With a two week international break coming up at the start of September, Arsenal can expect to be much stronger after the next two Premier League games against Everton and Leicester City, which are both away from home. The Gunners will be fitter and will hopefully have a full squad to choose from when we face Man City on September 13th, but we still need to get something from the next two.
Arsene Wenger has been talking about the trip to Goodison Park this weekend, as reported by Arsenal.com, and the manager is expecting a real test. In fact, he reckons that it will give us a proper feeling for how well we are set up compared to last season, when our away game to Everton was a humbling experience for fans and players alike.
Wenger said, “First of all a team is life and life is movement. That means the team doesn’t stand still, we move forward and improve.
“We have young players, which means that every year they can be better. Also the team improves with success, which we had a reasonable [amount of] last year.
“We have a good opportunity on Saturday to show that we have moved forward and that we are stronger than last year.
“On the day, Everton deserved to win. We were unlucky with the goals we conceded because two of them were not regular. We had an off day but I think in a season that can happen.
“We beat them in the FA Cup in a convincing way, so it will be interesting, because they are a team now flirting with the Champions League places. It’s a good, good test.
“They [have a good chance] because this season they have entered the bracket of clubs who spend between £20-30 million for one player.
“Behind that is the ambition to go into the top four and they were close last year. They lost some pivotal games, I think about Crystal Palace, which allowed us to get in front of them after they beat us. But they have the quality.”
I am bot really sure that we should read too much into the result on Saturday if we do lose, even if we have got the World Cup winning Germans back in the side. They will be rusty for one thing, while the likes of Giroud and Cazorla have still not got going properly yet. I will certainly be happy with a draw.
The same can be said if Arsenal beat Everton, because they have started pretty slowly as well, drawing with newly promoted Leicester in a sloppy game last weekend. Let’s just hope that it goes our way and we play better than we have been doing so far.