da 888casino： Arsenal face Manchester City tonight with both sides, like the middle of an ice cream sandwich, coming under pressure from above and below.
da brwin： So far the winners of the weekend have been Leicester City. Their win this weekend, a thrilling victory at Goodison Park, took them five points clear at the top of the table and stretched their unbeaten run away from home. Their last away defeat came back in March when they lost 4-3 to Spurs.
And it’s Spurs who have had the second best weekend in the Premier League. Their victory over Southampton has brought them into fourth place, only three points behind City and four behind Arsenal.
The pressure is mounting for Arsenal and Manchester City, and it’s all of their own making.
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Both City and Arsenal have had poor results this season, alongside some wonderful ones. Both sides have shown their quality and also shown their ability to mess it up.
But whilst City have spent a fortune and thus have nowhere to hide from the criticism, Arsenal have barely spent anything since the end of last season, despite being linked with players such as Karim Benzema and William Carvalho. This January, the latest ‘top target’ is Southampton’s Victor Wanyama.
Given Arsenal’s recent performance in the transfer market and squad-building department, it’s easy to pass that off as an idle rumour. Something that will never happen. And it’s a shame that one of England’s top clubs has come to this situation. Like the boy who cried wolf once too often, Arsenal have made us believe that they would strengthen so often that we are convinced that they never will.
And yet they should be strong enough to win the title. When you look at Arsene Wenger’s squad, it looks full of pace and guile as well as downright smart and technical players. The problem is the injuries.
It’s almost the opposite of Manchester City. Whilst City’s strength in depth should be enough to cope with their injury crisis – even though injuries to Aguero, Silva, Kompany and Toure spells a pretty serious injury crisis – Arsenal’s squad looks very thin after some big injuries to their side.
It mitigates the erratic form, to a certain extent, but surely the finger should be pointed at the lack of transfer dealings.
But after Arsene Wenger’s latest injury update, an admission that Danny Welbeck is no nearer to a return, we’re starting to see why Wenger didn’t want to buy a striker in the window. He told the press that ‘it is a big blow to us because we cannot rotate.’
Since Wenger thought Welbeck could be back in action by September, he felt that he had an extra striker to use alongside Giroud and Walcott, or at least another pacey wide player, giving Alexis Sanchez the chance to recuperate for a longer period.
There’s no doubt Welbeck would have helped, but the fact that Arsenal won’t have him available for at least the guts of a year means that they should have signed a striker in July.
It’s a typical Wenger mistake. He believes in his squad, and that’s a wonderful quality. He makes them play excellent football, and that’s another wonderful quality. But he also makes the mistake of believing his wafer thin squad can cope with an injury crisis, and every single year it snaps under the pressure.
Perhaps tonight will go some way to turning things around and alleviating some of the pressure. If Arsenal win, they’ll be two points behind Leicester and seven ahead of Spurs, leaving City feeling the heat. Things can change very quickly indeed.
Arsenal’s season is on a knife edge, and it could just be signings in January that changes their fortunes. Win tonight and add the reinforcements that will allow Wenger’s squad to cope with current injuries, and any more that come along, and the title will be there for the taking.
Lose tonight and things become more difficult. And without signings things might get even more complicated if injuries take an even greater toll.
Arsene Wenger is under pressure from both sides, and the next few months will show us if he cracks or not.
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