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It was Gary Neville who said recently that Arsenal could win the Premier League by finding a way to produce last season in reverse. Nobody thought it possible. Surely Manchester City and Liverpool were just a little bit too good. But an astonishing run of seven consecutive domestic wins underpinned by an extraordinary tally of 31 goals has changed all that.
Neville’s point, made on his Stick to Football podcast, was simply that Arsenal had shown during the first half of last season just how devastating they can be when they get on a roll. In the 2022-23 campaign, Arsenal only lost one league game before the start of February. Nerves – and Pep Guardiola’s City – got them in the end but, Neville asked, where could they go this time round if a more modest autumn and winter set of results could be bolstered by something better once the clocks went forwards?
And now, suddenly, here we are. As City and Liverpool prepare to meet and therefore take points off each other at Anfield on Sunday, Arsenal’s recent uptick in form and confidence will take them to the summit of the table if they beat Brentford at home a day earlier. They already have a superior goal difference.
Arsenal were magnificent on Monday night. They scored three goals in 15 minutes, four in half an hour and five by half-time. By the time we got to full-time, it was six and they had stopped trying.
Arsenal faltered last season towards the end of their title charge but are now in rampant form
The Gunners hit Sheffield United for six at Bramall Lane in their third league win by five or more goals in February
Just two points off league leaders Liverpool the north London side are facing a spell which could define their season
This, though, is a new Arsenal. It’s a development of the prototype. It had to change and grow if it was to win things. Last season taught us that and the progress in this regard is now writ large in their results ledger. 5-0, 2-1, 3-1, 6-0, 5-0, 4-1, 6-0. It reads almost like the result of a one-sided tennis match and that is how it feels watching Arsenal right now. Certainly they had too much pace, power, imagination and craft for Sheffield United on Monday night.
Having rebooted with a spell away during a winter break handed them by their January FA Cup expulsion at the hands of Liverpool, Arsenal now face a spell that could decide their season. They will face Brentford this weekend without preferred goalkeeper David Raya who is not allowed to play against the club from which he has moved to Arsenal on loan. They also have doubts over Gabriel Martinelli, who hurt his foot on Monday night, and also Bukayo Saka who left the field at half-time feeling unwell.
Next Tuesday, meanwhile, they have a single goal Champions League deficit to overturn at home to Porto but beyond all that comes the promise of a nineteen day break – due to their lack of involvement in the FA Cup – before an enormous game at City on March 31.
Arteta on Monday ruled out the prospect of taking his squad abroad again which is a shame given how well their January sojourn to Dubai seemed to work in January. They left having just lost at home to Liverpool and returned ready to sweep all aside who stood before them.
Instead Arsenal will be driven on now partly by their own momentum. They simply don’t look like they can lose right now. But also by the memories of last season’s late collapse.
‘It was so very painful,’ said Martin Odegaard, one of five different Arsenal scorers on Monday night.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is keen to erase the bad memories of last season’s faulty run
‘I think now is the time to show we have learned.’
Words are easy to say. It feels as though Arsenal must beat City at the end of this month if they are to have a genuine say in this title race. That apart, their hardest other game between now and the season’s end is a north London derby at Tottenham on April 27 and with that in mind it does look as though there is a path available to navigate if Arteta and his players feel ready to be involved at the death this time.
Last season was too much for them and we know that. There is no shame in being run over by the City juggernaut. This time opportunity knocks again. Their key players are in form and the presence of Jorginho and the fit again Thomas Partey may release Declan Rice in to the forward positions in which he has shown he can be so effective and dangerous.
We laughed at Odegaard and his gang when they celebrated like champions after beating Liverpool on their own turf a month ago. None of it looks quite so frivolous now.
