It hasn’t been the best few days in the life of an Arsenal fan. First of all, there was the fact the team threw away three points by conceding two late goals against Tottenham, then a very frail defence was undone by newly-promoted Stoke City. Overall, it’s been a far from enjoyable few days.
Unfortunately, these types of results haven’t simply occurred due to a slight blip in form. Arsenal have lost three times in the Premier League already this season with these defeats coming against the might of Hull City, Stoke City and Fulham. Two of these teams were playing Championship football last season and that’s worrying. Throw in the draws against Sunderland and, of course, Tottenham – it hasn’t exactly been the start of a team that is going to challenge for the title. There have been a number of games where the football odds fully expected Arsenal to deliver, but they have failed to do so.
Wenger himself has admitted that his side does have its weaknesses right now (as if we didn’t know that already). The Arsenal boss says that his team struggle when teams put crosses into the box and that ‘it is not our greatest strength to deal with that’. So, this presumably means that any team in this league can score against Arsenal; all they have to do is launch the ball into the box a few times. No wonder the likes of Stoke and Hull have had so much joy.
Something else Wenger says is that how his players respond to this setback ´is an opportunity to show how strong we are’. These words couldn’t be closer to the truth in my opinion. The next two games – against Fenerbahce and Manchester United – are so crucial it cannot be put into words. In reality, it is the most important week of Arsenal’s season so far. Two victories and its looking rosy again, two defeats and…..well, I don’t even want to contemplate it.
In all fairness though, as much as the Premier League title challenge is looking like a bit of a distant hope, in Europe, Wenger´s men have been almost faultless so far. Yes, only a point was picked up in Dynamo Kiev, but two convincing wins against FC Porto and Fenerbahce have propelled the Gunners to the top of Group G.
With this in mind, the match tomorrow night at the Emirates is very important. The players, the coaching staff and the fans must pull together and make sure three points are secured. After the recent disappointment the players must dig deep to convince us all that they do have some fight in them, because we all know how good Arsenal can be when they put their mind to it.
A two or three goal victory over Fenerbahce could just get the ball rolling again. It would certainly improve the confidence ahead of the Manchester United game this weekend and that’s vital in the current circumstance. These are two extremely important games and they need to be approached in a way that convinces everyone that this Arsenal team can still achieve great things this season.
Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting
Arsenal News 24/7
