It was no surprise to hear Arsene Wenger talking this week about the pressure of being at the top of the Premier League, as his Arsenal side have suffered with it plenty of times, including over the last few weeks when the Gunners hit a slump after finding ourselves two points clear and in pole position to win the Premier League.
So far the only expectations that most people have had about Sunday’s visitors to north London, Leicester City, is that they would falter at some point. But after the Foxes went to the top and then beat the second placed team Man City away to increase their lead, the pressure and expectation has started to change and Wenger has tried to make sure that their players are thinking about what they have to lose.
As an Evening Standard report reveals, that has prompted their defender Danny Simpson to hit back and suggest that the pressure is still on the likes of Arsenal and Man City because of the relative amount of money spent on players and the expectations of the fans of the big clubs.
Simpson said, “We’ve lost two games so far: Arsenal and Liverpool. And we bounced back from both of them.
“People are generally expecting us to slip up against these teams. They’ve been building their squads for years, whereas we’ve been in the Premier League only for a year and a half. Yeah, the table says something different, but we approach these games the same way we always have…
“There’s definitely more pressure on the other sides up at the top. Most people expect Arsenal and Man City to win the league. So we just go into our games with no pressure. We can just do what we do. That’s how we’ve been from the start of the season, so why change now?”
Is it just me or does this sound like the player is trying to convince himself and actually tells us that the pressure is starting to be felt in the Leicester dressing room? To be fair, Simpson has more reason than most to be nervous, as the right back is going to have to deal with Alexis Sanchez on Sunday.
Who do you think will be feeling the pressure more at the Emirates?