice back four has been excellent this season. Concerns can be with DM position if Coquelin isn’t fit. But the most concerning thing is be our attack. Sanchez still finding his form, Walcott needs games to master CF role, Giroud is low on confidence. I mean they can score, but they have to raise their game big time.
Overall defense is good, but attack is not that promising as expected.
Interesting thing. Guess who was refereeing the Villa – Leicester match?
If we had half the heart that leicester show then we would be title contenders with the squad but contenders not winners!! Still shy of a real goal scorer in this team!
@admin…..this is funny!………… Why is my Comment awaiting moderation?……… What evil have i said? L()L
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i’m sorry!………….but i thought i saw right at the top of my comment…. “your comment is awaiting moderation” ……had to voice out!
probable line up imo
bellarin, gab, kos, monreal
ramsey, arteta
chamberlain, ozil, sanches
walcott.
wish le coq was there though.
Cazorla is available, don’t you know?
that would be better. but then i think wenger would put ramsey on the right and pair Santi with arteta.
I don’t mind Ranieri, although he did manage Chelsea.
He’s a very nice man and good manager. He dose so much for the kids in football
Someone is heading for a beating from Arsenal. The gole,s will come at some point. But I’m happy with 1-0 to the Arsenal all season with ugly football I don’t care. We need big win then Man U. Got to have faith it will come