After coming out of a difficult run unscathed, Arsenal should build a head of steam with the favourable fixtures ahead.
The recent run of fixtures we’ve been on recently has been hugely anticipated since the fixtures were first released a month or so ago, not just for the huge rivalry between the two clubs (Man City and Tottenham) but also for the difficulty of playing such incredibly competitive teams consecutively so early in the campaign.
Couple that with the Champions league draw putting a tricky trip to Atalanta in between those mammoth encounters, then it had all the makings of a season defining period for the rest our 2024/2025 campaign. The mini injury crisis heading into that run did not do our chances of coming out intact any good either, due to the absence of key players especially our very own skipper Martin Ødegaard.
With all that said though, it is a massive relief that we came out of the run unscathed with us remaining unbeaten while taking a respectable 5 points from a potential 9. We started off the run with a mature performance in a one nil win over Spurs, before dropping arguably the worst performance in our very recent history in the draw against Atalanta, then eventually rounding it off with that phenomenal defensive display to get a draw at city, despite being down to ten men for the entire second half. Even though there were visible highs and lows in that one week run, we came out unbeaten and that’s what is important.
What our attentions should turn to now is taking advantage of the favorable run of fixtures coming up and with us already getting back to winning ways with a 5-1 thrashing of Bolton on Wednesday night then we should only have more confidence to build a little run in our next five games in all competitions, after the Bolton win we’ll play Leicester city, PSG and Southampton while playing Bournemouth and Shakhtar Donetsk after the international break. In that run are teams we should be beating quite comfortably with the exception of PSG only.
The need for to us to not slip up when these favourable runs come along is the consequence that dropped points might have towards the tail end of the campaign (premier league especially). Just to give a painful reminder of the importance of these sort of runs is that little period in December 2023 where we lost back to back games to West Ham and Fulham respectively before losing to Liverpool in the Fa cup third round. This did not only damage our chances of winning the league at the time, but in my opinion was the real reason we missed out on the league title to City, you cannot relent and be losing back-to-back games to those sorts of teams especially when you’re fighting for the league against a team like Manchester City.
We have to be relentlessly ruthless if we’re going to win our first major title since 2004 and we have to start with this run of games.
In our next five games, how many points do you all expect us to pick up gooners?!
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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9 in the APL and 4 in the Champions League.
Let’s hope that headline isn’t the kiss of death then! Yes, they should be easier games on paper than Arsenal’s recent run – the problem is that games aren’t played on paper. It would be just like Arsenal to get through the “difficult” ones only to slip up afterwards. Anyway, let’s see how the games actually pan out.
Arsenal has an opportunity to push on and keep the pressure on City (who will now be without Rodri for the rest of the season with an ACL injury) and Liverpool.
👍
Kiss of death – my thoughts exactly when I read that.
We should know by now that there are no easy games in this league, there are so many variables, ref decisions, loss of form , injuries. No point thinking the harder games are behind us, just concentrate on the next game whoever it is against.
One game at a time please.we need to focus 100% on Leicester, nothing else.
Absolutely Grandad, as usual some fans getting over confident as usual.
I wouldn’t use the term “easier” but they are games we should be able to go into with confidence of getting wins. No game is easy, just some look more winnable. We should be looking at going on a run.
Let’s crush Leicester as smoth as possible, then we can plan for PSG from sunday,
We must unsettle man city and Liverpool.
Some said we would our first 5
Not even close lol
This is a terrible title and the article is disrespectful to the teams we are up against.
JA really need to get away from this kind of pomposity.
In my opinion; slow n steady wins the race they say, I pray we don’t have another injuries then hopefully we can do better than last seasons. Gunners for life!