Did Arsene Wenger just let our north London rivals slip his mind today in the Arsenal press conference ahead of our Premier League clash with Watford tomorrow? It is possible of course, but with the Frenchman being famous for his intelligence and attention to detail I very much doubt it.
Wenger was talking to the football press today about the EPL title race and the chances Arsenal have got of winning it, as reported by Arsenal.com. At one point he mentioned the position of Arsenal in the Premier League table by saying that there were 17 clubs below the Gunners, but when he spoke about what we need to do to claim the title in May he seemed to think that there was only one team we needed to catch and that is Leicester City.
The boss said, “If we win all the eight games, we have more than a chance to win the league, but our target is to win the games. Let’s start to be pragmatic, and win the next one which is [on Saturday].
“It depends on the results of Leicester City. We are depending on Leicester City and nobody knows how they will go in the last seven games. They have seven games, we have eight. What is important is that we play our eight games with complete commitment and passion, and see where we finish.
“Everyone says Leicester City is a team who have overachieved but now you see all their players go to play with their international teams and they are the best players in their national team. It is no coincidence that when a team does well, they have good players.
“The stress becomes bigger but Leicester are in a very strong position at the moment. They can still lose it. The only way we can achieve that is with us performing.
“It could be more of a norm because all the English clubs will have a fantastic financial potential to buy the best players in Europe.
“Let’s not forget that at the moment we have 17 teams behind us who all have big potential. So let’s focus on doing well until the end of the season by giving our absolute best.”
So no mention of the spuds or the six point gap between us and them. Is that just because Wenger does not want to give them any attention or is he just confidence that if Arsenal catch Leicester it will mean the title? Whatever the reason for not mentioning them as title rivals, I think it was a quality piece of Tottenham trolling from the Frenchman.