It’s interesting how much introspection the international break brings out in us, isn’t it, eh? Actually, not just us, but the media too. I’ve seen a Football365 article ranking Arteta in as 13th in terms of a manager ‘power rankings’ style approach to the season so far. I guess when you take a helicopter view of Arsenal this season, they are sitting in fourth, have already lost twice, picked up four wins and five draws and we are over a quarter of the way through the season. Then you have a Liverpool side with nine wins, one draw and one defeat. Arsenal have spluttered along a bit and as a result it seems as though Arteta has lost some of the ‘magic’ of the last two season’s. That’s the vibes from the F365 article I read today.

And hey, I get it, because they’re looking at the whole league and they don’t go in to forensic detail like we do with The Arsenal. Whoever wrote that piece has 20 other clubs to cover and so how on earth are they going to really get that thing we call context?

But I’ve woken up on the right side of the bed this morning. That, and I’ve read Tom Canton’s good piece On Football London here. What Tom does is echo what I think a lot of us are thinking: You have to put context in to this season so far and when you do that, the doom-mongering really doesn’t have to be ratcheted up like it has.

Arsenal have had more players missed per game, per match week, than any other of the top sides in the league.

Arsenal have had the toughest set of 10 fixtures than any of the top sides.

Arsenal have had some of the most…shall we say…’contentious’ refereeing decisions of the top sides.

So when you compound all of these points together, inevitably you get to the kind of stuttery place we’re in.

But what I do agree with, which is what Tom hints at right at the end of his article, is that now is the time for the context of the last three months to be turned around. Now we need to see an Arsenal team coming quick out of the international break blocks. The fixture list and it’s difficulty level can only get you so far because eventually you get that far in to a season that you’ve played everybody and so has everybody else. Arsenal cannot afford not to go on some kind of run akin to that of the end of last season. That is the only way this season has even the slimmest of hopes of ending in glory by winning the Premier League. I still think the likelihood is against us given the draws rather than the defeats. Turn a couple of those we have had in to wins and I’m thinking that we’re in with a shout. But as it stands I’m in a similar headspace to how I was at Christmas; the title talk has to be stopped completely as it stands.

Unless Arsenal can come flying out of the traps between now and the new year. Between now and 1st January Arsenal have (looking at Premier League only today):

  • Nottingham Forest (H)
  • West Ham (A)
  • Man United (H)
  • Fulham (A)
  • Everton (H)
  • Crystal Palace (A)
  • Ipswich (H)
  • Brentford (A)

I talk about the title talk being stopped, but I think 2025 marks the point at which you have to look and ask whether it can continue, because I think by then we’ll know what realistic expectations are for this Arsenal team. We’ll have played 19 games and be at the exact halfway point. By match week 19 last season we were on 40 points with 12 wins, four draws and three defeats. We were two points behind Liverpool who were top on 42 points. The previous season we were on 47 points with 15 wins, two draws and a defeat and were top of the league five points ahead of City.

As it stands we’ve got eight games to get to 19 matches played, we’re on 19 points and I suspect we need to be aiming for at least that 40 point mark, as a minimum. That means we need 21 points from our next eight matches.

That’s seven wins out of eight.

We know we are capable of going on a run, but if you look at those fixtures and try to work out where your seven from eight are coming, which are the ones you’d think “we should absolutely be winning if we want to win the title.

I think ALL of them. Forest have been on form, but they lost to Newcastle before the break and hopefully that dented some confidence. West Ham away is a tricky game for us, but they’re struggling for identity under Lopetegui. United at home will be tough because they will still be riding off the Amorim new manager bounce, but at home we have to be putting them to the sword if we want a title. Fulham away we need revenge for last season. Everton at home we should win. Palace away is a tough game normally, but they have been struggling so we’ll have to see where we are at with them. Ipswich at home needs to be a win. Then Brentford away may cause us some problems like it has in the past, but again let’s see what state we are in confidence-wise.

So you look at that fixture list and you have to think that if Arsenal stand any chance of a title they need to do what Liverpool have done and basically win, win and win some more. Do that and this talk of Arteta being the 13th best manager, of fans getting a little antsy because the way we are playing, all goes away.

It has to start now though. It has to start this weekend. As Arteta would say, it has to ‘go bang’ and that needs to start against a Forest team full of confidence.

Over to you Arteta and your Arsenal players. Show that you want this.

Back tomorrow.