What a two weeks it has been for the Gunners, with a massive win against title rivals Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium and a six nil win against London rivals West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Every game that passes, Arsenal gain more and more believers, is this the year that the North London club finally win the league for the first time since 2004, the year of the invincible’s?
Sir Alex Ferguson once said “defences win you titles”, and Mikel Arteta looks to have assembled one worthy of the prize. While the 2022/23 team earned plaudits for their impressive attacking returns, they still leaked 43 goals at the other end (ten more than Man City) and were ultimately derailed by some key backline injuries.
Arsenal have improved their defence massively this season, William Saliba is imperious at centre half and Takehiro Tomiyasu rarely puts a foot wrong, while Declan Rice has reduced their workload via his excellent recovery tackles in midfield.
Arsenal have a special player and even better than last season in the form of Bukayo Saka,
Discussing Saka, Arteta said: “When you talk about consistency at his age… what he has done in the last two or three seasons is remarkable. His attitude, his quality, what he delivers every week… it’s really difficult to find. That’s why he is so important to us.”
Reach 90 points
Really, it is an absurd situation that 80-plus points is not enough to win a league. It warrants grander debates than just unthinking declarations about how competitive the Premier League is.
You need at least 85 points to properly challenge Pep Guardiola’s and probably over 90 – if not even higher – to beat them. “That team has the capacity to get 105 or 110 points,” Arteta warned.
This is immensely demanding. Arsenal were the first club to reach 43 points after 16 games and not win the title. The default position at the start of any season is that City under Guardiola will win the title. In the end, they went on the unstoppable run everyone expected. Arsenal literally couldn’t compete against that, despite their own version early on.
This is a different Arsenal team this season, it seems they have that chip on the shoulder having falling short last season and Arteta seems to be getting more out of his young Gunners team.
It couldn’t be any tighter at the top, the next few weeks/months we will find out a lot about this young Arsenal squad .. And you can get the best football betting on who will win it ..