Title challenge over? By Vivek Julka
That was a bad result, wasn’t it?
The loss on Wednesday against Manchester City has now left us winless in our last four games including two defeats to our title rivals.
Now it begs the question, are our title hopes over?
They probably are, as I think this defeat will damage us mentally and Man City are most likely now going to go on a winning streak.
I don’t see us winning nearly every game until the rest of season, which is what we have to do if we are to win the league.
Mikel Arteta has got to change things now. He cannot keep persisting with players like Zinchencko and Nketiah. They did a great job for a few games after the World Cup but now it has stopped working.
Zinchencko does not offer anything going forward nor is he particularly good defensively.
He should be dropped for Tierney, but that probably won’t happen as Arteta does not even bring him on as a substitute.
He overlaps our wingers and will help Martinelli out massively.
Also, Nketiah is not good enough to start every week if we are serious about winning the title. He misses key chances which are costing us points.
I have never been a fan of Nketiah and wanted him gone last summer. He has improved post World Cup but is still not good enough to lead the line at a title challenging club.
Trossard should start ahead of him or even Martinelli down the middle with Trossard on the left.
It is showing now we are missing Gabriel Jesus, he may not be the most clinical but he brings so much energy to our team and our wingers play so much better with him.
If we do fail to win the league this season it is a failure.
To be top for that long and have nothing to show for it at the end will be embarrassing.
Yes, some of you fans will say we never expected to be challenging, this is a loser’s mentality. Objectives change throughout the season and our objective should be to win the league now.
This season is the best chance we will get for a long time as other teams like Liverpool and Chelsea will be stronger next season.
Most of the blame should be put towards Edu, as he completely messed up the January transfer window.
He didn’t get the target that Arteta wanted in Moises Caicedo, instead he panicked with the Jorghino signing.
Jorghino did not play that bad against Man City, but it is clear he does not bring the mobility that Partey does so Caicedo would have been a more adequate back-up.
I hope we can stay in the title race until the end but it will be hard now, even with a game in hand as we still have to go to the Etihad and win there but that is very unlikely considering our record against them.
Vivek Julka
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