Arsenal players not hoping but `expecting´ EPL trophy

It might only a subtle difference and may only represent a slight increase in the self belief felt by the Arsenal players at the moment, but it could well turn out to make all the difference between fans of the Gunners going a 12th summer without a Premier League trophy to celebrate and the streets of north London being turned read and white next May.

There is a definite upswing in the belief going around the Arsenal squad though, as reported by Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davison after he was given rare behind the scenes access to the dressing room as Arsenal prepare to face West Ham on the first game of our season.

The reporter was struck by the strong expectations coming from all of the Arsenal players, rather than the usual hopeful confidence that we see at this time of year. He spoke to a lot of the squad and this is what a couple of them had to say about what lies ahead.

Club captain Mikel Arteta declared, “Something is different this year, the attitude is different, the desire is there and we are ready. We can compete for the Premier League and the Champions League.”

And the man with the bumper new contract, Theo Walcott, said, “We can do anything.

“This season we need to be competing for the Premier League, not fading out toward the end. We need to compete till the last day.”

And Davison claims that he got the same sense of unshakeable belief from all the players he spoke to, with Kieran Gibbs suggesting that the transfer of Petr Cech from Chelsea has had a really big effect. They are ready, they believe and now we just need a good start against the Hammers to get us up and running.

Tags Arteta Walcott

19 Comments

  1. Good. They believe. I’m not having any of this ‘the players are overconfident’ or ‘arrogant’ rubbish. These players have never won a Premier League title, other than Cech and Welbeck. They have tried for years now and they know how hard they will have to work to achieve it. Belief is what this is.

    1. Thank God the players now believe in their own ability if most of our fans doesn’t, I can remember d fan and players like Viera likewise requesting for signing before our unbeaten season….

      the team may not be perfect but it’s good enough to challenge….let’s get behind the players.

      getting ronaldo will only increase our chance of winning the title, doesn’t guarantee us winning it. it’s only the defending champion that has highest chance.

  2. They should do more “Hoping”.
    Expecting the title is far-fetched. Its Chelsea or Man City’s to win as we stand now.
    Lets see what happens in the remaining 24 days of this window before we can switch false hope to expectations.

    1. Bro I don’t know why you are so pessimis about Arsenal. If you don’t have belief you can’t achieve anything in life. If you see any successful personal they have struggled and many termed as failure before they achieved their goal. We might not be best team in league but we saw today as well in past, no one is invincible bar Arsenal of 03-04. Even teams like barca, rm and bayern looses their match. Their is nothing wrong if our squas has belief in themselves. We are really in better situation then last few years. Signing CF and DM will be good but it doesn’t mean if we don’t sign we cant win.

      1. To be honest while I may not agree entirely with K-ool on this one, he has every right to be pessimistic….why do you have any more right in being outrageously optimistic? It’s not like blind optimism serves anyone any good, e.g because you may think Giroud is good enough won’t mean he suddenly becomes it.

        This ‘fan-bashing’ I continue to see on here is annoying to say the least. Views are bound to conflict, but why anyone thinks they have a right to comment on how someone is as a fan is beyond me. Agree/Disagree and argue the merits of your view, keep the pessimist/optimist, real/fake fan jibes for someplace else.

        1. First of all I didn’t call KS pessimistic, I asked, why are you pessimist about Arsenal. Hope you know there is difference between these two.
          Also, by your logic of “fan bashing”, how can you call me over optimistic?
          When any fan comment about winning PL here then few fans start questioning his knowledge and call them deluded. Ask them to visit other sites and check reality. Every one has right too make comment and when you comment on others then be ready to receive reply.

          1. Ok I’ll entertain this for once.

            You called him a pessimist about Arsenal and you’re trying to somehow explain you aren’t calling him pessimistic? Truly stunned. Nothing to argue here, all logic has imploded.

            I mention ‘fan-bashing’ and you think I’ve been hypocritical for questioning your optimism. Do you not comprehend the context in which it was said? It was an illustration of YOUR judgement upon k-ool by suggesting the stance you represent (ie the opposite of his), was no more right or wrong than his point of view.

            I stated everyone has a right to comment if you care to read, I encouraged such discourse. The distinction comes in commenting on how a persons views make him/her less than you simply for a differing opinion. In future I suggest you read what is said and make sure you understand it contextually before sharing your ‘views’.

    2. Hmm not sure about that… even without further additions we’re certainly closer than last season, and I’d say we’re currently 3rd of 3 teams that can actually win it.

      However, get Benz on board and suddenly we have as good a chance as any other team in the league such is his quality.

      1. I haven’t seen the press interview but the following is reported in one of the red-tops.

        “I heard Thierry Henry say if we buy Benzema we would win the title by a margin. I respect his views but football has evolved and the game has changed since he played here. The out-and-out strikers are no longer there. Tactics have changed. You do need somebody to score goals and I think Olivier Giroud will not be far from 20 this season. Theo Walcott will be up there too. We have to develop our game and depend less on one player. I truly believe we can win the league. We look like we can score plenty of goals.”

        Hard to construe that any other way than KB is not on the cards.

        1. You’re really putting stock in anything Wenger says in regards to the likelihood of a transfer?

          Benzema couldn’t be more on the cards.

  3. Lets start off our new season campaign with victory over westham at the emirates! 3points is what its all about! Coyg!

  4. We need to play walcott through the middle, he’s a different animal and i think this year he will prove his worth to our team. I like OX in the right just like in the chelsea game, leave Giroud in the bench until the end of the game when he can come out and make an impact against a tired defense.

    I also believe this is our year, i watched the entire Chelsea game and I’m not sure yet but they don’t look like the same team from last year. It seems like losing to us, then to fiorentina really took the sting out of them.

    If there’s any truth to these benzema rumors, my gooddddddddddddddddness! i’ll be on the first flight to england lol

  5. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I am certainly optimistic about Arsenal’s chances of winning the EPL. Howver, I think it is getting the cart before the horse to say we expect it. Arsenal have not played the first game of the season yet. I think after the next few games we will be in a better position to have reasonable expectations. I hope for the best.

  6. Bare Wilshere this is the first year in forever I remember going in with a full squad, a balanced team and some top quality. For years we have seen summers of turmoil with players leaving, especially captains, with players injured from the start and constant question marks over who will actually be starting the season for us. There is no Nasri saga and no “little boy”. Half our attack isn’t starting on the injury table. We have a few world class players. There is no question mark over our goalkeeper. We don’t have to qualify for the CL and have scary games in Turkey to look forward to. No, this year we are a team coming off a good season who are prepared to make this season better.

    We have EVERY positive going for us possible. We have leaders, fighters, scrappers, talents, potentials, replacements and options. There is no real negative in the Arsenal camp right now. I can name you exactly where all the negatives are in other teams if you want to see where they are going to have far more issues then us. Of course our team are confident and believe that we can do it this season. There is literally no doubts to hang over them. We just won back to back FA cups. It may be a kiddy comp to some of you people but it’s the biggest domestic cup comp, it proves that in one competition we were the best in England for 2 years running – it wasn’t a fluke, it was deserved. This year, we can do 1 better.

    While I understand the apprehension and the anxiety to believe we can, considering we’ve had so much disappointment, but to me, for the first time in probably 10 years, we can FINALLY challenge again and maybe actually do it.

    Still think we’re underdogs compared to the oil barons though 😛

  7. Expectant is the mother of miracle but the is prayer. Good to expect Epl trouphy but the key is for Wenger to answer our prayer – sign a WC STRIKER.

  8. Expectant is the mother of miracle but the key is prayer. Good to expect Epl trouphy but the key is for Wenger to answer our prayer – sign a WC STRIKER.

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