Just a “few small things” can stop Arsenal winning the title

I think it can be generally assumed that the majority of Arsenal fans are not in the happiest state ahead of the new season, with the club severely lacking in fresh faces to improve the team for what is going to be a very challenging campaign. Arsenal fans had hoped that a fresh influence would strengthen the team in the areas we need most, as well as boost the current crop of players full with ambition.

However this hasn’t been the case and so far we have only added £30 million rated Granit Xhaka and two youngsters to the ranks (although it does seem Holding will play a fairly large part). It means that with our opening fixture against Liverpool just two days away, Arsenal fans are not feeling confident at all that our squad can overhaul the rivals and challenge as the very best in the league.

Despite Arsenal fans not being too happy, it seems like the players are still feeling confident of making a name for themselves this season, with Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere stating that the team knows what it has to do to improve.

Wilshere said: “There are a few small things that we have to work on. The biggest thing for me is if you look back at the games last season we dropped points in, they were probably games we were expected to win. We need to be more focused for them and to take each game as seriously as any other. After we beat Leicester at home last season, we dropped off a little bit. This season, we can’t let that happen and if we don’t let that happen we can be champions.”

The thing that I notice most about that statement, is that we hear the same story every year about how if we won the smaller games we were expected to win, rather than draw or lose, then we would’ve gone on to win the title. Nobody expects the team to go through the whole season without a small dip and yes we should be winning against the smaller clubs time and time again, however it’s the same old story every season and it would be ignorant to assume Arsenal won’t drop points. Even the Champions of the league drop points, our biggest issue with dropping points seems to be that it’s like an endless spiral, because when the first points are dropped, the bad run goes on for a few more games.

The squad in all honesty is good, but not great. We have some quality starting eleven players and now have good players amongst back up ranks, to improve our squad depth, rather than having average players making up the numbers. The squad is, as always, good enough to challenge for that top four spot, but can you really see us improving on last terms final position? Other teams around us have strengthened massively and will be ready to take advantage of the mood around Arsenal at the moment. We still need that striker, centre back and possibly a winger if we truly want to feel confident about winning some silverware this season. At least it’s only a good thing that Wilshere and the rest of the team feel some confidence to push on and hopefully they can show us a reason to build our confidence up, with or without new signings.

By AH

19 Comments

  1. just a few small things lol?
    We lost the title by a massive 10 points to a recently relegated team.
    Wilshrre should talk less and focus more on being fit and consistent.
    If we play like atletico who play with heart and not for show of we could be a different team alrogether.
    Where is this ramsey we see for wales or the walcott and ox we used to see in the past?
    It is quite a big deal for us to win the title and not a few small things

    1. Well, guess what. So did United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool and even Spuds. Gosh, it is so easy to pick on Arsenal fans. Media is poking you through the fence and then they laugh their ar$es to the pub. Whinging and moaning will not get you far. You lost the battle before it even begins. Yeah, yeah, it is Wenger and Gazidis. Whatever, make what you want of it. I for one looking forward to the season. Sure, chances are dismal but hey, Leicester had 5000/1. Who the fsck knows.

      1. Bud, the difference between those teams and Arsenal is that they acknowledge why they didn’t win and make sure to correct these issues. Arsenal however keeps repeating the same mistakes year after year. How are we the only top team that can’t find the right players? Can’t blame the media one bit because Arsenal have made it that easy to be exploited.

        1. Yes, but they didn’t, are they? United kept spending 300 million to no avail. Basically thta’s all they know to do. Media is not picking on Arsenal, it’s picking on Arsenal fans. It is a small difference. They don’t give a crap about Arsenal because they don’t know what to write at this point. What they do is to keep uncovering old stories to stir up the poor souls still buying into them. Now, you may be one of them, I quit listening. I just watch the games.

  2. this team are good enough to win title if we had a beast of a motivator for a manager or a shrewd tactician , arsene is neither, so he must rely on big players to carry an lead the team
    like the viera henry an adams days

    which we dont have

    be realistic here, youve seen how we operate, we do not have a team like Leicester who are hungry an run out the gate or a manager like klopp who makes players fight for him.
    we have pre madonnas an a few real gems

    never be enough

    1. So Leicester has become a role model club to Arsenal all of a sudden. Hmmn how fans change their minds like climate.

  3. Small things? Missing the most clear cut chances created in the league last season is no small thing. Not signing a quality striker last summer transfer window is no small thing either and i could go on but i’m tired of sounding like a broken record.

    At least most top teams in the world are great at selling hope, our football club can’t even do that.. It’s going to be another looonnnngg season.

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  4. I didn’t bother reading the article. Everyone knows what this team lacks. Year in year out, we keep clamouring same thing.
    I blame our fans in England for not taking some positions when we had the chance to correct this abnormalities last season when some sect tried staging a mass protest against the board and de facto dictator.

    I hope the glory days returns when we’re take a stand as fans who truly own the club.

  5. I know what Wilshire is talking about with respect to losing points to lesser teams and of course we know that has to change but I don’t see how that will change. What’s solution did they come up with? Just saying “this season we should not drop points to lesser opponents” means very little and doesn’t give you a winners mentality or a fighter’s mentality IMO.

    I think for that to change the manager has to change. IMO Wenger has been too slow in the past to give the players responsibility for poor performances. This year as soon as there has been dropped points against weaker opponents (if that still exists in the PL) he should bench players the very next game (players that didn’t give 100%). He should not blame luck or the referee.

    Players should be more afraid of Wenger and poor performance.

    When Giroud was finally benched for a few games last season he came back super motivated. Then when he had a number of bad performance and remained in the team he lost his motivation and instead went around the pitch moping with each chance he missed like it was someone else’s mistake.

    You want to change the mentality of the players? punish them when they have a bad game or two. Problem is you can only do that when you have a good player on the bench. Not sure how worried Giroud will be to be benched if Walcott is all he has to worry about. Buy a Lacazette type player and I promise you we will see a different Giroud.

    As to our chances to win the PL. I might surprise people on here but I do think we might have the best midfield options in the PL (if all stay healthy) and if we bring in an experienced CD who manages to master the PL we could also have the best back 4 (or 6).
    We just lack the ability to score goals at the right time and this starts with a top striker. Can we deny the impact of Kane, Vardy and Aguero had on their team’s campaign? Can we deny the impact of Giroud’s cold spell on our season? Top strikers are key to a successful campaign. Look what RVP did for Man U.

    I honestly think we have a very very good squad and will be able to put players like Santi, Xhaka, Mert, Ramsey, Wilshire etc on the bench, and those are good players to be able to bring in ( better than when we had Flamini or Kalstrom or Arteta etc). We just need the finishing touch with a striker who scares defenders and perhaps one or two players who score 12 – 20 goals other than the striker (Iwobi? Sanchez? walcott?).

  6. A club the size of Arsenal deserves a player the caliber of Griezmann as striker. At the moment, I think we have one of the best 3 midfields in the world. But our attack is probably not even best 10.

  7. The season before last 14 15 we did better with the points than last season even though we came second from last season we know we conceded many goals from set pieces and were very short on goal scoring the logic of this season was to fix the defensive department and the offensive department by introducing a defender to reduce the amount of goals conceded unless holding is to be the man we havent us of yet fixed the problem on the offensive department we all know the only offensive player is chuba apkom well else we have not addressed the problem so in reality I do not except Arsenal to finish the season with more than 70 points and personally think minimum point required to win the premier league is 85 points have we got that in our squad it will remain to be seen if chuba and holding are enough for a key to unlock the season we will soon find out but I think MR wenger is gambling with the introduction of new manageress which lives us with Liverpool and Leicester and who will take the points off united chelsea and city the next 6 games should give us the indication to what may happen to the long run for the new year

  8. Yeah, just like the way Man U rectified their problems from taking fourth the previous season only to end up in fifth. City has to battle for 4th till the last day. Many of you guys just get too tickled by the media.Football success is beyond transfer alone. Hey Budd you always sound like a fan who has always been in the block for a long time. I appreciate your understanding.

  9. Was not analyzing the Manchester ss and don’t really care much there but from a footballing point of view and from the words of MR wenger I understand the logic I dont read what the media thinks neither My comment above addresses the issues we face in comparison to the two previous seasons adding in our re enforcements
    The 22 million question “Are the Arsenal capable of achieving 85 point come next May ??? ” I believed we were strong last year and said it here that the team was strong and together and used the very words that MR wenger used cohesion but as the season unfolded the cracks showed up at the very beginning when we lost to west ham and it got worse as we lost pole position and every thing around us came tumbling down by February last season here comes another important question did they know and understand what happened do they know what to do this term to avoid the very same faith well we wait and see Irregardless of what happens I will support Arsenal and will keep analyzing every match my way until May so Good luck Arsenal with your endeavors and hope you do well against Liverpool keep the fight on keep the heads up and give them a good beating

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