Both Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez scored in Arsenal’s 4-1 demolition of Liverpool this weekend, which takes their respective totals to 18 for Giroud (despite missing many months out injured) and 20 for the sublime Chilean hitman. Arsene Wenger was obviously in a bullish good mood when he spoke to the Mirror, but you can’t argue with stats can you?
Wenger said: “You smell that we can score goals. If you look at the number of goals we’ve scored now – 62 from 31 league games – that’s quite good with seven matches to go.
“We last had two players scoring 25 a season with Pires and Henry, or maybe Bergkamp and Henry. That’s a long time ago. But they’re not bad names!
“Giroud has surprised a lot of people. It shows that we missed him when he was out for four months. Laurent Koscielny was out for four months too. Ozil the same. And basically they were all out together. You can see that that makes a difference.
“We have a good mentality and cohesion in the team. There is something happening. That shows you they are ready to fight for each other. You can see that. You can’t cheat on that. People smell that.”
No-one can deny that this Arsenal squad are now buzzing, and with recent away wins at both Man City and Man United plus our vengeful destruction of Liverpool, they certainly have every reason to feel confident. Another win next week at lowly Burnley will give us eight in a row and set us up nicely for the crucial visit of Chelsea, but Wenger knows better than to count his chickens too early.
“I’m a competitor and what that means is you have to go as high and as far as you can.” Le Prof continued. “If somebody was better than us, then well done, but we have to have given our best until the end and that’s what I would like to do.
“I’m old enough to know that things are never as comfortable as they look. But what is true is that it’s in our hands. How well we deal with the situation now will be important.
“Let’s judge that at the end of the season. Let’s give everything to do it and see what happens.
“It’s too early with seven games to go but we’re in a good position, with four games at home and only three away.
“We’re on a good run so I’d say it will be down to how we can maintain that focus and level of urgency between now and the end.”
We have definitely set ourselves up for a spectacular end to the season, and if we can maintain our momentum who knows where it will take us?
Onwards and Upwards!