Any talk of Arsenal or the other clubs chasing the runaway Premier League leaders actually winning the title this season relies on Man City suffering something of a collapse. We have seen it before, though, and there are some key players in that City side like Aguero and De Bruyne who would be hard to replace if they pick up an injury.
All we can do is try to keep winning games, stay on their tails and be in a position to capitalise if Guardiola’s juggernaut runs out of fuel or blows a tyre. For most of the season so far you would not even have put the Gunners in the category of possible challengers, but things have been improving and last weekend could prove to be a big turning point as Petr Cech suggested in a report by The Mirror.
The keeper said, “We said that we wanted to carry on with the big win at home against Tottenham and we needed to back it up. Apart from Everton win away, good result at Chelsea, we haven’t been getting results away from home.
“But now we got a big win at Burnley and hopefully we’ve turned the corner in terms of the away games and we need to carry on with our home form and if we can get as many away points as well then we will climb up the table.
“We just showed at Burnley that when we play on top of our game we are solid, organised and managed to stick to the plan and if we do that we can win any game.
“But as I said, we have had the lack of consistency in games at times, at times we’ve switched off and we’ve paid for that in the away games particularly this season.
“It’s only 13 games in, that’s the most important thing and there’s so many points to be won, so many games to be played and you don’t teach your goals after 13 games, you need to carry on for 38 games and show consistency.
“There can be plenty of twists in the table and you see yourselves climb after two wins then have a draw and fall out of the top four pretty quick. It’s packed in there and I think it will be until the end of the season.
“Last year actually we had more points than ever before but ended outside (of the top four) and this year you have six or seven teams playing for the top four so it will be competitive so you have to look at yourself and be consistent.
“You have to play game by game, not think too much about what’s going on around you because if you win your game then you give yourself a chance. Let’s win our game and see how the others are doing.
“If the other teams at this moment above us and if they keep going, keep winning then you can’t catch the, but first you need to win your games and keep putting pressure on them.”
I reckon the Arsenal number one makes a good point and I even think he was a bit more negative about the away form than is necessary. Apart from at Liverpool we have deserved better and been hurt by some poor decisions but if that evens out as it is said to then we should pick up plenty of points on the road.
This win at Burnley could be massive as it is a tough place to go and so should spread confidence throughout the club. We are in the top four now and going well in all areas of the pitch, while our rivals, apart from City of course, do not look very consistent, so is Cech right to say that Arsenal are still in the race?
Bob.