Arsene Wenger has challenged his new Arsenal team to prove in the remaining weeks of the season that they are better than his old team – that hardly showered themselves in glory during the first six months. Arsenal are currently in sixth place in the EPL table, which is the same position they were in at this stage last year, but we are five points lower and dropping away from the crucial Top Four and the Champions League places.
Having sold Giroud, Coquelin and Walcott and, of course, swapped Alexis Sanchez, to bring in Mhkitaryan and Aubameyang, it is no surprise that he was asked last night if he thought he now had a much stronger squad after the January window. “Yes” the Boss said. “But that is all to prove now, I say yes, but we have just lost a game 1-0 to Tottenham, so what we have in front of us is to show that until the end of the season.
“We have to perform better in every single game and we have to show in every game until the end of the season a complete hunger, to win every single game. That is what it is about for us.
“Have the players who have come in got the quality to give us something special? Yes – but it is about us now proving that on the field.”
Our new arrivals started with a bang in the 5-1 destruction of Everton but they must surely need a bit more practise with their new team-mates to get used to our system. Let’s hope that the whole side really can gel and show the hunger to be in the Champions League next season…