Arsenal’s title challenge finally materialises after Goodison Park win
The English Premier League over the weekend saw many upsets, including Manchester United’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa on Saturday and Chelsea’s 0-3 loss to Sunderland on Sunday. Arguably, the real winners of both these matches were Arsenal who swiftly claimed
2nd position after the results enabled them to jump over 2nd placed Manchester United and close the gap between themselves and current title defenders Chelsea, to two points.
Many predicted an Arsenal win at the Toffees' home-ground as statistics showed the Gunners have an excellent away-from-home record, claiming top spot from all the teams when it comes to performing well in away-matches. Arsenal have also scored more goals
against Everton than any other team in English Premier League history; a grand total of 75. The figures also showed that when Djourou and Squillaci are included in the squad, Gunners' chances of winning are a whopping 100 per cent.
In his pre-match comments, the young Gunner Cesc Fabregas said that his team “could not afford anymore unexpected slip-ups and defeats.” Gunners went one up before the half-time whistle through a goal by Louis Sagna, not a player one might have predicted
to score at all, as his last time on the score sheet was a header against Chelsea, a good 105 games ago. Fabregas found himself on the score-sheet early into the second half and Everton’s star Australian player, Tim Cahill could only score a consolation goal
for his side in the 89th minute.
With Arsenal suddenly oh-so-close to claiming the top spot in the league after years of settling for a top four finish, manager Arsene Wenger was full of praise for his young team, calling his defenders' display “outstanding” and described the rest of the
team as a “spirited” and “resilient” side. He made encouraging comments to the press saying that “there is more to come from this team.”
Critics argue that Wenger’s side are constantly in transition, with the manager having a knack for spotting young talent and cultivating his young players into intelligent and experienced footballers. Perhaps, the Gunners' squad has finally reached the optimum
stage, when they can confidently call themselves title challengers and have their opponents, fellow Londoners Chelsea and old-age rivals Manchester United give weight and heed to their claim. Many followers of the Barclays Premier League believe that this
time around, it will not be a one-man-horse-race with Chelsea simply running away with the title, despite the fact that they have held their number 1 spot all season.
Gunners have gone five seasons without acquiring any silverware. The Spanish player Fabregas talked to the media about Wenger on November the 13th, saying that "He wants to win and he wants to prove that this young team can be winners, can be
successful.” Gunners' fans would be ecstatic to claim the title again, since their last win of the Barclays Premiership was in the 2003-2004 season, when they made history by becoming the second team to not succumb to a defeat during the whole season, subsequently
earning them the nickname of ‘The Invincibles’.
One of the reasons Arsenal have come under-fire this season is due to their poor disciplinary record, a problem that Arsene Wenger has vowed to change. He acknowledges the fact that his club have had a questionable number of red-cards been shown to players
in the past couple of weeks. Squad members that have been given their marching orders so far this season include Alex Song, Jack Wilshire and Laurent Koscielny.
Fans of other clubs may argue that Arsene Wenger is needlessly soaking up the limelight and that Arsenal’s sudden luck of surpassing the Red Devils and closing in on the Blues, should be attributed less to what their club did and more on what other clubs
failed to do, over the weekend. BBC’s Phil McNulty recently made a comment about the Arsenal boss, calling him “an eternal optimist, even in the barren years...” The performance against Toffees at Goodison did not impress him, as he called the game a “rough-edged
victory”, which once again, brings up Arsenal's poor disciplinary record.
Gunners next have a mouth-watering derby clash with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday which will have many fans and critics alike eagerly anticipating a possible shuffle in the table.
Tags: