Pretty much every Sport Journalist, TV pundit and rival fan was quick to slate arsenal after last weeks defeat to Chelsea in the meaningless cup, ‘this is where the Arsenal slump begins’ , and ‘typical Arsenal, they play a team who’s half decent and they crumble’ were just a few of the comments I heard.
Saturdays performance was crucial, Arsenal were good, in fact they were very good, it was probably our best performance of the season so far (along with the game against Napoli). We showed that when everyone else expects us to fail, we can stand up and be counted and alot can be taken from the fact that we kept a clean sheet against the team with the best strike partnership in the league.
Although it’s still early doors, these next 2/3 weeks are pivotal to our season, First we go to Dortmund on Wednesday, our hardest game so far, if we don’t get a result there than qualification will be very tricky especially if Napoli win at home to Marseille, with both teams being a potential 3 points clear of us going into the final two games. If Arsenal can play to our potential and keep Players like Gundogan, Reus and Lewandowski quiet in the same manner that we did with Suarez and Sturridge then we should come away from Germany with a result. Which will set up up nicely for Sundays showdown at Old Trafford.
Despite United’s poor start they have hit form in the last few games and just like Arsenal will approach the game with under the same pressure as us and will want to show that they can be part of the title mix up at the end of the season. Judging by our efforts in our last few trips to OT, getting a point from there would not be the worst thing and will certainly show to everyone else that we can go to the big teams this season and put up a fight, rather than roll over and die like we have in previous campaigns.
No-one says that the league is won in November, but this month is traditionally when we suffer a sticky patch whenever we have a strong start, so for arsenal to come through a period that also includes the seasons surprise package Southampton (who have only conceded 4 league goals to date), will give a real bearing on where we could be come May, and maybe just maybe show the few people who thought that Arsenal were finished that we are back where we belong.