Arsenal won 4-1 yesterday making it 8 wins in our last 9 matches with just one blip in the draw with Middlesbrough. We have immensely strengthened our squad in the summer with the arrivals of Rob Holding, Shkrodan Mustafi, Lucas Perez and Granit Xhaka and we now have the necessary depth to cope with our regular losses to injury.
Yesterday’s 4-1 win may have taken a while to arrive, but the fact that we had a bench consisting of David Ospina, Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey, Gabriel, Holding and Jenkinson shows just how deep the talent goes. And that was with Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott given a rest, and with Xhaka suspended. In the new Year we will get Danny Welbeck and Per Mertesacker returned to the squad as well. All this makes us look more than capable of coping with a few injuries over the season.
Kieran Gibbs, who has recently come back to the team to replace Monreal, was asked about the squad depth after yesterday’s game, and he said: “That’s obviously the difference and I feel that’s been the difference for a few years with the club. It’s about a squad game and we need to keep everyone fit, that’s the most important thing because there’s depth and quality in the squad. We need to utilise that throughout the season and make sure everyone’s ready because you can be called upon at any time.”
So with all those players, and the confidence we have built up with our long unbeaten run, surely we can really believe that this could be our season at last and finally regain the Premier League trophy?
Sam