Arsenal are on an excellent run of form, winning their last 8 League games and keeping clean sheets in six of them, but as we all know there are no easy games in this League and the tough opponents will just keep coming.
Up next week we will welcome Brighton to the Emirates, who are one of the three teams to have won their two opening games (along with Arsenal and City), so will be no pushovers, but this should be a run-of-the-mill three points with the Emirates crowd behind us. Or I certainly hope so!
And after that we have two incredibly important matches, against our fiercest rivals Tottenham, and the seemingly invincible Pep Guardiola’s Man City, both away.
We all know how tough it is in every North London derby, especially at their own ground, but we have managed to win there on our last two visits and the fact is that if we can’t beat Tottenham then many fans will start calling for Arteta’s head very quickly!
Man City are our obvious rivals for the title, and since drawing with the Gunners in the title run-in last season, they have won eleven games on the trot, which enabled them to hold off Arsenal’s challenge for the title last season, and are currently at the top of the table on goal difference thanks to Erling Haalabnd scoring yet another hat-trick this weekend. They will be fully aware that the game against Arsenal is a massive six-pointer, with Mikel Arteta knows that we simply cannot let the Citizens grab an early lead at the top of the table. Just as Pep knows he can’t afford to lose and give Arsenal the impetus to carry on winning.
Arsenal managed to hold them to the draw at Etihad last season, but many pundits were saying that we should have won that game easily with our dominance, but accused Arteta of simply playing for a draw instead of going in for the kill.
Hopefully we won’t make the same mistake this season, and a win at a ground that hasn’t witnessed a home defeat since Nov 2022 will definitely see Arsenal as the hot favourites to win the title.
