Have Arsenal turned pressure onto Leicester?

If it wasn’t for those pesky Spuds, to borrow a phrase from Scooby Doo, Arsenal would be involved in a top of the table clash next weekend when Claudio Ranieri brings his league leaders to north London for another crucial match in the quest for the Premier League title.

If Arsenal had not managed to break our scoring drought and bag all three points away to Bournemouth today, it could well have been seen as the end of our own challenge, but as it happens the pressure and expectation that the Gunners have been feeling since going two points clear at the start of the year could now be switched to the shoulders of the Leicester players and manager.

Arsenal certainly seem to play better when faced with the different pressure of chasing or getting ourselves out of a bad situation and hopefully our Premier League rivals will also struggle to cope with the role of being favourites and having everything to lose. Getting over the line is sometimes the hardest thing to do, especially when someone is catching you up.

Arsene Wenger would definitely like these thoughts to be weighing on their minds this week ahead of the big game and he used his post match comments after beating Bournemouth to try to increase that pressure. As reported by Arsenal.com the Frenchman restated his belief that the Foxes are now favourites after winning away at Man City, although I am sure that Ranieri will be doing his best to tell his players otherwise.

Wenger said, “In one week Leicester have beaten Liverpool and Manchester City. That means that they suddenly become the favourite to win the Premier League. That makes our game on Sunday a big one.

“We have been in the title race and we are still in it. We cannot control people’s opinion and we need to show that we believe in it. We have to do it. It is still a long way to go. Leicester City is a favourite and we have a big game at home against them and I hope we have enough quality and nerves to deal with that.”

So far Leicester have kept it together really well and they are on the sort of run that saw Liverpool get within a whisker a couple of years ago before they faltered. Could Arsenal make the same thing happen to Leicester?

Tags Ranieri Wenger

21 Comments

  1. No, Leicester never felt pressure and never will because they don’t have anything to lose. That’s how title winning teams should be in the mental sense, unfortunately Wenger can’t get most of his players to give 100% each game, part of this is because he still relies on certain players that are nowhere near good enough to be starters for Arsenal let alone a top 4 club.

    1. True…why do we have so many forward players (Giroud, Walcott, Campbell, Ox, Welbeck) that can work really well in team play, help the defence…but can’t do the primary thing which is scoring CONSISTENTLY over a full season specialy with the amount of chances are team work & creative players manage to create…Baffling
      They can’t take over, if there’s one chance to push a draw to a win or a loss to a draw there’s no certainty….
      We are the only ones in the top 6 who find the needs to rotate frequently our strikers because we simply don’t have one that can do it all with no injuries & CONSISTENCY…

      1. Agreed they do everything right except for their jobs lol. I admire Giroud and always support him but in reality he’s not the standard we need to take our team to the next level. I just saw Mahrez’s goal and damn, apart from Alexis no one else in the squad can give us that goal scoring prowess. We need that type of player who will snatch victories from nothing, I love Sanchez but he needs support with the goals or he will end up being fed up like RVP.

    2. Pressure is all on us and thats why we need to hit them hard from the start and wish them welcome to Emirates with couple of fast goals.

  2. Next two ga,es will determine our title ambition. Leicester (h) and MU(a). Win those two and then we will talk.

  3. They will only if they win against them next week & Man U (would make up for the 2 chelski games)…doesn’t matter how just need the 3 points…Sanchez got to do better, Ramsey lost the ball a lot trying a few stuff needs to play it more simple special against better who can counter…What is happening to our strikers??

    Coquelin needs to come back in the side & where the HELL is Elneny?! You buy a player who did well in when he played & then we don’t see him at all (If Flamini had been sent off today would we have won that game?)!! We lost/drew games that we should have won in January to increase our margin of error and make our life easier now unfortunately we got to go out there & compete to have a near perfect February & March excluding Barca…

      1. The real question is will he be in the team next week? I would like to see Coq start with Elneny on the bench and Flamini out of the lineup. Instead, we will probably see the same thing as yesterday.

  4. Not only have our player’s bottled it when we were top,
    But they also failed when under pressure to go top on numerous occasions! ?

    To say that Leicester will be under pressure, when they visit the Emirates is ludicrous! ? They have proved all the doubters wrong, each and every time, when they were expected to falter.

    Don’t forget that Leicester are not involved in any other competition, so they will be fresh for all their remaining fixtures.

    Wenger has a week to get his players fit and mentality ready for Sunday’s valentines day clash, So there will be no excuses if Leicester bend us over and give us a good romantic -seeing – too ????

    If the real Arsenal turn up, then we will easily beat Leicester and close the gap to two points, which is further proof that Leicester won’t be under any pressure, as they will still be top even if they lose and with a easier run of fixtures ahead of them, they know that they will still maintain their advantage into the latter stages of the season.

    At this moment in time, Only a fool would denie that Leicester are the firm favourites for the title, Especially after their last two results and their 5 point lead at the top.

    As for the Spuds, I hope that Man City hammer them back into our shadow’s on Sunday week, rather than that game finishing a draw ???

    Hey.. Mr Wenger!
    The transfer window closed last week,
    It’s time to Wake up from your slumber And pull your finger out! ? You have a lot of catching up to do ?

    1. Pressure is all on us and thats why we need to hit them hard from the start and wish them welcome to Emirates with couple of fast goals.

  5. did wengert say on any interview why he started flam over coq? bizarre. almost cost us the game ; had ref given flam a red.

    1. No he didn’t but we all know that mr wenger loves a pound and what with Flamini in line to be a future billionaire,
      I let you figure that one out ???

        1. Oh and Wenger always tells the truth…. right? ?
          Like … Welbeck being fit and ready to start the season,
          When all along wenger knew that Welbeck was going in for surgery ?

          There’s many more sugar coated bull?,
          where that came from… I just can’t be assed ?

          1. Seriously Fatboy, don’t you think Wenger would prefer to play Coquelin ahead of Flamini? He did for a year before Le Coq’s injury. Talk some sense man

  6. Leicester players puls will go up for every match as they maintain the top spot
    the thing however is that they dont play any cup or Euro meaning only 12 games 3.5 months that’s a luxury

    Arsenal should get better
    At last AW listened and plays Gabriel and we have 2 clean sheets
    Ox is not good enough although he scored. Sanchez is on 50% only. Giroud has high work rate but not enough. Walcot is too weak
    we need sanchez back to 100%, Cazorla back, Welbeck and wilshere back

    did u guys see how Chelsea pressured manu in the last 10 minutes, 93% possession against manu in the last 10min!!!! we cannot do that against a league 1 team as long as Cazorla is not there to hold the ball and with only Giroud upfront.

    1. I agree but I don’t think thats because Caz or Welbs or even Wilsh are not in the team.
      It’s all about wrong or none of psychological motivation boost for the players before the game and at half time.
      That results with often clueless hoovering in front of opponents goal,panic and clumsy reactions when defending and clearing out the danger.
      So the person who’s job is to prepare team psychologically is failing do fulfill his task.
      Whoever it is should be fired!!!
      End of discussion!!

  7. guys,
    if we want to win the BPL title or at least stay as contender until last month, we have to let CL go.
    first of all, our best 11 against their team have not even a 5% chance. Secondly, imagine even if the get really lucky and beat Barca and meet Bayern or Real in the next match, can we handle that. We end up with pile of injuries and no trophies. We have to be realistic that Arsenal do not have the quality or depth to win CL.
    4 days after Barca game we have to face Manu away and that game is massive and a week later Spurs away.
    honestly, should we blame AW if he plays a team like this against Barca:
    Czech
    Chambers, Kos, Gabriel, Gibbs
    Flamini, Elneni
    Iwobi, Ox, Campbel
    Walcot

    rest the team and go after BPL title instead

    1. Do u think the likes of ozil and Sanchez signed up only to be benched for games like this.we want Wenger to sign the best but we don’t want them to feature against the best teams because u think we stand no chance. I don’t understand some fans

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