Debate: Can Arsenal win the Premier League?

View From The Enemy

Lack of Squad Depth

If we’re talking purely in terms of quantity, very few teams in the seemingly cash rich Premier League have a threadbare squad as such. However, the distinction between the haves an have-nots can be made in terms of the quality of the players on the bench.

As the old cliche goes, the Premier League is a marathon and not a sprint. Arsenal have already played 16 competitive games this season and will play a minimum of 33 more games (assuming they fail to progress to the knockout stage of the Champions League knockout stage and get knocked out in their 1st game in the FA Cup).

In reality, you’d expect Arsenal to play 55-60 games this season by no means a small number. To add to that, Arsenal have potential weak points in 2 key areas of the squad.

Mertesacker and Koscielny have formed an impressive partnership in the heart of the defence but the only other recognizable centre back is Vermaelen. Yes, Sagna and Jenkinson are both capable of filling in but come the business end of the season and the pressure it brings (more on that later) I, for one, would definitely prefer to have 2 recognized centre backs in the team.

Going back to Vermaelen, with the World Cup coming up he’ll have to review his options. If he does move on then it becomes even more important for Arsenal to reinforce their defence in January to sustain their title challenge.

The other end of the pitch gives rise to the same problem. I’d expected Giroud to start the season running, but he’s far surpassed any of my expectations.

The problem is that the only real back-up is Walcott. Bendtner is a decent striker but he’s nowhere near as good as he thinks and not good enough to be a 2nd choice front man for a title winning team.

Beyond him, the duo of Yaya Sanogo and Chu-Young Park are more for the future rather than short term solutions.

Pressure of the Title Race

Squeaky bum time, the business end of the season, the homestretch, call it what you want, but you can be sure of 1 thing; come the last couple of months of the season the pressure goes up a notch especially in a season where everything seems to be pointing to a close race at the top.

In the Premier League era, only 5 teams have lifted the coveted trophy (2 of which have won it only once and I don’t think Blackburn will be adding to that tally anytime soon).

Arsenal’s much publicized trophy drought has been a point of consternation among the fans and we need to travel as far back to the 2003-04 season for the last time they were named Champions.

Not that they haven’t looked the part over the years. Emirates has been home to some lovely football over the years and their consistent Champions League performances are a testament to how well they’ve done despite competition from teams who’ve thrown around indecent amounts of money.

But for various reasons, Arsenal falling away from the race come March/April is something we’ve all seen before. Battling 1-0 wins in April with the chasing pack breathing down your neck is a feat much easier said than done.

Can Arsenal keep the momentum going come April?

The finest of margins can be the difference between ecstasy and agony. A run of the right results could build up momentum and secure the title, conversely 1 bad result and it could all fall apart.

Arsenal fans of course will remember the horror of the 2-2 draw against Birmingham in the 2007-08 season and more recently Manchester United will pinpoint the loss against Wigan as the start of the slide in the 2011-12 season which saw them give up a 8 point lead with 6 games to go.

There’s been a lot of talk about Arsenal’s maturity this season. A true estimation of their progress can be seen only in the next calendar year.

Open Title Race

It’s still early days in the Premier League season, and Arsenal have played the most impressive football, but they haven’t really run away with it.

Liverpool and Chelsea (my title favourites) are well within striking distance and will be poised to take advantage of any potential slip up.

Indeed, Arsenal’s next 2 league games are against Liverpool and Manchester United with the small matter of an away trip to Dortmund sandwiched in between. It’s too early to seriously treat the league games as hugely important but over the course of the next week Arsenal’s squad will certainly be tested.

Ideally, they would’ve liked to have entered this spell with a bit more of a cushion. City and United have both endured slow starts to the season and languish 6 and 8 points behind Arsenal, but they both possess squads capable of a resurgence and a title challenge of their own.

Spurs, Liverpool and perhaps most pertinently Chelsea are within touching distance of Arsenal. My point, which I’m getting to in an excruciatingly circuitous route, is that the team who finishes top come May would’ve warded off challenges from a number of teams unlike the run of the mill Premier League season where there are only 2-3 teams left standing during the latter stages.

The openness of the Premier League this year is what gives Arsenal such a good chance to kick on and mount a serious challenge. However, this is a double edged sword as a by-product of more contenders is that there are potentially more of the ’6-pointer’ games at the top of the table; games in which Arsenal didn’t cover themselves in glory with last season.

They garnered only 2 out of a possible 18 points against the top 3 of last season – a shockingly low return. If Arsenal are to win the Premier League, then they can ill afford a similar record this time around.

by Arnab Ray

So what do YOU think? Can Arsenal finally break their barren run and lay claim to the Premier League title? Let us know by leaving a comment below!