Title winning squads require three things: quality, luck and mentality.
The current Arsenal squad has the first one. Over the past few years it has become evident that Arsenal always possesses enough fire power up front. Their midfield and attack are always packed with plenty of talent. They have extremely talented players who have the ability to score and create goals for fun.
The current Arsenal squad is no different. They possess abundant quality up front and have already scored 100 goals in all competitions this season. In midfield they have players like Nasri, Fabregas, Walcott, Arshavin, Wilshere, all players who are capable of changing the course of the game single handedly.
Even in attack they have the likes of Robin van Persie, Marouane Chamakh and Nicklas Bendtner, players who are extremely talented and capable of carrying the team by themselves.
Normally, Arsenal’s defense is their Achilles heel. Their defense in previous seasons have been too fragile and when they come under sustained pressure they do tend to collapse. They concede too many soft goals.
But this season with Djourou in Arsenal’s defense they have been solid at the back and only two teams have conceded less goals. In their last 11 matches Arsenal have kept seven clean sheets and have conceded just eight goals with six of them coming when Djourou hasn’t played. Out of the two that Arsenal have conceded when playing with Djourou, one was against Chelsea and the other was obviously offside to everyone except the referee.
All this is despite the absence of Thomas Vermaelen. Arsenal’s defense is not perfect but when comparing the present squad with those of the previous seasons it is evident that this team has a more solid defense with much better goalkeepers at the back than in the past 3-4 years.
But quality merely is not enough. If that were so Arsenal could have been lifting trophies for the past several years. Arsenal have lacked two things: the luck and mentality of champions.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s United is the best example of a title winning squad carved from strong and tough mentality. Manchester United would never give up until the last minute, fighting it out till the end and often with great reward. It would be common for them to clinch the game late on.
Arsenal in previous season lacked this winning mentality. In previous seasons they would crumble and soon as a couple of injuries hit the squad they would start to lose all momentum and their title challenge would collapse.
But this season we have definitely seen a stronger Arsenal: both personnel wise and even in their mentality. Arsenal have grinded out wins even when their beautiful game has failed. In the games against West Ham, Everton, Fulham and Stoke, Arsenal missed key players and despite struggling to impose themselves on their opponents, at the end of the day they walked out with all three points.
Then we have the match against Barcelona. Arsenal became the first team to beat the mighty Catalan giants with Messi, Iniesta and Xavi playing under Pep Guardiola. Despite Barcelona out passing the Gunners for the majority of the game, Arsenal handed Barcelona only their third defeat of the entire season, a feat which even Mourinho’s Real Madrid failed at, miserably.
Now following the recent draw against Sunderland, Arsenal critics questioned the team stating that they lacked the mentality to win.
Let us review that draw first: Arsenal were missing four players and not just any four players but maybe four of their best players. Each of those players has the quality to influence the game single-handedly. Arsenal were missing the spine of their team. Despite that they put in a great performance and would have won had it not been for two ridiculously poor decisions as Arsenal had a perfectly legal goal disallowed and a penalty claim turned down. Had these two decisions gone Arsenal’s way, they would have most probably won the match comfortably.
That being said it doesn’t necessarily mean that with an improvement Arsenal are mentally perfect. There have been instances when Arsenal have contrived to lose and draw the match when no other outcome than an Arsenal win seemed likely. Matches against Tottenham and Newcastle show the work still left to be done.
In both matches Arsenal were leading comfortably at half time yet they eventually ended up dropping points. So there still exists a certain amount of mental frailties in Arsenal.
But the fact that remains that even other teams in the Premier League are showing signs of weakness as well. Manchester United are no longer that formidable unit they were and they have dropped points in some shocking fashion. They have thrown away leads against teams like Everton, Fulham and West Brom from positions of ease. They would have won such matches in previous seasons.
Manchester United are definitely mentally weaker than previous seasons. So despite Arsenal’s mental weakness, they can win the title. But they will have to learn to close out games especially if they want to go on and win bigger trophies like the Champions League.
But every title winning team needs luck as well. This season has seen Arsenal at the wrong end of some shocking calls by the referee. In the matches against Sunderland, Newcastle and Wigan, the Gunners were victims of poor refereeing.
But poor refereeing is something that every team suffers from, from Manchester United at the top to Wolverhampton Wanderers at the bottom. So it would be too easy to say that Arsenal are unlucky just because they are victims of bad refereeing.
Injuries and Arsenal are something that we, Arsenal fans have grown accustomed to. It would be a shock if Arsenal fielded a fully fit squad in the next two to three years. And that is something they have been unable to do in a very long time.
Arsenal have been missing some player or the other at some point or the other.
Thomas Vermaelen has been out since October. Robin van Persie has been shifting between the pitch and the treatment table. Fabregas’s hamstring cannot hold up for more than two months and Walcott’s ankle is broken or sprained frequently.
Yet the injuries are less harsh than previous seasons. Last season Arsenal were missing close to seven first team players. This season too they have been hit by injuries but to a much lesser extent. Fabregas has not been out for more than three weeks continuously and van Persie despite the recent injury problems will miss only two EPL matches in April.
So by April, Arsenal should have a fully fit squad with van Persie, Walcott, Vermaelen and Ramsey all back. So during the title run in Arsenal should most probably not face any major injury crisis. Last year it was during this time that all of Arsenal’s players started getting injured and it ultimately cost Arsenal the title.
Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 11 EPL matches with seven wins and four draws. In the four matches that Arsenal have drawn, Manchester United have dropped points at the same time on three occasions.
When Arsenal drew with Wigan, United drew with Birmingham. When Arsenal drew with Newcastle, United lost to Wolves and when Arsenal drew with Sunderland, United lost abjectly to Liverpool.
United lost their extra game to Chelsea. The match was originally scheduled to be played in December but was postponed due to the snow. During December, Chelsea were struggling and they most probably struggled against United who were in good form. But when the match did take place in March, Chelsea had signed David Luiz who went onto put in a great performance and win the match for the Blues.
The title race this season is an extremely closely fought affair and the difference could prove to be a mere one or two points and small things like this could be the difference in being the best in the league and being the best among the rest.
Currently Arsenal are three points behind the Red Devils but have played a game less.
The season represents Arsenal’s best chance to win the title since the Invincibles in 2004 and despite the mental frailties, Arsenal might just have the luck of champions.
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