Why Arsenal Will Challenge For The Title. by Adewole oluwafemi peter
Hello Gooners all over, i can barely contain my excitement as we look forward to another season of Premier league football, what a wait it has been!
But i believe we can all agree that the club has given us a lot of things to be happy about even in the boring summer. Although, the world cup was always on hand to fall back on for most of us on here (Unless you are Chief Jon of course…). We still had a great summer as far as Arsenal is concerned if you consider our usually slow, reactive and panic-buying history.
But the dust is gradually settling and the new season is now just around the corner, and i think we can really challenge for the title for the following reasons;
World Cup exertions
Most of rivals had a lot of their stars in the world cup with some even getting to the latter stages of the competition. Teams like the City, United, Spurs and Chelsea are not complete or ready enough for the new season which leaves us, Liverpool and perhaps one other surprise package or “early season rush” team to fight it out! Make no mistake, Liverpool have upgraded an already strong team, they have stability, they are formidable and should be installed as favorites.
For us, we have one player in defence, four in midfield, and one in attack in the world cup, and most of them have re-joined the group. Apart from being affected by the world cup, Chelsea are far from a stable team at the moment on and off the pitch. Man United do not look formidable to me, Mourinho is not happy and this is his third season (you know what that means). Yes, we are also a team in transition, but we have done everything quick and fast that it is almost like nothing changed.
New Belief
I think it is obvious to everyone that the players are in high spirit, everyone is falling in line with Emery’s philosophy of hard work, even his gruelling training sessions have been welcomed by the players who are trying to impress their coach and be in his good books, the fans are generally happy which will remove the dull and toxic atmosphere around the club and boost players performances.
Unpredictability
Everyone and his dog can usually predict a typical Arsenal formation, matchday squad and even the entire season, our time of good form, our period of capitulation and all. But with Emery, there is surely an unpredictable element now, even we the fans don’t know what to expect, which is a nice change! We have a manager that adapts his team to his opponents, one who is not afraid to change one or two things, scouting of opposition teams, what more can we ask for!
The only predictable thing now is Ramsey getting injured.
No Pressure of Expectations
Simply put, our away form destroyed our season last time out. We had arguably our worst season in recent years, so Emery being a debutant coach in England and the fact that we are experiencing our own transition should give Emery a little breathing space as he settles in.
Emery Out to prove a point
Upon his appointment, it was said about Emery that he is not good with the league and that he is a Cup specialist. Well, that may be true, but even the current Barcelona coach wouldn’t have won the league had he not signed for Barca, who is to say Emery wouldn’t win the same league with the same team? At PSG, he lost the league to Monaco in his first season despite having the best team, but there are rumours certain players in the dressing room were not willing to follow his philosophy, but that wont be the case with us Emery is aware of this, he is hungry, he is out to prove a point!
All in all, i think we can summarize Emery’s overall task as thus; maintain our home form and improve our away form, do that and we are on our way to the top.
COYG!
Goonerboy…