Last Saturday's defeat at Man Utd in the FA Cup ended a dismal fortnight which saw Arsenal eliminated from three of the four competitions they were contesting this season. Only one remains.
The performance at Old Trafford brought to the surface all the niggles and flaws of this current squad. Missing a couple of key players, the team still managed to conjure up some sumptuous approach play. However, their cutting edge was nowhere near sharp enough and defensive errors cost them dearly.
So, out of the FA Cup we went and that tournament went the way of the Carling Cup and the Champions League. The Gunners now only have the Premier League to play for. But is “only” the right word?
Ask any Arsenal supporter worth their salt what they wanted to win most at the start of the season and the answer should have been the Premier League. No one ever undeservedly wins the Premier League.
You can fluke the Carling Cup, the FA Cup and even the Champions League (as Liverpool proved in 2005) but no one ever flukes the Premier League. There are never any hard luck stories or arguments. The best team over 38 games always wins it. And Arsenal are now presented with a massive chance to do just that.
With ten games to play and their destiny in their own hands, the Gunners have a glorious opportunity to take the title this season. They now have no other distractions. With the exception of the midweek away game at Spurs on Wednesday 20th April they only have one game a week, providing plenty of time to re-group and prepare for the next match.
On the downside, once again, injuries have come at the wrong time. Wojciech Szczesny, Lucasz Fabianski, Johan Djourou and Thomas Vermaelen are all ruled out for the season. Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song and Theo Walcott are still a few weeks away from fitness. Of these, Fabregas would seem to be the key man. He is the one player who has the ability to elevate this squad from being a decent side to being potential title winners.
More positively though, with goalkeepers thin on the ground, it is great news that Jens Lehmann is back to provide some cover to the end of the season. I love Jens. He is mad like goalkeepers should be. He was part of the Invincibles squad. He won the 2005 FA Cup for Arsenal. More specifically, he has the sort of personality that will hopefully rub off on other players in a favourable way (maybe not Manuel Alumunia though!). If the presence of Sol Campbell helped matters towards the end of last season, then Jens in the dressing room will hopefully shake things up for the good this time round.
There can also be few complaints about the remaining fixtures. There are more away games than home matches but it still looks a shade more straight-forward than Man Utd’s run-in. United also have the considerable distraction of an FA Cup semi-final against Man City and a Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea. Arsenal couldn’t have scripted those match-ups better if Arsene Wenger had done the draw himself.
In reality though, what United are doing ought to be irrelevant to Arsenal. To reiterate: their destiny is in their own hands. It is up to the players to put the disappointments of the last few weeks behind them and focus on what can still be achieved.
Tomorrow they face West Brom away. However it can be achieved, they need to win this game. Who cares if it is the scrappiest game of the season or if Arsenal can only find a winning goal from an outrageous deflection or a mad goal-mouth scramble? What will matter is the three points. After that, the Gunners have an international break in which to re-group after a rough few weeks. It will give injured players more time to recover and everyone the opportunity to get their minds right for the closing weeks of the season.
In spite of the recent disappointments, Arsenal still have a massive opportunity to take some honours this season. It is now time for the talking to stop and the results to be delivered.
Source: David Young, ESPN Soccernet on 18 Mar 11
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