Yesterday, I was going over the numbers and there's overwhelming evidence that shows that we're literally the 4th best team in the league. I mean, yeah, we're 4th but when you consider our XG, goals scored, defence record and virtually every stat, you see that we've been 4th.
Of course, being 4th isn't exactly something to brag about when you're a team that use to compete at the very top of the league. However, we're still rebuilding and being in this current position is evidence of that progress.
Data shows that we're at least 12 points better off than we were at this point last season. it was such a horrible season for us that we didn't even qualify for the Uefa conference league.
Our match against Watford exemplified how much we've grown as a team and where we're headed. The team is filled with fighters that put in a shift for the badge and that's all that matters right now.
In the post match press conference, Bukayo Saka described the last 13 games of the season as cup finals. That right there is the attitude we need because it's crunch time and every game is a must win.
Clearing my doubt
I'm not going to pretend like there wasn't a time I doubted the manager and his ideas for the team. For most of the first half of the season, we were utter shyte in attack but we actually defended pretty well.
Initially, I felt that perhaps the job had gotten out of Arteta's grip and we'd be better to severe ties at the end of the season. In my defence, I was projecting our crappy form to the end of the season, but at least I was willing to let him to finish the season.
Here we are at the end of the season, properly in the top 4 with games to spare. There's still a gulf in quality between the attack and defensive output of Arsenal and the top 3 but we're closing the gap every day.
As I see it, we're actually some decent results away from actually challenging for third spot. However, as the manager often says, lets focus on one game at a time and we have Leicester next.
No room for complacency
Yesterday, the manager wasn't pleased with certain aspects of our performance. I completely understand his sentiments because for large spells, we were a bit too open for my liking.
A better team would have put us to the sword, and so we can't afford to give away so many chances.
In our next opposition, we have a potential banana skin because this is an underperforming team with so much latent quality, many pundits at the beginning of the season earmarked them to compete for the top 4.
Things haven't exactly gone Leicester's way this season but that takes nothing away from the actual quality of this team. On their day, they could beat pretty much everybody in the league.
This game against Leicester is a precursor to a more challenging fixture in Liverpool. So we need a proper performance against the Foxes, to cement our place in the top 4.
It looks like our place in the top 4 is set in stone but let me not get ahead of myself. We're grinding out results game after game, at the end of the season, we'll see where we end. Hopefully, we'll be hearing the UCL anthem at the emirates again, as it is meant to be.
Until we meet again, up the Arsenal.
