Calm Down! Arsenal are still in trouble! by DN
It does seem as though Arsenal have finally found the right balance and have learned some painful lessons about starting games slowly (a la Stoke) us focusing too much on the attacking side of the game when we should be solid and compact (a la Anderlecht).
And with Theo Walcott and Nacho Monreal ready to return, Mesut Ozil back in training, Mikel Arteta, Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey very close, it looks as though our terrible luck with injuries might be turning. The Gunners definitely had a change in luck this week when we were handed the best possible draw against Monaco in the Champions League.
So Arsene Wenger’s name is being cheered again, Arsenal look good for a UCL quarter-final place and we seem to be on the up in the Premier League as well, heading for an away game with a Liverpool side about as far removed from the confident, dangerous and in form outfit that took us apart at Anfield last season. So it is all plain sailing from here right?
Wrong! Or at least the players and Wenger cannot afford to think that way. We still have big issues to deal with and the January transfer window offers the boss a chance to solve at least two of them by signing a strong central midfielder and a top centre back. I would not be surprised if we were all left a bit disappointed at the end of the transfer window
We also need to start winning these big games that keep slipping away. Admittedly the Gunners were very unlucky against Man United but we still came away with nothing and that keeps the monkey on our backs and gives the media a stick to beat the manager with. The longer we fail, the harder it will become, mentally.
If we let another chance slip away this weekend, the confidence and belief that has been building will evaporate again as it already has many times this season. Things may be looking good for the Gunners now but we are still only in 6th place and are five points behind our big rivals Man United, 10 behind Man City and a massive 13 behind the leaders Chelsea.
So there is a lot of work to do in the EPL if we are to stay in the top four or even better our recent finishes which is what we expected. We also have a tough first tie in the FA cup against Hull and have no excuses this time for going out of Europe. It seems to me that there is a bit too muck patting on the back going on and we have come undone in these situations before.
Am I being too negative? Hopefully Wenger and the lads will prove wrong but I don’t think we are quite out of the woods yet. What do you think?