After Arsenal’s 4-1 win against Liverpool last week, Manager Arsene Wenger said that his team would need to be perfect the rest of the season if they want to challenge for the Barclay’s Premier League title. Even if Arsenal do manage to win the remainder of their matches, they still have one big hurdle: Chelsea.
Going into this weekend’s fixtures, the Gunners sit seven points behind Jose Mourinho’s Blues having played one game more. Although Wenger noted last weekend that it would take a Chelsea slip-up for Arsenal to take over the top spot, he backed off of his comments later this week.
Wenger played down Arsenal’s chances of winning the league on Thursday when he said that although his team is in great form, its unlikely that they will catch Chelsea.
Perhaps the more important race that the Gunners should focus on is the battle to stay ahead of Manchester United and Manchester City. The Red Devils sit just one point behind Arsenal with City one point behind them in fourth.
No one can argue that Wenger’s squad seems to be in the best form currently, but unfortunately for Arsenal fans, it’s a little too late. The Gunners will once again fall short of winning silverware in the Premier League.
So where did the London-based club fall short this season?
It certainly wasn’t during the summer transfer window, as is usually the case with Arsenal. This summer Wenger brought in one of the league’s most exciting players, Alexis Sanchez. So far this season the Chilean has scored 14 goals in just the Premier League. He also added 8 assists and collected 6 Man of the Matches. He should easily be considered Arsenal’s player of the season.
Another change that has contributed to the Gunner’s recent run of success comes from goalkeeper David Ospina. The Colombian net minder was brought in to challenge Wojciech Szczesny for the starting position and has made his impact felt. In the 11 games that Ospina has started, Arsenal has won 10. Ospina’s 90% win rate is a welcome change for the Gunners, who have struggled to find a solid keeper since the days of Jens Lehmann.
Despite the addition of Sanchez, Arsenal’s biggest failure this season was the lack of scoring early on. The Gunners had a tough time finding the net in the first half of the season, despite now having the most goalscorers (15) in the Premier League. The return of Theo Walcott was an added bonus for Arsenal, which luckily coincided with Olivier Giroud finding himself in a nice goal-scoring groove. Unfortunately, it was again is just a little too late.
The true Arsenal fan in me has to believe that a good bit of business over the summer, combined with the healthy return of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and hopefully a new contract for Walcott will equal a complete season next year for the Gunners.
The pieces are finally in place at the Etihad, now if only Wenger and his troops can put together a complete season.
As always: We Love You Arsenal, We Do.