Wenger cautiously optimistic on Arsenal’s title chances

Last summer saw Arsenal fans very optimistic about us winning the title, but the combination of the World Cup hangover and an incredibly long injury list scuppered our chances of keeping up with Chelsea in the early stages of the campaign, but this year Arsene Wenger sounds even more confident of challenging but he’s refusing to commit himself to predictions.

He was asked about our title chances after Arsenal slaughtered Lyon today: “Let’s be cautious on that front.” he said. “We finished third in the league and won the FA Cup last season. That’s a good basis, of course. Our target is to do better. We know that we will put all of our effort in and that it will be very difficult because it will be a big challenge. We just want to focus on our quality.

“Top-level sport requires you to get the best out of your potential, so to achieve that it’s important that we focus on our own performance and do not worry too much about the others. We just have to focus on being as good as we can be.”

The Gunners had a brilliant run at the end of last season, and we all were praying that we carried on that consistency into this season,and it is looking good so far. Wenger agrees with this statement. He said: “It was a good, dynamic, collective performance where we could see that many players scored goals. Overall it’s in the continuity of what we did at the end of last season, and we’ve taken that form into pre-season as well. There’s a good team dynamic and we’ve shown again that we can score goals, which is what everybody expects from us.

“We have more cohesion than at the same period last year. Everybody has a better focus. Last year was a post-World Cup year and some players came back mentally exhausted. Hopefully we can take advantage of that this season.”

Cohesion is definitely Wenger’s favourite word this month, and we can’t deny that the team have looked extremely good in our games so far. Next week we play the Champions Chelsea and I can’t help but feel that (for a change!) we actually have the form and the impetus to show them how much we have improved. And surely Petr Cech will be playing out of his skin tostop them scoring…..

Tags Cech Chelsea Wenger

25 Comments

  1. Think cautiously optimistic is the stance to take though the excuse of a world cup hangover isn’t appropriate as Chelsea had more players involved in the world cup in the latter stages, they got less rest as our players came back later after Wegner gave them an extended holiday.

    As far as our squad goes we will at the very least give a good account of ourselves though I think we need more depth and are treading a very fine line here. I don’t think it’s wise to have Coquelin as our only DM but we’ll see.

    Next week will be a good test of our abilities as we’ll be without Sanchez and Welbeck and it will b a good barometer as far as a pound or pound XI is concerned

    1. that s not the point. players like merts and oxil are soo importsnt to the squad and they could not motivste themselves after achieving the greatest trophy in football. they had a form dip and combine that woth an attrocious injury situation, ur not winning the epl. simple.

      1. That’s a cop out. Wilian, Oscar, Ramires and Luis had the tournament held in their own country, Schurrle, Hazard, Courtois were all key parts of Chelsea’s squad. You make it sound as if it’s excusable to not be able to motivate yourself for your club because of previous success.

        It’s why they were given the extended holiday, if you’re suggesting it’s ok for players to under – perform because of the world cup then all I can do is respect your opinion but that is a terrible excuse and wouldn’t be accepted any major club across Europe and is unprofessional to say the least

        1. we will not win PL until we have someone at CF who’s better than Giroud.
          (we also need backup for coquelin: flam/arteta arent going to be enough)

          i’ll also be watching w interest, now that both ramsey/wilshere are fit, whether wenger will rotate sufficiently between PL and CL. we have almost enough for 2 teams.

          I wonder who’ll be CAM when ozil isnt doing that role? wilshere? Carzola? ramsey??
          for cf’s we have 2 that are so-so. longer run, i’m optimistic about akpom.
          for wingers, we have 3 sanchez/walcott/chamberlain [maybe ramsey,gnabry too?]
          for deep lying playmaker we have cazorla (and maybe wilshere backups)
          for cdm of course we have coq (and we dont have good backup).
          there’s a lot of goal in the team, but i still wish we had a WC striker and wenger’s chase of benzema and previously higuain and sanchez shows he does too (but his penny pinching gets in his own way)

  2. Arsenal have shown this group can do it. They just need to hold their form and limit their injuries for an entire season – not just half. I am very optimistic. 2 quality acquisitions would boost my optimism even further.

    1. Every season NIKK…the same thing, same hype, a few preseason wins, all our players are world class, “this season you’ll see Giroud will be super”, Wenger talking big, fans falling for it (even myself until 2012 after he sold RVP) for the past 4 or 5 years. Just a cruel vicious cycle. But apparently Wenger does a good job because every July he certainly has the power to erase the minds of some fans which he has control over.

      1. Depressing comment
        Optimism is NOT unwarranted. Arsenal were the best EPL team the 2nd half of last season. Yes, the most recent months Arsenal dominated the EPL and won the FA Cup

        And in the first half they were missing Giroud, Walcott, Gabriel and various other key players sporadically – Ramsey, Ox etc.

        Just need a couple of players to shore up the depth. Maybe 1 DM and a winger or striker. In fact, it would be stupid to disrupt this group that is on a roll by securing a dozen new signings. That is what LPool did last season and they were very poor.

        1. Trust me, I am on your side now. We don’t need to disrupt any of these players as it will be UTTERLY stupid to add competition and bolster the squad. We don’t even need to sign anyone. The players we have are good as they are.
          On May 15, 2016 come back here and tell me how good they are….ok?

            1. True. Its the personnel that the club should utilize to return to being a powerhouse that we disagree on most times.
              I know the team isn’t far off. But if the same piece is missing every season that never gets fixed or filled then we can’t expect different or better results with the same approach. So that’s why I say there is nothing to be optimistic yet.

        2. btw…have you seen me say we need a dozen new signings?
          And optimism is warranted when we actually have a ST upfront talented enough to win the golden boot in the EPL and that we know can do the job. When we actually have a squad with quality in depth. If we added ST and a DM at least I would be optimistic.
          But right now, with the same squad from last season as starters save Petr Cech there is not much to be optimistic about. Its not like its the same squad that maybe won the EPL 2 times in the past 4 years and we aren’t in need of much bolstering just like the position that Chelsea are in.
          Chelsea fans, Man City fans, Man Utd fans can be optimistic. They have alternated EPL titles for the past 6 seasons or the past decade and are even making their squad stronger trying to win it again. They make sure they do what it takes to win it. They complete their squads and put together a team capable of winning at the start of the season. If at the end of the season one of them does not win…fair enough but they did everything to win it.
          I don’t think we do everything in terms of setting up the squad to win the EPL or even challenge for the CL. If we do we would have probably won the EPL in 2013/2014. Let me remind you of the 2013/2014 window where we had a good chance of winning the title…our dear manager in the January transfer window signed only Kallstrom, an injured player, who couldn’t play until April while we still had a chance at the title and logic suggested he needed to bring in a striker. Pundits, everyone crying out for us to sign a ST. Probably even yourself. He could have loaned a ST or signed a ST and loaned any other midfielder that wasn’t injured but he went for Kallstrom.
          F*ck optimism for no reason. Until we have players capable of bringing the title, we are not warranted to be optimistic. We should be realistic.

      2. BTW. My optimism does NOT come from this win vs. Lyon. I don’t put a lot of stock in pre-season results. Pre-season results are notoriously unreliable predictors of upcoming league play.

      3. K-ool, you need to spend the money for a psychologist instead of making us read your depressive manifestos on a daily basis. Seriously, the website you are looking for is Hotspur.com. please never return to this one again. Don’t take your general unhappiness out on us!!!

        1. Kool, unless you want to pay us $80 an hour to listen to cry everyday. Dude, you are exhausting

  3. Calm down Beavis, it was one game. Continuity is good, consistency is better. Let’s see some consistency first before we start barking about titles.

    Great result, loved the quality. Very proud of the players and scoring in bunches. Holla at me in March. Hopefully contenders not pretenders.

    For today, the bullies were the good guys

  4. Hmm………Manure have just slaughtered barca (well Messi and Neymar were absent)…….. But this window, they have signed depay, schneirderlin, schweinsteiger, darmian …….does this tell us something?

    1. we destroyed Lyon 6-0, does that tell you something LOL, its a pre season, city lost to RM 4-1 i think they need 4 or 5 new players haha

    2. All these ManU and LPool signings are tacit admissions that their teams were no where near ready to fight for the league title. New signings were needed, but it takes time to create cohesion and continuity within a club when neither the fans nor the players know who the h#ll is even on the team anymore.

  5. i just hope this cautious optimism doesn’t begin to seep into the dressing room, and the players minds from wenger(and poison there belief to win something). as he is the one who sets the tone for our achievements on the season, and he need to show a bit more belief in this team and want it as much as we want it as the fans.

  6. I am very pleased with our fitness team, our players look very fit and ready to kick off, it seams Shad did great job, if you look other team they didnt reach even 50 %, while we are at least 70 80 %, considering comunity shield is next week, i think Wenger could get his first win over Mourinho…

  7. Great confidence builder today, but with 6 different goal scorers and sanchez and welbeck missing has our search for a top top class striker ended today? Hope not imagine these goals from midfield and a 25/30 goal per season striker, dangerous and fierce goals scored tally to look forward to 🙂

  8. Its not a world class striker that will win us the league.Its the overall work rate,cohesion, desire to win and luck that will do the magic.

  9. I think arsenal as a team is good. But I sincerely feel we need 2 or 3 additions, especially in the department of Striking, Dmf and possibly CB. With such additions, I will be certainly sure of Trophies to come.

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