Relying on our home form is now a no go!
The Emirates has lost its status as a fortress after two losses in our four home Premier League games so far this season.
A place that was once seen as a fortress, a place where we had a good winning streak going and where teams would come and fail to find a breakthrough, is slowly turning into a happy hunting ground for visiting teams rather than the home side!
Arteta not long ago called out to his team to make the “Emirates a fortress” and for his boys to stop teams from winning and to make them run scared when coming to the Emirates ensuring that they left without a win. But forward on literally one month and those words have been ripped up, chucked away and burned, as quick as the pace of Hector Bellerin!
Losing to Leicester City and Aston Villa at the Emirates in the space of three weeks and conceding four goals in the process without reply is really not putting our boys in a good light is it! The Emirates is no longer a fortress and teams are no longer scared or worried about playing Arsenal, home or away really. But how we have gone from being unbeaten at the Emirates since December 2019 and failing to score in only three of 72 games there, to having two losses in two weeks and failing to score in those consecutive league home games too is beyond me and is beginning to be a bit of a worry!
Arteta at the time called on his players to “play with that confidence at home where we have to be really resilient and dominate games to impose ourselves in those games.” And barring that first half against Leicester where we showed that intent, the second half against Leicester and the game against Villa completely went against what he has told his boys to do.
How he now goes to getting our home wins back and making the Emirates a fortress looks like it will be an even tougher mission than first thought, especially after we thought we were going somewhere as a team but as reality hits it is back to the drawing board for our boys and our gaffer! Gooners?
Shenel Osman