Written by Ross Baxter

Stan Collymore is one in a line of football pundits currently voicing their opinion that this Arsenal team are simply not equipped to win the title this year. There are three key factors that form this viewpoint, which will be examined.

We don’t have the defensive cover

A view that has long existed when examining the Arsenal squad over the past 4/5 years is that there simply isn’t the defensive quality and quantity to challenge for the title while also competing in numerous other competitions throughout the season.

The current squad only has 3 recognised centre-backs and although it can be said all 3 are of international standard, it is worrying that there are not more options available, even from the youth squad. Miguel and Djourou were deemed surplus to requirements this season and so have been farmed out on loan, leaving only Vermaelen as cover with the unorthodox option of Sagna as fourth choice.

Sagna as centre-back also means Jenkinson at right-back and although I think Corporal Jenkinson has something about him to be a top player in the future, I wouldn’t like to see him in the starting line-up for tough games like Chelsea away or worse; Barcelona.

We don’t have the enough firepower up top

Although the vast majority of Arsenal fans are happy with the exploits of
Giroud this season, the same cannot be said for our only other real striker – Nicklas Bendtner.

It must be noted that once Podolski and Walcott return to full fitness they provide a larger pool of strikers in the squad however if you want to challenge for the title you really need more than one centre forward who can hit the 20+ goals. Do Walcott, Podolski or Bendtner (no chance) offer that? Worryingly it doesn’t look like it.

We don’t have the experience of winning

The most annoying phrase to hear in my opinion as an Arsenal fan is that the current squad don’t have any experience of winning and so will find it hard to grind out result during the climax of the title run-in.

Previous seasons, particularly 2007-08 are a clear example of this, where the incident at Birmingham led to the title charge running out of steam at the final hurdle. When you compare the experience of winning to the squads of Manchester United & Chelsea, we are quite some way behind.

All is not lost

These points certainly raise valid issues, to an extent, although what is great about this season is that nobody thinks we can win the title – that can be a massive advantage. Looking back at the 1997-98 season, the bookmakers were so assured Manchester united would take the title they stopped taking bets on them by Christmas to become champions that year. We all know what happened next; the Arsenal overturned a huge 12 point lead to bring the title back to Highbury and secure one half of a joyous double.

To be honest, as an Arsenal fan I’m quite enjoying being even linked to a title challenge, something we haven’t had for a few years now.

Let us not also forget that while the ‘Wenger Out’ twitter chumps have mysteriously vanished, in my opinion ‘Arsene knows’ and what I like to think we’ll see is a new face or two come the January transfer window, to react to issues with squad depth highlighted from August to December.

So my message is this; don’t get riled up, annoyed, mental, angry or darn right psychotic with these pundits dismissing an arsenal title win – they don’t get it right every time. “You don’t win anything with kids”.

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