Arsenal Corner

I’m deflated, but… Arsenal will win the Premier League this season.

That might sound like unwanted toxic positivity after a pretty uninspired draw with Man City. But I’m starting this blog strong, and this match has done nothing to dissuade me from the (potentially) delusional belief that Arsenal will win the quadruple league this year.

First, the game. Look, outside of a moment of magic from Eze & Martinelli it wasn’t good. We can all agree on that. We dither on the ball far too much. The line up was too conservative, and hopefully this puts to bed the Rice / Merino experiment in these sorts of fixtures. It didn’t work. It’s never worked.

Arsenal still have a habit of giving teams too much respect. While that’s served us well against the big six over the last two years, we’re no longer the underdogs we once were.

Man City aren’t themselves. Arsenal now have the better first XI and the better squad. The second half showed this.

It takes a special team to force Pep Guardiola into playing 5-5-0 football. City had 34% possession – the lowest Pep has ever had in a Premier League game.

They had 5 defenders and 2 DMs on the pitch by the end. That’s a pretty shocking Stoke impression from a team that’s spent half a billion pounds since January. But let’s be real Arsenal are never breaking that down.

Let’s not forget though: this wasn’t Arsenal’s first-choice side. Saka and Saliba weren’t fit, while Odegaard and Havertz would have started. Don’t let anyone tell you that doesn’t matter. Our front four lacked fluidity because they’re still learning how to play together.

Arsenal have the best squad in the Premier League. It’ll be a long season. Liverpool cannot sustain the luck they’ve had (copium), and no-one else is good enough. Arsenal will get their injuries under control (copium) and this attack will start to gel.

This team needs time. There’s a reason clubs don’t usually buy 8 players in one window. Arsenal haven’t had the luxury of bedding in new arrivals slowly due to an unkind fixture list & and an unfortunate injury list. Odegaard, Saka, and Havertz missing games has meant trial by fire for Madueke, Eze, and Gyökeres in some of the toughest games we’ll play this season.

But when the squad is healthy, that competition for places will be so important. Do you think Martinelli buries that chance last season if he knows his backup is Sterling?. Nope. We’ve got competition in every position. That will be invaluable.

On Gyokores. I’ve already seen people giving up on him. I’m not saying he won’t flop – but it’s far too soon to say. We don’t yet play a brand of football that suits him. Again, time is needed.

Right now, part of why we give teams too much respect is simply because players don’t know the system. We have to be conservative, and so we have been. We’ve become great at not losing. Now we need to become great at winning.

And once this team gels? I truly believe we’ll see something special. We’ll start disrespecting teams that are worse than us and it will be magical.

Arsenal are one of the best teams in Europe. It’s time we start acting like it.

Arsenal will win the league this season.