December was a challenging month for Arsenal, marked by three Premier League defeats that caused us to drop from the top of the standings to fourth place. However, we have since reclaimed the third spot after a convincing victory over Crystal Palace last weekend.
Arsenal is currently five points behind the league leaders, Liverpool. It is widely acknowledged that we cannot afford to drop too many points in the upcoming matches if we intend to maintain a title challenge. There is a limited margin for error, especially when competing against formidable teams like Liverpool and Manchester City.
Now, what are the chances of us dropping significant points in the next five league games?
These are our next five Premier League games and my own opinion on what I consider to be the most likely results. Of course, this is a personal opinion and very subjective and I hope I am very wrong in a couple of the games.
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal – 3 points
I do expect us to win this one and comfortably so, most likely by a couple of goals, Forest is not that good a team and it would be fairly disastrous if we did drop points against Nuno Espírito Santo’s side.
Arsenal v Liverpool – 1 point
I am going with a draw in this one, my confidence is low against Liverpool, I could be wrong and hope I am but based on what I have seen this season, Liverpool is the better side currently and I just do not see us beating them. However, I do not see us losing either.
West Ham United v Arsenal – 1 point
Last season’s game at the London Stadium still gives me nightmares and I fear there may be the same sort of outcome this time. West Ham has become a slight bogey team in recent times and I have this horrible feeling they will take points off us again. I will not mention this season’s game at the Emirates, that is still too raw.
Burnley v Arsenal – 3 points
I am very confident we will beat the Clarets, I cannot envisage us not winning this game and if we were to, then as far as I would be concerned, our title hopes would be over.
Arsenal v Newcastle United – 3 points
A lot will depend on what state the Geordies will be in when we play them. Will they have a number of their injured players back? will they have any sort of momentum? Those questions are difficult to answer but based on what I know right now and current form, I fully expect us to win.
Total points 11 from a possible 15
Conclusion
There are two ways to look at this, one, we are unbeaten or two, we dropped four points, I suppose it depends on if you are a half-full or half-empty type of person.
Personally, dropping four points in five games is not title-winning form, hopefully, I am very wrong.
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Gooners will, predictably, have maany various opinions on how many points our next five games will bring us. My view is that ANY points dropped at all, esp if it is to Liverpool, will make out title challenge an even more remote hope than it is right now.
We MUST beat Liverpol or else accept the title is not for us this season.
But for a dreadful VAR errror when Liverpool played at Spuds, injury damaged Liverpool would have been, and ought to have been, unbeaten so far in the Prem.
It is entirely possible that they will drop hardly any more Prem points at all and we are ALREADY five points behind them. IF they beat us on Feb 4, out title tilt will be already over.
Beat them or its over. Reality!
Agreed however I don’t perceive Liverpool to be as strong/infallible as they have been in the recent past…Manchester City is really the only team we can never take a break from fretting and worrying about. Those guys just have too much quality in pretty much every position sadly
It’s a matter of getting a midfielder and a stricker as early as possible. The rest will be history
Don’t really see us getting a point against Liverpool or West Ham.
If we lose to Liverpool, we tend not to bounce back. And the hammers have the motivation to beat us as they have proven twice already this season. Kudus will be back as well, him and Bowen are playing way better than any of our attacking players.
Not so worried about Liverpool, our boys held their own and were actually the better side (apart from the final result sadly) in the cup recently
All 15 points. Most especially if Rice is unavailable for the westham game.
An optimist would see a point against Liverpoolpossible, but a realist, looking at current form has to expect a Liverpool win.
The team, even minus Salah, has been imperious. Nunez is producing, Jota is back from injury firing on all cylinders, Luis Diaz can do no wrong, and Gakpo is playing well. Alexis McCallister is back. Van Dijk looks to be his imperious self, and with Konate, form a solid defensive core. Curtis Jones is looking great and Szobozslai is also back from injury.
By contrast, Arsenal’s front 4 of Saka, Martinelli, Jesus, and Odegaard look weary and out of sync since Havertz was added to the mix.
Last season’s brilliant signing, Leandro Trossard, has been a lot less influential, while Eddie Nketiah’s terrific 22/23 has vanished in a cloud of Kai Havertz’s blinding aura. Both Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira are non-entities who are clearly not in Arteta’s plans. Teams seem to have solved the Zinchenko in midfield gimmick, and the ineffective Jakub Kiwior looks further out of his depth every time he plays. Why Arsenal recruited David Raya (and clearly promised him he would be first choice), who is older and more error-prone than Aaron Ramsdale, is baffling.
Declan Rice, William Saliba, and Gabriel Magalhaes are keeping Arsenal in the hunt, but with Kevin de Bruyne back from injury and Man City shifting into top gear, any unexpected results could see the Gunners swallowed up by (God forbid!) the Spurs or even Aston Villa. Nottingham Forest are dangerous, as are Newcastle. 11 from 13 points from the next 5 games would represent an excellent return, when all factors are considered.
A slip against Forest and/or The Toon and the Gunners could easily find themselves battling West Ham for a Europa League spot.
An Arsenal pessimist would suggest that Arsenal should lose to Liverpool.
A more realistic perspective would be that the game against Liverpool is likely to be tight and the outcome difficult to predict.
Oh! You melt.