First rule of Arsenal title challenge is you don’t talk about it…

Just when Arsenal fans were beginning to getting excited about the prospect of possibly challenging for our first Premier league title in years, Arsene Wenger has knocked us all back down in our place by announcing he thinks all the title talk is ‘ridiculous’.

Arsenal have endured a brilliant start to this year’s campaign, winning five games out of a possible six, with the only loss coming against Aston Villa on the opening day of the season at the Emirates Stadium. That game really put things into perspective, however Arsenal managed to turn the corner and become a side that looks like it could dominate in England.

After the 3-1 defeat to Villa, Arsenal fans certainly weren’t expecting to be in the position we are now, sitting at the top of the table in first place on 15 points. Whilst our most likely challengers of Manchester City and Chelsea sit back on 11 points and then rather surprisingly Manchester United all the way back on 7 points! But despite leading both Liverpool and Tottenham by 2 points, Wenger has remained reluctant to talk of any title challenge, stating that talk of the title is ridiculous at such an early stage.

Wenger said: “We want the right balance between ambition and humility. To speak about the title today is ridiculous. People forgot we were on a very long run, since March we had not lost a game and if you put that in perspective, the Villa game was just one single game we have lost in 21 now. The ‘crisis’ was a combination of factors; we had not bought anyone, have not won the championship for a long time and the fact we lost the game, all this together made the situation explosive, but it was an accident and we have responded.”

Although I agree that a few Arsenal fans may have got carried away with the possibility of Arsenal’s good run of form, the majority of us have remained realistic and recognise that this season will certainly be a long run campaign. I personally think we have a chance and remain optimistic that Arsenal can challenge along with the big boys this season for the league title. However we should no way be thinking that it’s certain! I suppose it’s good to have confidence though and right now that’s all us Arsenal fans can give the team as they walk out on the pitch each week, hopefully gunning for glory!