The Gunners Still Have Work To Do

Last season Arsenal topped the table for 120 days before a lack of options to cope with injuries exposed the squad and saw Arsenal finish 7 points behind Manchester City.

In a 38 game season there are plenty of “big” games and it is hard to quantify what is a big game with many of the statistics where Arsenal is concerned skewed and carefully manipulated to portray Arsenal as having a much worse big game record than they do.

The fairest way to do it is to look at consistent rivals, affluent teams and derbies. Spurs, Manchester’s United and City, Chelsea and Liverpool are generally the “big” game opposition. You should then add high flyers and surprise packages from that season such as Everton last season and Southampton this season and if they weren’t a surprise to you let me know who is going to do it next season so I can use this William Hill Promo Code and pay off some student loans.

Last season Arsenal had 6 “big” game opponents and 12 games. They took 13 points from those twelve games. It’s not a great return. In the grand scheme of things the big games make up the smallest part of the total available points tally but it’s not the points that matter in these games (well it is but not exclusively), it’s the mental victory.

Dealing a crushing blow to your rivals is just as important if not more than just taking the points. Arsenal were obliterated in their three away games to last season’s top four and the results that came after them suggests we were reeling hard.

This season Arsenal have worked hard on ensuring they don’t get caught pants down like that again and even our defeats have been respectful enough for us to take some heart in them.

But there is still work to do. Arsenal need to win at Old Trafford this weekend to be one step away from shedding their inferiority complex. Arsenal have a terrible record in the league at Old Trafford and have not won there (cup game aside) since 2006.

Arsenal totally out played and out thought Manchester City and Liverpool this season. They regressed slightly against Tottenham but we have our good years and our bad years with them. How we will play against them is unquantifiable because it’s just such a unique fixture but no matter what St Totteringham’s Day always comes around!

Manchester United were fortunate to beat us at home in November and Chelsea are managed by Jose Mourinho.

Arsenal still need to leap over that mental hurdle that is never winning against a Mourinho side but this weekend they have an opportunity to go into next season with only one monkey on their back. For many years Arsenal had the no trophies cloud hanging over them, the loss of their best players, big game losses and frantic top four finishes playing on their mind.

They came into this season trophy winners and with their best players retained and added to. With two fewer clouds casting shadows over their sunny outlook they managed to jump some hurdles, win big games and wrap up a top four place without breaking too much of a sweat.

If they can beat their biggest bogey team of all and win at Old Trafford for the first time in 9 years to take a huge step towards not having an unnecessary qualifier to contend with they can go into next season with just one final barrier to the Premier League title – beating Chelsea.