Chelsea beat Arsenal at Stamford Bridge yesterday with a dominant display, and now look even more certain to win the Premier League title, but what is the difference between our sides?
We are one of only three teams who can boast a win over our rivals this season, but the truth is that we have failed to win a Premier League title since 2004, whereas the Blues have picked up four since then, and look destined for a fifth.
Of course the West London side were bought by a billionaire in Roman Abramovich, and have spent money like no end, but our club is not owned by poor people, and our income is up there with the best in Europe. Is our limited spending the biggest obstacle?
Antonio Conte will become the third manager to guide the Blues to the league title since we last won one, while we have stayed loyal to Arsene Wenger. Interestingly however, this will be their fourth different formation which they won it with.
Didier Drogba has been partially blamed for the shift from the old English 4-4-2 formation, with his strength and hold up play credited with changing the need for two up top. Only one of their title wins came with predominantly using the 4-2-3-1 formation which is used heavily by our side in recent years, and there I cant remember a single game where Wenger has chosen to try and mix that up.
Conte made the decision to disband the previously favoured 4-2-3-1 after the loss to Arsenal this term, and his 3-4-2-1 has worked amazingly, so why cant Wenger look at using another formation?
The Frenchman has also spoken on a number of occasions about how there is nobody available in the transfer market who is better than his current options, so he should have no excuse for not managing to mount a serious title challenge.
We were favourites for a time to sign N’Golo Kante from Leicester last term, and he has probably been the signing of the season, but we chose to move for Granit Xhaka instead, who cost almost the same price. With Kante would it have been us topping the table?
Is their players or squad really 12 points better than ours? Is Kante the difference? Is it down to our predictable tactics? Or is Wenger really the problem?
Pat J