Although some of the teams that are likely to be fighting Arsenal for a top four finish and a place in next season’s Champions League won this weekend, there was some good news for the Gunners. The fact that we scored five without reply against Aston Villa and then Shelvey scoring for Swansea means that we are only outside the top four of the Premier League by having a goal difference just one less than Southampton.
But the way that Arsenal are playing at the minute and with the injury problems almost over, Arsene Wenger and the players could be forgiven for aiming a little higher than the top four. The draw between Chelsea and Man City at Stamford Bridge was the perfect result for Arsenal and was what the manager was hoping for.
Now we are just 11 points off the league leaders and just six behind City with 15 games to play. And one of our games is the visit of Jose Mourinho and his team to the Emirates. They also have two more games without Diego Costa and Fabregas with a hamstring problem.
Both Chelsea and Man City are struggling for form at the minute, while we have the momentum, scoring plenty of goals and keeping clean sheets. And after the derby we have a nice looking run of fixtures with Leicester, Crystal Palace, Everton, QPR, West Ham and Newcastle. The confidence is high in the team and Wenger’s options are looking really good now that Coquelin has come good, Walcott and Ozil are back and playing well and Gabriel has arrived from La Liga.
But we need to keep up that momentum and keep the pressure on the clubs above and around us. We have a great chance to that next weekend when we play the first game of the weekend, away to Spurs. We always want to win those of course, but we have an even bigger reason this time, as it could just be the difference in Arsenal making a late charge for the title or fighting for the Wenger trophy again.