Saliba looks so assured on the ball, nothing frightens him. His confidence spreads through that team. I was worried that we paid too much for Odegaard, but he too is another worldie. I am beginning to believe, and I am really buying into this group of players, there is a togetherness there too, getting rid of the ego's has really paid off!
I mean, I'd love to share your confidence but they're as capable of Leeds and Southampton performance as they are Chelsea and Liverpool ones, man. That's the worry for me. They could go on a bad run of 3,4,5 games...maybe the pessimism is just ingrained in me noo, ffs...the positive thing is none of the other top 4 rivals look capable of really capitalizing on a bad run of form, tbh. I do think Liverpool will go on a run at some point but Chelsea, Man U, Spurs and Newcastle will all lose games too.Originally Posted by selassie
It’s not really relevant though is it, outside getting into the top four it doesn’t really matter which position in the top four we occupy barring say if we finish 4th and have to go through qualifiers…or if someone like Chelsea or Liverpool finish outside the top four but win the champions league (and even then don’t we go into the champions league anyway?)
With Spurs eight point behind us having played a game extra id be disappointed if we didn’t finish above them, but we have to be mindful that aside from the Nottingham Forest game we have failed to score more than once on seven out of eight occasions in the past month. Neither of our strikers are scoring goals, which then puts pressure on other players in the team to provide them.
Despite some pretty unsure performances it’s our defence that’s getting us through games (six clean sheets from last eight)
If we want to challenge we will need to buy in January.
When do we start talking about a genuine title challenge?
We have played 13 games so a third into the season and we are top with 11 wins, a draw & a loss. I think thats our best ever start after 13 games in our history. We look a different team.
When we were playing well in September, the critics said wait until October when we have loads of games including spurs & Liverpool clearly expecting us to fall apart. We didnt, we won them easily. Playing Thursday nights and Sundays and we came through it. Sure some performances like Leeds haven’t been our best but the difference this year is we found a way to win yet in previous years, we lose or draw those games.
On the other hand, city have only played two of the big sides. United at home for city isnt a challenge based on recent years and they won easily as expected but their first real test was Liverpool away and they lost. They were lucky to beat Fulham this weekend with a dive in the last minute to get hte penalty. They’ve had a couple of draws (villa & Newcastle) but otherwise when you compare the fixture lists so far, they had the much easier of the two and we are two points clear.
Of course, its a marathon not a sprint, and their squad depth will come into play in the winter but each week, arsenal get told oh wait until you play x next month etc and each time, we keep winning. We need investment in January to really push but is it not reasonable now to expect a genuine challenge?
Easter, I reckon. Let's see where we are then.
But I agree things are better than any of us could possibly have hoped right now.
Squad depth looks like it will cost us. I think the World Cup could actually help us. In a strange way it could give everyone a breather, especially if the sides our players are in don't do so well.
I've we've got a 10 point lead with 3 games to go, I might start to think we have a chance.
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
It’s a possibility and I think we could be a lot closer than many think however title races don’t mean much in November. The difficulty in projecting where we could be is that there isn’t really any evidence to support our case, this is all very new to us and we’re rightly seen as huge underdogs because of that.
I’ve always said if we’re anywhere near City in the spring then we’d have done incredibly well. From that point, sure the title could very much be a realistic goal. For now though, one game at a time but there’s no harm in dreaming. Ignore the media and all the footballing world who are salivating at the prospect of us falling away.
Yep pretty much
I’d have taken a draw yesterday even though it means City would have gone top, because I’m mainly of the view that a title challenge would be fanciful. There are a couple of things in our favour, that City will perhaps prioritise winning the champions league something you can tell drives Guardiola, and if we retain our two point lead next weekend it will be as a result of having played two more away games than City - who will after the World Cup have to go to United, Tottenham, Chelsea and us. Plus there are always other away fixtures that are potential banana skins.
That’s in our favour against the mountain of things that are not, City having a bigger and more talented squad, having a freak of nature in Haaland, a more experienced coach in Guardiola and being able to score more goals than us.
But yeah it is nice to enjoy that we are getting results, sometimes the performances are there and sometimes they are not. The games like PSV where we are shit from beginning to end are not as common as they were last season which is also good.
I think the board need to back him in January, squad is thin, some reinforcements could help us push on.
Equally he needs to actually buy players in positions we need
I’d argue there are three key areas that need strengthening
Central Midfield (as much as I pillory Xhaka the real weak link in our midfield has been Lokonga, Elneny is fine to whack on as an extra body when protecting a lead but we need someone who isn’t going to leave us high and dry if Partey gets injured or indicted)
Winger (less of a concern if Reiss Nelson can put in the kind of performance he did against Forest, but a lot of speculation linking us with Mudryk)
Striker (we just need someone who can offer something different to Gabriel Jesus, a dare I say it Giroud like player)
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