Who is right about Arsenal title chances – Fans or Media?

There seems to be a very wide gap between what the Arsenal fans and the football media think about Arsene Wenger´s chances of leading the Gunners to a first Premier League title since 2004, so who is right? And should the so-called football experts´ refusal to take our title hopes seriously be a cause for concern to the average Gooner?

Despite many in the media accepting that Arsenal have made big strides in the last two years, and many observers feeling that the transfer of Petr Cech from Chelsea this summer is a key bit of business that has fixed one of the major problems in our squad, the press still think that we are too far behind the reigning champions.

Even though we just did a job on Chelsea at Wembley, a report in The Guardian in which 11 of their reporters gave predictions about the season ahead showed most of them do not believe that we can close the gap. While seven of them picked Chelsea to retain the BPL trophy, just two went for Arsenal and one of them only if Mourinho is hit by an injury crisis.

Contrast this with the news reported by the Daily Mail about a survey undertaken by the Arsenal Supporters Trust. It showed 84 percent in favour of Wenger staying in charge and that must surely mean they believe he can win the league. Are we too quick to believe that the last six months proves our ability to win the title? Or are the media too stubborn to change their long held disdain for Arsenal and Wenger? We will soon find out…

Tags Chelsea Man City Wenger

35 Comments

  1. If we stay injury-free for the majority of the season, we will win the EPL. We may not have quite the best team on paper but we have the best squad for sure. These players have developed a lot of chemistry together since no major players are leaving, and with 1 WC addition each season (Ozil, Alexis, Cech) and solid depth we are ready. Our time is now! Can’t wait until the season starts so excited

    1. *will contend for the EPL

      Cut the arrogant bs saying “we will” win the league. We could sign Benzema, Gotze, and Krychowiak and still we wouldn’t be in a position to say we WILL win the league.

      Hmm and the article questions the mass fan opinion vs the media one? On this evidence the media are more realistic for sure.

      1. But yet the flip-side in a large portion of fans saying we WON’T win the league unless X position is filled is ok?
        Not suggesting you’re one of those talking in absolutes.. But you don’t seem to chime in on the common comments on nearly every thread saying we ‘can’t win the league with Giroud leading the line.’

        1. Not really the same, you can never be in a position to say you absolutely WILL win the league regardless of who you’ve got in the squad….

          Yet it’s clear to any sensible fan that you wont win the league with any glaring deficiencies. If some feel Giroud is such a detriment they’re fair to say we won’t win the league based on that.

          Side note: after your snarky quip about Jack only being out 2-5 days, care to weigh in on things now?

      2. lol I’m not being arrogant, there is a difference between arrogance and optimism

        All I’m saying is this season is the best chance we’ve had in a while to win the league, but if it makes you happy, i’ll say if we stay-injury free we have a great chance at winning it.

        1. Yea, the difference being the subtle change you just made to your stance, going from an absolute statement to one bearing a measure of optimism.

    2. Well that’s that then

      With a first team squad of just 26 including 3 keepers, we start the season with wilshire out for 2 months, rosicky for 1 month, alexis and welbeck only back in training this week, campbell on Holiday until August 19th and flamini and gnabry carrying knocks.

      That leaves us with just 16 outfield players for sunday, so we are already looking at iwobi or adelaide to give us an attacking option from the bench.

      1. Id be happy if we went the entire season having that injury list.

        Article says fans v media/pundits. I have noticed allot of the media coming around to take Arsenal as serious challengers. Even anti Wenger Stewart Robson has admitted to Arsenals capabilities. He’ll still point out weaknesses IHO but he also pointed out one or two from Chelsea and thinks we could challenge. The question was put to him by someone within the media who pointed out how he must not be liking the fact that Arsenal are serious contenders and that he himself believes Arsenal will win it. I’ve heard one or two from Sky Sports say that Arsenal are the team Chelsea should be worrying about.

  2. jack wilshere there will be assessment today after picking up a knock in training few days back could be out for a month

  3. “It showed 84 percent in favour of Wenger staying in charge and that must surely mean they believe he can win the league”. This is a misleading statement and the author draws the wrong conclusion from the data/poll. The majority of the Arsenal fans I know think we have a good chance of being in the mix for the title – in fact the best chance for a long time. The bookies and the media have it Chelsea/Man City/Arsenal/Man United as favourites for the title in that order. If you were betting your house I reckon the majority of Arsenal fans would act with their head rather than their heart and stake their house on Chelsea or City. Personally the fewer pundits and “experts” who back us the better as far as I am concerned – just want us to get on with it.

    1. I dunno about City. Their pre-season concessions have been as soft as butter. Need to get their D sorted out quick-smart!!

      1. Actually, we don’t want them to have anything sorted out – thank you very much!

    1. or is that asking for too much??? 🙁
      i want ucl more than epl 🙁

      1. I do!!! I do!!! 😀 😀
        I want the champions cup since rvp era 🙁 🙁 🙁
        i dont mind finishing 17th if we win the champions league 🙁

  4. After the first four games
    and the closing of the
    window we will have
    a little idea.
    However it won’t be till Xmas
    that we really get a bead on things.
    ECL matches, internationals, injuries
    and a full round of games especially
    against the big teams will take their toll.

  5. and we have no claim whatsoever the best team in london since chelsea have won it 🙁 🙁 🙁
    even villa have 🙁 🙁 🙁
    yet we havent 🙁 🙁 🙁

    1. villa has won ucl and arsenal hasnt??!! 🙁
      we certainly are among the least achievers in england teams 🙁

  6. and we should seriously consider to bring back alex song he can back coqeloin ill greet him with open arms we need dm not flamini or arteta have passed it 🙁 🙁

  7. I don’t care what ANYONE says about Arsenal competing for the title.

    They play the game on the pitch by scoring goals – not off the pitch by running their mouths.

  8. Off topin: Just watched Szchezny make some BIG saves for Roma against Barca. The man was a machine!! Definitely has a future at Arsenal, this loan move will only make him better.

    1. His talent was never the question mark. He has all the fundamentals to be a great keeper and produced utterly world-class saves. Just needs to grow up and stop making stupid errors!!!!!!
      Us signing Cech and him sitting for Ospina has hopefully stirred him up. He realistically has never been the second best keeper at our club, so he’ll actually have to improve his game and develop if he wants first-team action.
      Cech’s command of the area is first-class. A big fault in a lot of our keepers. If I was Sczez I’d see that as my biggest aim to improve.

      1. Only competition he had for years was injury prone Fabianski. Glad to see Wenger finally got serious about squad depth. Now for the first time since Lehman we have a world class keeper in Cech

      2. haha actually!! I just watched his individual highlights vs sporting and Barca..
        Was STILL putting his defenders under heaps of pressure instead of just clearing it down-field!!! It’s that immaturity in his game that simply has to be erased if he’s going to be our keeper down the line… Playing it out of defence is fine if it’s 100% safe. Not 70%… Cos that 30% uncertainty costs very, very avoidable goals.

  9. The media is closer to the truth unfortunately. Fans usually are biased and think with their hearts rather than their heads. Two seasons ago, we were top of the league but the media kept repeating we wouldn’t win the league. That was because although we were beating teams we were not convincing when doing so. The team lacked that swashbuckling that you so frequently associate with champions. And we also needed to strengthen by buying another striker to compete with Giroud yet we inexplicably went for an aging midfielder few of us had heard of. Meanwhile Arsenal fans still believed! Fans are same everywhere. We have a good squad this season, but you feel a little bit that the team needs at least one more addition apart from Cech…

    1. But looking by the preseasons, we have noticed that what can happen to Chelsea when only Diego Costa can’t play for them. Also, maybe Falcao can improve, but looking at him, when he is getting his chances, he is not impressing anybody either. If any one or two of Terry, Hazard, Matic, Fabregas gets injured for long duration(which they haven’t), we all know Chelsea don’t have that much quality in squad depth and they will crumble. It is their first XI, not even their bench who impresses the media to tip them favourites.

      Also Why all fans are hoping for injury free season? Because we all know, if all our players can stay fit, and can play week in week out, they can have amazing performances and together they also can beat anyone. We have all seen, what a fit Walcott,Ox,Ramsey,Ozil, Koscielny,Coquelin,heck even Wilshere can do. But we have seen their impacts at different times when they were not playing with each other. What if, they played with each other in good form, which we have already seen in preseason? They can ground out results. Be it a 1-0 win or 6-0, they are ensuring that they win all the time. So I am confident with this team, maybe a adding one player improves our chances, but I have full confidence in them that they can win PL.

  10. Well most fans have been wrong for the last 6 or 7 years so the odds are in favour of the pundits …. We have a confident squad and have strengthened marginally but without addressing critical weaknesses …failure to do so in next 3 weeks and a small dip in confidence at some point would suggest a repeat of last year … Our first xi is not yet able to match those already at top so only injuries in others would allow us to do better this year which should not be how arsenal fc should be moving forward

  11. My fellow gooners, stop this lie, we cannot win the league with giroud. And its also a big deciet to thinks the striker position is not important, hay! Barca bought suarez for a reason!
    You do the comparison, Ian Write, Bergkamp, Henry, Rvp, Giroud. Giroud is the poorest quality 1st choice we’ve got in the last 20years.
    This team is tooo good to suffer this, Giroud should be a number 2 striker at arsenal or even number 3. His biggest problems are the basic striker ingredients needed by a striker to succeed: Pace, skill, flair, agility, stubborness, accuracy of strike.

    I’v taken much time to study Saido Berahino of westbrom. That’s our type of guy since all these benzema and aubermeyang are proving difficult.

  12. The truth is that it’s a balance between the two. No, I don’t think we’re favourites to lift the trophy – but then we haven’t just won it and we’ve not really changed the team. Why would a team who on the surface hasn’t changed suddenly become favourites because of a win in a friendly?

    Our starting 11 is still slightly weaker than the starting 11 of Chelsea and City. The difference is an injury to 1 or 2 players in the Chelsea and City team does FAR more damage then in the Arsenal team. Our squad depth is far more quality than either of these 2 teams. An injury to Silva or Aguero makes City lose their tooth, Costa and Fabregas can do the same to Chelsea. Meanwhile we now have players in all positions (bar DM) who can backup our starting 11 player or switch in depending on the tactics. We’re far more prepared for injuries…BUT we get far more as evidenced by Jack already hitting the treatment table.

    Realistically this is a four horse race and we need to stay in touching distance of the top for as long as humanly possible. We can’t let ourselves suffer multiple defeats off the trot or get bogged down by injuries and we’ll have a decent shot. If I was a betting man I wouldn’t call Arsenal the safe bet…but there is definitely potential to win a lot of money if you placed a bet on us.

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