Having already defeated their North London rivals at White Hart Lane in the Capital One Cup with a second string team already this term, Gunners supporters in the tavern are were confident that they could get one over on Spurs again last weekend with Arsenal having gone great guns in the Premier League so far this season – it ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw.
Achieving a convincing second half performance against Swansea City last Saturday, putting three goals past the Swans in a fixture that truly tested their title winning credentials, Arsene Wenger’s side passes with flying colours with the opening day defeat to West Ham United now a distant memory.
Having last won the Premier League back in 2003/04, it has been an agonising interim period in terms of being top dogs in England again although recent back-to-back FA Cup triumphs have at least re-instilled hope that the North Londoners can yet scoop the biggest prize of all under Arsene Wenger.
With Chelsea’s demise this season, not to mention Manchester United drying up in front of goal and being labelled as boring by ex-players such as Paul Scholes and Peter Schmeichel, the title fight seems to be a straight fight between both Arsenal and Manchester City right now and it’s been a while since the Gunners were in such a position of authority.
With this in mind, we’ve devised a list of five reasons why Arsene Wenger will finally deliver Premier League glory for his long suffering fans of Arsenal that have stuck with the regime over the past 11 years in which they’ve fell short.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five reasons why Arsene Wenger will guide Arsenal to Premier League glory this term.
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Because Petr Cech is saving them crucial points
In the summer, John Terry predicted that Arsenal’s signing of Petr Cech could save the Gunners up to 15 points in the Premier League title race and that very point is coming true this term.
Having endured a personal nightmare on the opening day against West Ham United, this seems like the best thing that could’ve happened to Cech in terms of refocusing him on his new job in hand with the Czech Republic international having been simply awesome since that day.
Having made world class saves against Bayern Munich, Everton and Swansea City recently, Arsenal fans are no longer living in fear that the likes of Vito Mannone, Lukasz Fabianski, Manuel Almunia or Wojciech Szczesny will be making a mistake with Cech mopping up most things that come his way.
With his signature having contributed to closing the gap on Manchester City with Cech marshalling his defence well to boot, this is just one reason why Arsenal can go one better and lift the Premier League title this season.
Because Sergio Aguero will pick up more injuries?
Scoring for fun at the minute, although Arsenal are going great guns, there’s the very real prospect that Manchester City could still earn their third Premier League title this season.
Boasting a ridiculously deep squad, particularly in the forward areas where former Gunner Samir Nasri doesn’t even get a look in nowadays, Manuel Pellegrini’s side is better stocked than Arsenal when dealing with injuries but one man who simply can’t be replaced is Sergio Aguero.
Although it must be acknowledged that Wilfried Bony and Kelechi Iheanacho have stepped up well in his absence of late, nobody scores the regular amount of goals that Aguero does when he’s fit but the simple fact of the matter is that the Argentine is injury prone.
While no football fan would want to wish injury on such a class footballer, you get where we’re going with this in respect of the fact that if Aguero was out injured again for any length of time, it could be of real benefit to Arsenal’s title challenge with Manchester City not being the same team without their striking talisman.
Because Walcott & Giroud are bringing the best out of one another
When Arsenal Wenger made the decision to not sign a single outfield player in the summer transfer window, it was obvious that the Frenchman was going to draw extra criticism from this.
While it may of course still prove the case that Arsenal fall short this term because they didn’t sign that top class forward to out-score Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, what Wenger does deserve credit for is the fact he kept faith with Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud who continue to bring the best out of one another this term.
With Arsenal playing one up top, either Walcott or Giroud misses out when both are fit but this has worked to Arsenal’s advantage in the main this season with both being regular sources of strikes on the scoresheet.
Given the fact both players are looking to nail down that centre forward’s position as their ow, this rather healthy competition is paying dividends for the Gunners right now and with Alexis Sanchez supplementing the duo’s strikes with his own haul, Arsenal most certainly know where the net is.
Because Mesut Ozil is now living up to the billing alongside Alexis
It took him a long while to get going but if you watch Arsenal most weekends in the Premier League nowadays, you’ll know that Mesut Ozil is far more consistent and incredibly accurate in his assisting abilities.
Producing the goods on a week-to-week basis now, more Arsenal fans than ever before are starting to marvel at their club record £42.5 million signing who always seems to be the man to have supplied the pass for a goal when the instant replays display the action.
Playing the game at his own pace, Ozil is anything but fast but he buys his own time in the accuracy of his through balls which often just need tucking away.
If Ozil can maintain this form for the rest of the campaign, not to mention staying fit, there’s no reason why Arsenal can’t go the distance given the fact the German international simply creates so many goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates.
And as for his team-mate Alexis Sanchez, he’s again proving just what a quality signing he is in his second season at the club and at a cool £35 million to boot.
Because Wenger has learnt from previous mistakes?
A hugely controversial point given the fact that Arsene Wenger still has a large proportion of critics even within his own fanbase at Arsenal but we think that he’s slowly learning from previous mistakes.
Of course, throwing David Ospina into the club’s first two Champions League fixtures for tinkerings’ sake is the anomaly to what we’re saying here but in reference to top four battles and improving the defensive solidity of his team, Arsenal seem to have more about them nowadays.
Having brought Francis Coquelin back into the fold and entrusting him in the defensive midfield position, the Gunners’ squad is so much better balanced nowadays and through the signing of Petr Cech, he’s marshalled the Arsenal defence tremendously well so far.
In Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal, the two Spaniards have managed to effectively oust Mathieu Debuchy and Kieran Gibbs from the starting eleven and in Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, this back five is among the Premier League’s meanest.
So in these ways, Wenger seems to have coached the defensive part of his team better than he has done previously and with Arsenal always going to be able to score given their expansive style, this could mean they’re now fully equipped to win the title.
A lot will of course depend on whether Arsenal can keep as many first team squad members fit as possible for the remainder of the campaign with the club being down to the bear bones at the minute.
