Cheer up fellow Gooners. I understand how you all feel. I am still in absolute shock about Saturday’s result. I woke up thinking about it and I have just finished watching the re-run on Football First. It wasn’t an enjoyable watch. But we have to forget about it, because if you are all totally honest with yourselves, Arsenal Football club are in a better position on this Monday morning than any of us expected going into the weekend fixtures.

We have a big bank account......

You may argue that we should be only 2 points off of United, which would of course be a much better place to be, but Man United looked a tad lethargic against Wolves and this may have been caused by the fact that they felt much less pressure to win the game.

Had we won our game 4-0, I think Man Utd would have played with much more urgency and we could still well be 5 points adrift.
But this side is for the majority of the time, looking like a great team, and I still believe with the slightly easier fixture list (in theory) than United’s, our players have got it in them to challenge right until the end, and possible win the Premier League.

Going forward, for the first time in a long time, we have a fit and firing Robin Van Persie. The lad is world-class, and makes such a difference to our play (do you remember when he came on against Spurs away last season?) His combination play with Fabregas and Nasri is second to none (well maybe Xavi, Messi, Iniesta!). Walcott is always a threat, he continues to frustrate me with his final ball, but this is improving, as we saw on Saturday. Arshavin looks like he is returning to form, and at the end of the day you can’t argue with the 9 assists he has provided in the league this season (only behind Nani and Rooney with 10, Cesc has 8).

In the middle I expect to see Song back next week. His partnership with Wilshere is excellent and they have both been a revelation. Defensively we have also improved, Sagna is without doubt the best right back in the league (world?) and Clichy is looking back to the player we know he can be (though still didn’t do enough for Newcastle’s second goal). Djourou has also been outstanding and Koscielny improving. Szczesny also looks like he has cemented the No1 jersey and has looked dominating and confident.

Next weekend we play Wolves at home. We should win that game. Man United face City at home. Anything could happen there. We may well be only a point adrift of United come this time next week. We still have to play United at home (which is gonna be a cracker) and if we beat them ( I acknowledge this will not easy but if we are up for it as much as we were for Chelsea at the Grove we can definitely do it) we are 2 points in front, all else being equal . We do have other difficult games in our run in, notably Tottenham (a), Liverpool (h), Bolton (a) and Stoke (a), but United have Chelsea (h), Chelsea (a), Liverpool (a), City (h). They look like more slippery fixtures to me.

I know football doesn’t exactly work like this, hence Saturday’s results. I also acknowledge we have problems, especially if Djourou’s knee injury is bad. Squillaci is a liability and for me just doesn’t seem to give a shit. He doesn’t throw himself into challenges/ headers etc. Diaby being banned is a shame because despite giving the ball away more than his ability warrants, he is a good passer/ retainer of the ball and had a good first half yesterday, and we could do with him around to let Cesc have a rest in games like next week and Orient in the Cup. I also feel RVP needs a rest and Chamakh needs to play more to keep RVP fresh for the games that we really need him.

This is the other problem – with the amount of players out on loan the second string have proved unable to hold their own in cup games where we need to rest the big boys. Wenger knows that we have to go full throttle in the FA Cup, just in case we don’t win the Prem/CL, which leaves us having to play Cesc, Fabs, Nasri in every game – this is how Nasri got injured.

Overall, it has been an excellent season, we have a fantastic First XI and there appears to be an excellent team spirit and belief that they can achieve something great. Yes, they messed up on Saturday but they (and Wenger I hope?) will learn from it. If Arsenal can go on and win the next 4 PL games (Stoke -h, Sunderland -h, West Brom –a, Blackburn h) we will still be right up there and the Newcastle game will be a distant memory.

P.S. United’s next 4 games are City -h, Wigan -a, Chelsea -a and Liverpool –a.

Written by James