Arsenal’s ever diminishing margin of error
Well, who saw that coming? You know what I mean. Getting beat at home to Wigan. I got to be honest, I did.
Yeah, I know my match preview said a 2-0 to the Arsenal. But something in my gut told me we were going to stumble. And it started with the Wolves game. The way we approached the game after going up 2-0 was exactly the same approach we had after being up 2-0 to Aston Villa.
In each game once we got going, we decided to start being, shall we say, cute? What it really is really is a lack of focus, drive along with some hesitancy and fear of making a mistake (thank you Chris Toronyi)
Well, like we did after Aston Villa we approached our next opponent in a hap hazard way and the result – an Arsenal loss. First against QPR and then against Wigan. And in both cases the team that won had all those things that aren’t ‘cute’ (focused, driven, no fear, etc.)
In both occasions Arsenal got beat, and deserved to get beat. I know some watching the Wigan match felt that because we had more shots, more possession and didn’t delay the game, we deserved to win. Let me put an end to that. You deserve to win if you put more goals into the net. We didn’t, thus you can argue we deserved to lose.
But that’s not what I want to discuss. With their tenth loss of the season, the Gunners are not leaving very little room for error as they close out the season and fight for Champion’s League qualification. The other qualification chasers each have a game in hand to Arsenal’s 34 played. Should Arsenal lose to Chelsea and Tottenham and Newcastle get positive results as well, the point difference is 2 points with each of the chasers having to play one more game than Arsenal.
To paint the worst case scenario, loss on Saturday and the chances of actually finishing sixth in the league are greatly enhanced.
For all the hard work that has gone into pulling off 9 wins from 11 and keeping the team in chase, it would all be for naught if they should start to resort back to Arsenal form from years past (you know of the form of which I speak.)
The room for error was hard enough as it was with the start to the season we had. But as soon as things got settled and the team started to gel it was easy to see that there was something here – a new spirit, a new approach and a new focus. Unfortunately, a lengthy train of injuries meant another slide, this time in January, the margin for error decreasing even still.
And then on that day that Tottenham came to town, down 2-0 in the first 20 minutes, the gunners had finally decided enough is enough. With 7 wins in a row, the let down against QPR was expected and in my opinion served to refocus the team for the task at hand. The win against City was monumental for so many different story lines. But what it showed, at least then, is that this team can bounce back from bad performances.
Now, with Saturday and a date with Chelsea on the cards, Arsene Wenger and the lads need to find their mettle yet again. And Chelsea will be there for the taking, if and only if Arsenal approaches the match with the right approach and mindset.
Chelsea’s midfield is devoid of any real creativity and their attacking power is limp compared to Chelsea teams of the past. They have reverted back to playing teams on the counter like they did before AVB tried to revolutionize the squad. But their defense as we’ve seen this year, is older and slower, and will be without Branislav Ivanovic.
Again, if Arsenal play to their strengths, they can put another CL contender to the sword. They’ve done pretty well against their challengers since the turn of the year. They’ve beaten Spurs, Liverpool and Newcastle and took Chelsea to the map early in the season. They can do it. They can do it against good teams too. They just need to focus.
Like I’ve said, there is no longer any room for error. We can’t depend on our competition on dropping points. Spurs run is easy. Newcastle, not so much and Chelsea meet us between two matches against Barcelona and have an FA Cup final on May 5th. But it’s asking a lot really for us to depend on other teams to do our deed for us. Arsenal have to take care of business for themselves.
Take care of business and the rest takes care of itself. Failure to do that results in, well I am not up for apocalyptic forecasting – for now.
