I think it’s about time we start talking about Arsenal.
And in a good way – which is rare, it seems, in these parts.
Quietly, while everyone has been paying attention to the table-topping troika of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea, Arsenal has slowly and surely climbed up and taken the fourth spot on the chart. After starting the season with two losses to City and Chelsea, the Gunners have gone on a seven-game winning streak, scoring 20 goals in the process.
There have been quite a few contributing factors to this stellar run of form. It seems the team has adapted well to Unai Emery’s style and are running over teams with their attack. Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have found a way to co-exist, rotating between playing up front and on the wing when on together. Even when playing as a sub, as he has the past two games, Aubameyang has been fantastic, scoring four goals in just 57 total minutes.
Another big reason for the improvement is Lucas Torreira, a summer signing that was slowly implemented into the side. But it has paid off with fantastic results. Without the Uruguayan on the pitch this season, Arsenal has scored nine goals and allowed 10 in 442 minutes. With Torreira playing, it has scored 23 and allowed just four in 638 minutes. That’s quite the game-changing difference.
You also can’t discount Arsenal’s ability to play through injuries this season. In the past, it always seemed like the Gunners would crumble when the pressure was on and bodies were falling. Now, they’re rarely knocked off stride.
Heck, even Mesut Ozil seems happy and is actually taking shots. His three goals this season is just one fewer than last year’s total.
Of course, there is reason to be skeptical. Of those seven wins, only two came against clubs currently in the top half of the table, Watford and Everton. Of course, you can only beat who they put in front of you, as they say, and Arsenal has certainly done that. Both with a match against Liverpool on the horizon, we should get a better idea just where the Gunners are at quite soon.
Manchester United’s Anthony Martial celebrates scoring his second goal agaisnt Chelsea on Saturday. (AP PHOTO)
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The weirdest thing has happened, completely by accident so far this season: Every week, our top player has come from a different team. We haven’t had a player repeat, let alone a player from the same team repeat yet. And we haven’t even seen a player from Spurs or Arsenal in this space, so there’s a real chance we could get to 11 teams.
Anyway, this week our main man is one that was forgotten about earlier this season: Anthony Martial.
The Manchester United winger bagged a brace against Chelsea, including a beautiful piece of ball control and a nice volley to tie the game 1-1.
On Saturday, the Frenchman was everything that FIFA 18 players expect from him. Now, he’s just making the game into reality.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Kevin de Bruyne has beaten the odds and returned even earlier than expected from his knee injury suffered in training last month. His own optimistic timeline had the Belgian returning for the Manchester Derby on Remembrance Day, but there he was on the weekend, coming on as a second-half sub. Once he gets back to full fitness, Pep Guardiola will have a pleasant dilemma about how playing time is split … A good defensive team like Burnley should know better than to switch off before a whistle is blown, especially in its own box. There was no excuse for allowing Bernardo Silva’s goal, which was coolly set up by the ever-savvy David Silva … In the past 10 months, Leicester has won more games at St. Mary Stadium than Southampton … What a luxury it is for Liverpool to have Xherdan Shaqiri and Daniel Sturridge as essentially depth players behind their monstrous front line. With Sadio Mane out and Roberto Firmino being rested, those two subs gave the Reds more than enough talent up front to beat Huddersfield … We know that Marcos Alonso mostly isn’t in Chelsea’s starting XI for his defensive ability, but there’s no excuse for simply lying down in the box looking for a call as long as he did while Martial scored his first goal. Even if he was actually hurt, he should’ve still made some sort of attempt to get up … Being a soccer fan can be pretty pricey to watch – and that’s just sitting at home. If you want to watch your EPL team play its league fixtures, you’ll need a TV package with TSN and Sportsnet. But if you want to watch Champions League, you’ll need to get DAZN. And because TSN and Sportsnet don’t have Champions League and DAZN has no EPL games, you can’t just choose one or the other.
THE LAST WORD
If you didn’t think there was going to be some drama with Jose Mourinho playing against his former club, Chelsea, you’re insane.
He almost lasted the entire game, too, but after a boisterous celebration and some taunting from Blues assistant Marco Ianni following the game’s injury-time equalize by Ross Barkley, there was nearly a pier six brawl on the sidelines.
While ultimately no punches were thrown, Mourinho had to be restrained and there was a ton of pushing and shoving to go around.
Of course, like most things Mourinho is involved with, it was all for show. He and the assistant made up after the game and the beef was squashed.
Just another day on As Manchester United Turns.