Watford’s 3-0 win over Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side yesterday just goes to add to the feeling that absolutely any team can beat anyone else in this League this season. Leicester City are going to top of table at Christmas and Arsene Wenger thinks that this is fantastic for the competition and the fans. He told Arsenal.com: “It inspires everybody,”
“The teams behind by five or six points all think that with a good run they can be there. It is very open, but that’s what is sensational. It is not only a league where you think it’s only Real Madrid or Barcelona [who can win it]. I find it very good and very healthy.
“It happened [before] once in my life, when a friend of mine, [Jean-Claude] Suaudeau was coaching Nantes. He called me at the beginning of the season and asked me to give him on loan one of my players who was not a 100 per cent regular. I said: “I cannot give him to you on loan because I need him.” He said: “You’re unfair because I will go down, they have sold my players and I have nobody left.”
“He won the championship that year with [Patrice] Loko, with [Reynald] Pedros. Thirty-two games unbeaten! Because he had no choice he played all the young players and in the end he won the championship. That’s the first time I’d seen it. Now we have a second [with Leicester].”
But Arsenal are not so far behind the Foxes and a win tonight will leave us just two points behind the leaders. Wenger believes that the Gunners are now showing title-wining aspirations. “What I feel is great team spirit and great unity in the dressing room, and a focus to go forward, that’s for sure,” he said. “After that, we have to answer on the pitch whether we are good enough.
“We have to accept that [having our character questioned is] part of it but we have to give our answer on the pitch week-in week-out and that [criticism] will slowly die.
“It was true for a while because we were a young team and a young team can be up and down. But I believe now we have shown it… what we did at Olympiakos is not a team of no character. You need to be special to achieve that. We won the FA Cup in the last two seasons and you need character to win the FA Cup. Everybody would love to do it every year.
“We are the only team who has beaten Leicester basically, and in a convincing way. The character is down to consistency in life. That’s what I call character. All of us can be for one day in our life exceptional but character is to have a target and maintain your focus on that target. That’s what I call character and that’s what we have to show in the league.”
I will be brave and say that if we hadn’t suffered our usual lengthy injury list we would definitely be on top of the table right now, but every team has a glitch every season and hopefully we will have got ours over and done with. A great run is now needed over the festive period to put the cat amongst the pigeons. If e can go on a winning run while others are dropping points left right and centre we can hopefully create an unassailable lead in the New Year.
That’s all I want for Christmas! It’s not too much to ask for is it?
Onwards and Upwards!