Watching Arsenal defeat Manchester City yesterday night just confirmed two things.
Arsenal FC have the best chance ever to win a league title and Manuel Pellegrini may not be the one to take this City team to its greatest heights.
So what would stop Arsenal from claiming their first League title in more than a decade?
Could it be a combination of games in the Champions League and the FA Cup? Perhaps lack of activity in the January transfer window? Would the pressure get to the players again, as is often the case at this time of the year? Or would it be a case of all of the above?
One thing that was present within this Arsenal team yesterday was DESIRE. From Giroud to Ozil, Campbell, Walcott and Ramsey, the front men and midfielders all worked their socks off when City mounted pressure. To think that they still played without Cazorla, Sanchez, Coquerlin, Wiltshire, Wellbeck and Arteta is a scary thought for other teams, although you can argue that when those players come back, it will be the proverbial case of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’.
Peter Cech’s acquisition has given so much confidence to the backline that Mertesaker is suddenly looking a world class defender and Koscielny is exuding confidence.
What is Wenger thinking of right now? Four points ahead of City, United nowhere in sight, Chelsea dead and buried and Tottenham a mile behind?
Arsene Wenger will not have any better chance of winning the league than what has been presented to him at moment, but can he seize that chance or will they fall short again by the time the dust settles at the end of January? Time will tell
ATTENTION SHIFTS TO THE THEATRE OF DREAMS
Where vultures circle, death is imminent. We have seen it happen several times this season.
The pundits and media blow the whistle and kick off the ‘sack game’ after all they have to sell their newspapers, and their TV shows. Then there is talk of unrest, divide, mutiny, bad selection, tactics, rut and the familiar words. Ultimately, the familiar phrases of ‘he has lost his players/dressing room’ or ‘he has lost the support of the board’ or ‘the fans have turned against the team’ are echoed all over the newsprints, media and social media.
We have seen this happen often this season already; at Sunderland, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Swansea, and Chelsea and unfortunately, the same momentum is now gathering at Old Trafford.
How much time LVG has at Old Trafford I do not know, but I think that it is unfair for managers to endure the daily public trial they do.
The players are put under undue pressure, the fans become restless and the board is made to look silly if they don’t act, so guess what? They act.
The point is that, if Jose Mourinho with a Premier League title and League Cup double, can be tried and executed publicly this way, six months after achieving his feat, then there is no manager that is immune to this new revolution.
So there is LVG, who would be next? Pellegrini? Wenger? Pochettino? My point is perhaps we would stop when we get rid of all the great managers we have seen in the Premiership.
Or perhaps, we would get to a point when we sack a manger and he resurfaces in another team after a few months, when another manager is sacked. Call it manager merry go round or musical chairs, if we don’t stop this trial by public execution we may continue to lose our best managers and weaken the EPL.