Good morning, a quick round-up for you on the first Saturday of the Premier League season.
Team news aside, which we can deal with tomorrow when we preview the West Ham game, there was some interesting stuff from the manager about his views on the season ahead. After two FA Cups, and investment in the squad over the past two years that has significantly improved us, it’s no wonder that players like Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla are talking openly about a real title challenge.
I think that’s the expectation this year, and Arsene Wenger was asked if that created pressure. He answer:
No, we had much more pressure before when I knew I had at least to be in the top four and we did not necessarily have the potential to do it.
You think back to a couple of the times when we scraped in by the skin of our teeth, perhaps reliant on one player to get the goals or do all the creating, and you can see what he means. Of course, having squads that were so imbalanced wasn’t something that happened by accident either, but perhaps it’s telling that he felt the weight of that more than the increased demands for the new season.
I suppose when you have players like Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey etc in your team, then you can feel a bit more confidence in what you’re trying to do. Talk of fighting for, or winning, the league creates it’s own pressure but the manager is backing his players::
I believe we are able to handle it and we want to handle it. I’m ready for a fight and of course motivated to start well. One of our targets is to start strong. We had a good preparation and that should give us confidence. The Premier League is a fight in every single game so we have to prepare ourselves mentally for that and, of course, come out of the blocks straight away.
I thought there was something to the way Santi Cazorla spoke in midweek. He said we had to learn to stop losing games that have cost us the chance to challenge in the past, but also that the intention was to fight for the title, ‘Sunday to Sunday, not long-term’. One game at a time stuff, and you have to think that’s the outlook that’s being fostered on the training ground.
Meanwhile, some good stuff also from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who spoke about how he feels this is the best Arsenal squad he’s ever been involved in. There’s always a touch of dawn-of-season optimism, but it’s pretty much impossible to argue with that contention when you look at how things have changed from the time he was signed in the summer of 2011:
There are two men for every position, pretty much, and you’d struggle to pick between the two as to who should play. Everyone is on their toes.
Earlier in the week, Per Mertesacker said something similar, suggesting that once the season gets going some players will be disappointed because they don’t play as much as they’d like to. That’s one of the realities of a big squad, there’s no way around it, but Oxlade-Chamberlain is confident that won’t manifest itself as unrest or disruption because of the togetherness in the group:
For me, it’s a surprise when you speak to lads at other clubs and you find out there are certain cliques within their dressing room. It surprises me because at Arsenal it’s not like that at all and it’s never been like that.
And on the season ahead:
I could sit here all day saying what we will and won’t do this year but at the end of the day talking wins you nothing. We need to prove ourselves out on the pitch.
Part of what makes me think Oxlade-Chamberlain is really going to kick on this season is just how damn smart he is. The talent and ability is obvious, but when you see him speak in interviews, he’s just a really intelligent, really together young man and that, combined with what he can do on a football pitch, makes him an exciting package. The head is well and truly screwed onto those shoulders and if he can find consistency and rhythm then he’s going to be a force to reckon with.
Anyway, I think we’re in good shape ahead of the new season, but for more on that I’ve done the traditional pre-season preview. It looks back the verdicts from this time last year, and takes into account where we are now. Read it here.
Aside from that, if you haven’t had a chance to listen to the first Arsecast of the new season you can check it out here, or listen via the player below.
So, a new season kicks off in a few hours time with Man Utd v Sp*rs. As ever I’m hoping for lots of goals, a few red cards, a punch-up, some slapstick football comedy, and both teams managing to lose. At a push I’ll take a draw. It still doesn’t quite feel like it’s back until we’re involved, but we don’t have long to wait.
We’ll preview the West Ham game tomorrow, in the meantime, have a good Saturday.
