Before this weekend’s games, Antonio Conte implied that Arsenal needed to demonstrate their ability to thrive under pressure if they were to have any chance of winning the Premier League, saying to the Tottenham Youtube: “Arsenal are doing very well. Now they have to show they can stay there until the end of the season because I’m sure Manchester City doesn’t agree and will feel the real possibility to win again, especially because Liverpool already lost a lot of points – the same for Chelsea and Manchester United.”
The weekend results favoured Arsenal, as Manchester City failed to win and thus dropped three points, while the Gunners won the North London derby against Conte’s bottlers, increasing the gap between them at the top of the league table and Manchester City at number two to eight points. We were all feeling like we had won jackpots at all the best online casinos in Canada in the same weekend. Certainly, with an 8-point lead, Arsenal cannot be under pressure, don’t you think?
William Saliba believes Arsenal are not under pressure, and if they are, opponents should be aware that they thrive under pressure. “There’s no pressure because we play for that. It’s better to have this pressure when you are at the top, than when you are down at the bottom. It’s better to keep going like this, and we don’t have to have pressure,” said Saliba as per the Mirror.
“After the summer, when I saw the team and the mentality, I told myself, “Yeah, we can do something this season.” We are focused on ourselves. We are not focused on our rivals. We have to keep going like this and stay focused only on ourselves.
“It’s never enough. We know we have a lot of games to go. We have to be focused because things can change quickly.”
Saliba also discussed the upcoming match against a resurgent Manchester United. Manchester United are unbeaten in nine games, but the Frenchman believes they can give them a taste of what it’s like to lose when they visit the Emirates. “They are the only team to beat us this season in the Premier League, and we want to beat them again at home. We will prepare very well for this game, I think, and I hope we will win in front of our fans,” added Saliba.
A win this weekend will certainly dispel any doubts that are still festering. Having come away from our games against Brighton, Newcastle and Tottenham with 7 points, this is the last hurdle in our run of tough fixtures….
For the past 5 or so years our players have received stick and banter, being the butt of jokes from opposition fans and pundits chipping in too all so readily, now the club feels as one again with the whole fanbase onside fully behind the team and have regained respect from the outsiders bar a few like that fool Richard Keys. They should enjoy every minute of this and not feel any pressure whatsoever. That is the point of view the players hopefully take.
We are on the cusp of being the outright favorites for the League imo, upcoming home games against both Manchester clubs will make that official especially if we win both matches (really want to beat those arrogant United fans who think they are going to rock up to the Emirates and win easily)
It’s so interesting that the form of Gabriel now has gone up and that he has overshadowed Saliba yet most arsenal fans fails to admit and start blaming the world cup,Saliba hasn’t lost is form it is just the whole back line playing well. Saliba saved the whole back line in the first 15 games so the whole back line have pulled up their socks now
I want to see how true this is by how well we recover from a 5-nil thrashing out of the blues on a very bad day in the office. Then, only then can you preach thriving under pressure to me! I have watched us collapse so many times, I am currently living on oxygen every matchday! Last season still rankles, dear Lord!