The word on the street is that Arsenal have now won five of their last six games. I’m no expert, but that sounds remarkably like good form to me.
Arsenal are supposed to be a club in the grip of a massive crisis, but whilst the naysayers have been making banners and calling for the head of the manager, Arsene Wenger’s team have been quietly working hard at turning around their fortunes on the pitch.
Last weekend saw them reach the dizzying heights of the top half of the table and Wednesday night saw them leapfrog Marseille to take the top spot in Group F in the Champions League.
Arsenal’s poor start to the season is well documented. Seven points from seven games was hardly the form of champions. But was it all that surprising? Wenger has been at the helm for 15 years, so at some point a sluggish start to the season was bound to happen. A series of events conspired to put Arsenal on the back foot from the very start of the campaign. A succession of high profile departures and a couple of injuries to key men left the team threadbare and demoralised. This was a series of events that culminated in the thrashing at Old Trafford.
Since that fateful day in Manchester, the team has rallied well and has now started producing the results needed to propel them up the table. The Blackburn result didn’t help, nor did the Tottenham game, but both of these matches were affected by poor refereeing and there’s nothing that can be done about that. The bad decisions made by linesmen and referees are beyond the control of players, managers and supporters; there are some things that you just have to take on the chin.
Now all Arsenal have to do is look forward. They’re well placed to push on in the league, and we’ll know whether this good form is a renaissance or another false start by the time they’ve played the next two league games (Stoke and Chelsea). I’m not about to start making bold predictions about where I think Arsenal are going to finish in this seasons Premier League, but I will say this: Don’t write Arsenal off just yet.
In seasons past, Arsenal have faded away badly at the end of the season. They’ve worked themselves into a position of ascendancy and then the pressure has gotten the better of them and they’ve capitulated. I think that, along with the reasons mentioned above, the hangover from last seasons collapse has much to do with their sluggish start to this campaign. However, this year is looking decidedly different; we’re playing a game of catchup from the start.
In a way, with most people having written off their title chances, the pressure will be off the players in a manner that it hasn’t been before. Maybe, just maybe, this abysmal start to the season can be turned into a positive. If the team can maintain the consistency they’re starting to find, then who knows where they might end up come the end of May.
I haven’t lost faith in the team. I haven’t written off their chances of a successful campaign. I’m certainly not calling for Wenger to be sacked. I think that with a little luck and more hard graft, it won’t be long before Arsenal are back where they belong, near the top of the table. Earlier on I said I wasn’t going to make any bold predictions for how the season would end, we’ll I’ve changed my mind. Arsenal will finish AT LEAST fourth.
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