The pressure is off, and the wins keep coming!
Since we have been knocked out of the Europa League, we have had wins against West Brom and Champions League and FA Cup finalists Chelsea.
Now both wins cannot be a fluke, but what is clear to see is that as the season is coming to an end and as the pressure of a looming final is off, Arsenal seem to be playing with a freedom that was not there before.
People will look at the West Brom game and say they are relegated (well they were after losing to us) but they were in the bottom end of the table and pretty much had their fate sealed to be playing in the Championship next season. Well what about Chelsea? an ever growing, dominating team, who had an FA Cup final and Champions League final to look forward to, and whom needed the league wins to keep them in the hunt for the European spots via the league.
Although it wasn’t the best of performances from Arsenal, and some could say we got lucky with the goal, we still managed to hold off Chelsea and keep a clean sheet.
What was done different against West Brom and Chelsea that they couldn’t do days earlier? Only the small fact that they managed to score! And as we have seen, the lack of goalscoring came back to bite us against Villareal.
If one of those chances had gone in against Villarreal many Arsenal fans would not have gone into meltdown, at least not until the Europa league final where we probably would have fallen just short and lost to Manchester United. But then again Arteta does not have such a bad record against top teams and put aside both Manchester City and Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final and final last season, and don’t forget we had a draw and win against United this season.
But it wasn’t meant to be on the night and then three days later we go out at home to West Brom and score three goals, with confidence, swagger and at times showed intensity, that meant the result never looked in doubt. And then we put on a brave outing against Chelsea.
But as always with Arsenal our problem has been and always will be inconsistency, under Arteta at least.
And although things may be too little too late, it is nice to see this team is not a complete waste, it just would have been nice if they realised it a little earlier, then we may have had a slight chance at winning something to get us into Europe next season!
Who knows though, if we continue winning our last two games and the teams around us falter then maybe, just maybe, we may get into Europe, even if it is in this European Conference League they are talking about!
Here’s hoping hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
TBH from a sporting point of view, I would prefer no European football. I like the idea of Arteta having a week to prepare for each game and actually having time to work on things on the training ground. No European football also reduces the chance of injuries as a result of workload.
Financially European football would probably help but not for the PL.
Should be a good season next year then with no pressure at all. Inconsistent under Arteta..? We were consistent under Wenger? Consistently able to flat track bully and consistently able to get massacred by teams supposedly on our level.
“…. AND THE WINS KEEP COMING” is faintly ridiculous when we have won just three times in a row! Had we won ten or twenty times in a row – instead of a miserly three – ONLY THEN could that false headline have borne some truth.
As a truth lover I am constantly appalled by how little these headlines represent what the article actually says.
Eh, Ad Pat!!!!
Jon you recently posted a comment about hope this might be the reason why you keep reading her articles one day just one day she might surprise you!
We were lucky with Chelsea, it was easy (normal) against westbrom, and Newcastle.
Not a solid indicator but credit to them for winning, great effort and 3 points.
If we won against Palace and Seagulls, may be that would be a good sign.