When he was challenged about his statement by one of the reporters at the Arsenal press conference yesterday, Arsene Wenger chose to back up a little and say that you can never rule out any club from the Premier League title race at this early stage of the season.
Before that, however, the Frenchman had responded to the question about the clubs that were realistic contenders by suggesting that the current top eight in the table were the ones that could win it, as they are separated by just five points. And he then narrowed that down to just five or six teams.
I can understand why Wenger, when put on the spot, said that you could not rule out Chelsea because of the quality that Jose Mourinho has available to him in the squad, but I got the distinct impression that the prof did not really believe that the reigning champions would be able to retain their title after their terrible start.
As reported by Arsenal.com the boss said, “At the moment, mathematically, the top eight. I would say five or six teams, five teams.”
And when asked about Chelsea he replied, “No they are at moment not in that group. They have some ground to make up but it’s difficult to rule anybody out at the moment, even Chelsea. Of course, when you have many teams in front of you it’s difficult to catch up but they have the quality.”
He then went on to say that his job is to worry about Arsenal and how we can keep up with and even pass the current league leaders Man City in the race to be crowned champions. What do you think Gooners? Has Wenger already chalked off the challenge of Chelsea and if so, is he right to do so?