Arsenal have had a fantastic week, with their lead at the top of the league table becoming stronger with each win and their main title challengers dropping points.
The goal for December should have been to keep winning, and after two games, they’ve done just that, and they can make it three in a row versus Villa.
If the wins keep coming, Arsenal will be in the strongest position to go and claim the Premier League title. Nonetheless, two factors may imperil this. These two things are David Raya’s continuous errors and their reliance on last-minute goals.
Raya almost cost Arsenal three points against Luton Town, a team they should have comfortably beaten. He gave up two silly goals that he should have avoided. His mistakes against Luton are only a few of the many that the Spaniard makes. With the Bees, he appeared to be the real deal — a goalkeeper in command of his territory — but watching him at Arsenal, he appears unstable and a weak link in Arsenal’s formidable defense.
It would be intriguing to see if Arteta sticks with Raya in goal against Villa. But if he does, I feel it will be his last opportunity to prove his case. That said, Arsenal almost won the league with Ramsdale in goal, and Arteta may need to consider playing him if his summer signing continues to struggle.
Arsenal must also start scoring goals early on. They must fire on all cylinders from the start. Last season, that was one of their most potent weapons; they constantly tried to get off to a bright start. This season, they have won a couple of games (against Manchester City, Manchester United, Brentford, and Luton Town) with late goals. One could argue that it is a never-say-die mentality, but can this trait be relied on? No, it can’t. It will fail one day.
In my opinion, if these two issues are resolved, Arsenal should be able to maintain their title challenge between now and the winter transfer window when hopefully they will bring in reinforcements.
Daniel O
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Last three matches first goals.
Luton 19 mins
Wolves 7 mins
Lens 13 mins.
That’s not bad.
I think it is not only Arsenal who have won matches in the Epl this season by scoring a last minute goal to win their matches. Other big Epl teams have similarly won their matches scoring in the last minutes of the matches. So Arsenal is not an exception to what is increasingly new becoming the norm in the Epl this season. Even Liverpool who are 2nd in the table behind Arsenal who are on top, achieved a 1-2 away win result against Crystal Palace in the early Epl match today through scoring their winning goal after 90 minutes in the match.
A win is a win no matter what minute is achieved in the match. And I think Arsenal have won their last 3 Epl matches consecutively. Brentford 0-1 Arsenal, Arsenal 2-1 Wolves & Luton 3-4 Arsenal.