You never really know what will happen in football, of course, but just like with the decisions of officials there is a theory that all sorts of things that are seen as good or bad luck tend to even themselves up over the course of a season.
Arsenal fans can only hope that this is true on the injury front. Not only could we do without a long list of Gunners having to sit out games every week, it would be a big help if our title rivals had to cope with the same sort of problems that have affected Arsenal over the first half of the season.
I am talking mainly about Chelsea, who have also seemingly been helped by having no European games to concern them. Just this week we can see on the sports injury website Squawka.com that Arsenal have eight players on the injury list while the current league leaders have just one and that is John Terry who has not been playing when he is fit.
The good news for Arsenal is that all of those eight players except Santi Cazorla are due back in January and most of them in the next few days. The Spaniard is set for a return in February and if we are not hit by more bad luck and Chelsea’s takes a turn for the worst I think it would make the race for the title very interesting indeed.
Do you think a change in fortunes would see a change to our chances of becoming EPL champions?
Sam P.
I miss Cazorla A LOT ( like last season)
We just seem like a better and winning team with him.
He is the master of his position. Nobody is close to taking the position from him.
Of course having Mustafi, Theo and Ox back is very important.
So is Mertsacker due to his experience
I am happy Welbeck is coming back but I see him more for FA Cup duty. He can play both CF and LW but Giroud, Alexis, Lucas are ahead of him at the moment.
Akpom won’t be used much for obvious reasons
i think this is the year we do not finish top 4, i would not be surprised at 6th place. i think carzola is too important to winning consistent, our problem is going to be consistent scoring. I see very little chance of winning the league, we can not beat the big teams away from home,
and i’d wager you were predicting Wenger was done after he signed Xhaka in the summer window?? don’t you get tired of predicting negativity? if there’s one thing you can bet on with Arsenal it’s that we’ll make minimum top-4…
i am usually never negative, just looking at the level the other teams are playing, pep, klopp and mou are not going down easy. its not last season. we took 1 point from the last 3 matches, i hope the hell we do win, but i fear this year is different… i can not have such a pragmatic opinion w all the new comers complaining to the admin, really?
umm what? who’s complaining to admin? who’s a newcomer?
your opinion is not pragmatic… stating that a team who’s made the top-4 for how many years in a row now? will falter is betting against the odds.
@Josh I gladly wager you a bottle of Roederer champagne that we will not finish in the top 4 this year.
Why do Arsenal have so many pessimists as fans. Why can’t we just enjoy watching the great football we play and hope something goes right for a change lol
Admin – I think it has to do with the big gap between expectation and reality.
For me, the reality is and has been over the past 10 years that top 4 was the best we could hope for and that this organization should make that its target. However every year we are being sold a dream that we can challenge for the PL. Most years (like this year) we are out of reach of the PL before half the season has been finished.
If the club and fans could rally behind the principle that we hope to finish in the top 4 but accept that we should not be considered title candidates, we would all be happier IMO.
The frustration and negativity starts when it becomes obvious we will not hit our target (PL title). Last year felt like failure only because we thought it was our best chance yet to win the PL. Had we had 4th as a realistic target, 2nd place after Spurs collapse would have felt great.
The Answer is NO, Arsenal need a few men in the Team all I can see are Boy’s. It all pass pass pass lose the ball and get sucker punched. Everton / Man City and they did not look much
better at West Brom. Arsenal need to buy a few Top Class Players and they are not going to do this as long as Mr Wenger is in charge.
Did you see West broms dirty bus? Arsenal had 75% possession and 18 shots on goal to their 2. Does that not mean that Arsenal were doing all the attacking and West Brom had a 10 man defence? I guess a superstar like you could have scored 10 in that scenario but I’m afraid we only have humans on the pitch….
As I said Pass Pass Pass. 18 shots on Goal a Top class Striker would have had 3 or 4 Goals.
It my opinion and I don’t expect any Wenger Lovers to agree with me.
you realize that chelsea had a similar game with them?.. knocked all game then had a breakthrough late on. Pulis doesn’t play actual football…
it’s still not happening this year. Arsenal just don’t have what it takes. The problem is more than just the players. Wenger’s culture of mediocrity will remain as long as he does. Will top 4 save him again? We’ll have to see, but I’ve seen this play too many times to expect anything surprising.
OT – Spurs just thumped Southampton away. All the other big boys cruise to victories, whilst Arsenal, yet again, struggle to get past a mediocre side at home. Although Wenger is the master at Champions League qualification, this could finally be the season he doesn’t achieve his number one target.
@3rdmanjw
You forgot to mention Mike Dean in that so called “thumping” of 10 man Soton…Spurs were struggling up until Dean sent off Redmond…Get it right next time. And try to rely on facts, instead of cherry pickin a bs rant.
@NY_Gunner
Okay, Spurs were up against ten me, but Utd, City, Chelsea, and Liverpool weren’t! I love the fact you didn’t mention that. Now who’s cherry picking! And talking of facts: two trophies in 11 years, no major trophy in 12 years, but let me guess…no other manager could do any better? Wenger’s still the right man for the job! Haha.
Arsenal do not win under Wenger, Arsenal do not even compete under Wenger, fact! So as a fan, what do you actually want? Clearly, winning, or even trying to win, is something that doesn’t interest you. Shameful!
So all the big boys score high in one weekend? I think if you look at the goals scored column arsenal are right up there, in fact only Liverpool have scored more. We was also one of the highest scoring teams from the champions league group stage, but hey don’t let facts get in the way of a good rant.
Also the fa cup is still a major trophy. Just because it sits behind champions league and premier league does not hide the fact that is the most single watched final outside of the world cup final. You would never hear any player saying he wouldn’t want to win the fa cup, not even the foreign ones.
Now I am no akb, as I actually think he has reached the end of the road with arsenal, but you can also not hide he is the club’s most successful manager of all time. I consider myself very fortunate to have followed the club during the wenger reign, it was certainly more enjoyable than the previous reigns I witnessed under Rioch, Houston, Graham, Howe, Burtenshaw, Neill and even Mee.
Can we win the league this season still? Yes. Reason, because there is still more than half a season left and a transfer window.
Do I think we will win it? no Reason, because we won’t spend big in the transfer window, Chelsea are looking too strong and wenger is simply now back to being tactically inferior to another manager and probably more than one. I think he blew his best chance to win it last season, when he lost it to the tactically inferior tinker an, who stumbled upon a winning theme and surprised the whole world, especially the bookies, who rarely get it wrong.
“Can we win the league this season still? Yes. Reason, because there is still more than half a season left and a transfer window” do you know that this is your wet dream? Chelsea are not like Arsenal, they lead by xmas then they go all the way. we lead by Feb and we go down all the way to win the Wenger trophy.. it’s not the 1st time this has happened, aren’t you tired of watching the same movie all over again, every season?
the manager instead of rectifying team’s problems he’s on the media slating Chelsea having a million players on loan, will that help our on the pitch performance? the old guy lost it a long time ago, he just enjoys his fat pension right now and some of us are dreaming of peeping Chelsea to the tile because because there is still more than half a season left and a transfer window?
@3rdmanjw
I “chose” spurs because thats what you led with and based your fake rant on. Considering how it really went and not how you claimed it did.
I live in reality dude and accept that you can’t win them all.
whinge, whinge, whinge… we won, 3 pts, GG
Only Arsenal and Liverpool are the teams that have been top of the league going into the new year and ended up not winning the league. Will Chelsea be the third? We have two more months for them to slip and Arsenal now really need to go on a straight winning runs if we want to stake our claim as title challengers.
unless we beat them again, and all the big 4 guys either beats them or just draws with them, that will slow them a bit
I guess as fans we have to dream, it is in our DNA. Also depending on your age you dream more of less. At my age, north of 50, you become what you think is a realist. So to me talking about the title when we are once again 9 points out of first before Christmas and struggling to win whilst most of our competitors to a top 4 finish appear to pick up steam at the right time, is just symptomatic of refusing to learn from the past 10 years. This club is not close to winning the PL. In fact, we are much more likely to finish 5th than 1st., even if we don’t have a single injured player.
I know this view might piss some people of because it is nicer to delude yourself and talk about winning the title. But look at it this way until we fail to see we are no longer competitive, we can not begin to think about the solution to that problem and the last 10 years will repeat themselves.
The first ingredient to solving a problem is the recognize there is a problem in the first place.
things never changed around here up to 3 weeks ago all the naysayers were nowhere to be seen not a word then we lose a couple of games and surprise guess who’s back? i find it very sad.
problem is, it’s the same movie replayed again from previous seasons.. why can’t they be consistent, have determination and guts? why Wenger is still the same looking clueless in every match? his excuses are the same, referees? why same things every year? Wenger trophy.. all the way