On the face of things it looks like it was a bad weekend for Arsenal in our hunt to reclaim the Premier League trophy that has not resided in north London since the time of the invincibles, when it was still Highbury and not the new Emirates stadium that was the home of the Arsenal.
A damaging defeat to a direct rival in Manchester United saw us slip back out of the top four with Liverpool winning to go back above us and the top three all picking up another three points. The weekend’s woes were completed when the league leaders Man City scored a very late winner after it looked like they may be held by West Ham and that goal gives them a huge gap of 15 points over Arsenal.
Game over for another season you think? Perhaps so, but Arsene Wenger did not sound in the mood to give up just yet in an interview reported by Sky Sports. In fact the Frenchman was full of fighting talk and is clearly hoping that his players feel the same anger about Saturday’s result as he does.
The boss feels that his anger and that of the Arsenal players at getting nothing for such an impressive and dominant display could be used to spur us on to success in the coming weeks and months.
Wenger said, “I believe from the game, it has to make us angry and even more determined.
“If I am a player, and I think with what we produced, we have a huge potential, and we lose the game. We cannot accept that.
“That’s what you want, the players have produced a quality performance. What makes you angry is that you produce that performance and, in the end, you have nothing to show for it. That’s very difficult to accept.”
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino may have accepted his team are not in the title race anymore, but Wenger has not and I think you could argue that Arsenal have deserved more points this season while the spuds have got just wjhat they deserved.
“I am not Pochettino, I am Arsene Wenger,” said the Frenchman. “I am here to fight as long as I can.
“As long as mathematically it’s possible, you have to fight. You cannot give any other message out.”
So are the Gunners still in with a shot? Will Southampton feel the full force of our righteous anger at the weekend?
Bob.