There is no doubt that Arsenal have been doing better recently. Since the disappointing performance and defeat by Southampton at St. Mary´s on new years day, the Gunners have won every game bar the north London derby. And even in that game at White Hart Lane we took the lead.
Arsenal fell away in that game but we started well and that has always been the case recently and it has been a big reason for our upturn in form and results according to our England forward Theo Walcott. In the last eight games, for instance, Arsenal have scored in the first half an hour and with our new found defensive resilience that has been a recipe for success.
It also helps the players and the fans to settle into the game and allows the confidence to spread, which is why Arsene Wenger has been making such a big point of it to his team after the first half of the season saw us fail to make our possession count and saw us often having to come from behind.
Walcott told the Evening Standard, “The confidence has come from the way we are starting games. The manager has put in our heads that we need to start well, particularly from the front and pressurise the ball well.
“Keeping clean sheets will mean we win games because we always know we are going to score goals and we’ve continued to do that in recent weeks. Things are paying off for us at the moment so we just need to make sure we take it into the next few weeks.
“You need the fans behind you so getting that early goal settles them and the players down. We have maybe been working a lot harder in training — I don’t know if that’s the reason — but everyone relates to each other and knows their weaknesses and positives. It is working well.”
It seems like such a simple thing I suppose, but a team needs the confidence to do it. Then the confidence they get from it working helps them to do it again. So now we have that momentum building, do you expect to see Arsenal ripping into the likes of Crystal Palace and Monaco right from the start?