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We’re midway through February and Arsenal are still in with a chance of winning not one, not two but three major trophies this season. Okay, so the Champions League is the most difficult of the three but a Premier League-FA Cup double certainly isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. After ten barren years without a trophy, Arsenal have won the FA Cup in each of the last two seasons but fans want more this season – and rightly so.
This season’s Premier League title race could be one of the closest in recent history as four teams all have a strong chance of getting their hands on the trophy this season.
Following Arsenal’s 2-1 victory at home to Leicester, where they came from 1-0 down at half-time to win the game thanks to a stoppage time winner from Danny Welbeck, the Gunners have reduced their deficit behind the league leaders and are nicely poised going into the final third of the campaign.
Arsenal’s recent Premier League results have been disappointing to say the least as Arsene Wenger’s players have had to settle with draws against Southampton, Liverpool and Stoke City while suffering a defeat against Chelsea in their league matches of January.
Out of these 4 matches, Arsenal had the possibility of collecting a total of 12 points but only gathered 3 points which is a huge amount of points that were dropped and allowed Leicester City on being able to secure the top spot of the English League.
Leicester City’s amazing season continues on with their latest Premier League result which finished off with them claiming a 3-1 triumph over Manchester City. This is the 7th successive undefeated match of Claudio Ranieri’s team as they have recently been claiming convincing victories over top clubs such as: Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and more recently Manchester City and according to Arsene Wenger, the Frenchman believes that everyone wants Leicester City to win the Premier League title and become the new champions of England.
Arsenal will be facing off with Leicester City on February 14th of the ongoing year and the French manager took the time to talk about the team that has taken the Premier League by storm.
It’s fair to say that Arsenal know all about their FA Cup fifth round opponents, Hull City, given the recent history between the two sides.
Despite Hull’s relegation to the Championship at the end of last season, a number of clashes against the Tigers remain fresh in the memory for Arsenal fans – and most of those memories are happy ones for the Gunners.
This season’s cup tie against Hull will be Arsenal’s fourth in the last seven years, and the previous three saw the Gunners victorious on each occasion. Most recently, Per Mertesacker and Alexis Sanchez scored the decisive goals in a third round clash at the Emirates just over a year ago – a repeat of the previous season’s FA Cup final.
Claudio Ranieri believes his boys need to keep their cool despite having had a huge success in the English Premiership. Leicester upset the Spurs on Sunday to go top in the standings and they are now starting to be seen as one of the favourites for the title.
But, according to Ranieri, it’s only January. So, the season has a long way to go and the Foxes must not get too excited. Ranieri has had different targets at different stages in the ongoing season.
There are a number of clubs from around the world that feel the need to make a huge splash when the transfer window comes along as they have to add world class and renowned players into their respective squads in order to satisfy the desire of their own fans as well as other reasons.
Arsene Wenger has acted quickly and made his first few signings in the January transfer window and the standout buy so far being Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny who has arrived from Basel.
With a number of injuries in midfield Wenger will be hoping that Elneny will quickly adapt to the English Premier League and bring his box to box play to the fore. The Egyptian can also act as a holding midfielder so Arsenal fans will be hoping that he turns into the Patrick Vieira-type player that Arsenal’s midfield has been crying out for since the Frenchman left the club over 10 years ago.
It is news that is sure to buoy Gunners fans around the globe: Jack Wilshere looks set to return to training this month ahead of a rumoured February re-emergence to first team action.
The 24-year-old is yet to make an appearance in the 2015/16 campaign after suffering a broken leg in the summer, and all-in-all he has started just ten Premier League matches since March 2014 due to a spate of long-term injuries.
Arsene Wenger claimed that it was the perfect display from his players after they managed to do the unimaginable by qualifying for the Champions League last 16 by the skin of their teeth.
Arsenal looked seemingly out of the group stages just after they suffered two back-to-back defeats at the start of the campaign. These two defeats looked even worse when considering that title favourites Bayern Munich were the opponents in the next two games. Arsenal were not expected to even get a point against the German team in these two games. A huge lifeline came in the form of a shock win over Bayern at the Emirates stadium.
This coupled with other results going their way meant that Arsenal went into the last group game still with a chance to qualify for the last 16. Olympiakos, meanwhile, had the simple task of holding onto even a draw. Arsenal had to win by two or more goals in order to stand any chance of qualification. They comfortably achieved this target with goals from Olivier Giroud being a crucial factor. The Frenchman scored a hat-trick just at the time when it mattered the most for the gunners, who will now look towards the knockout round.
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