I'm saying it right here and right now and I may, at a later date, be hoist by my own petard, but I predict that The Arsenal will reach 78 points this season. What we lacked last season was the ability to take points from teams that, somehow, some expert or another said that Arsenal "should be beating". The team did not grasp the nettle of games against so called lesser teams and in that respect the final league placing was probably right, and was after all a return to Europe to a tournament that I feel we can win.
There is an elite of two in this league and the rest. I feel that there are no teams better than Arsenal in the 18 that makes up the rest. That is not to say that Arsenal are better than the other seventeen, it's just that no one is better.
On a given day Arsenal can beat Manchester United, Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham: as was proven last season, but so too can be said conversely for those teams just mentioned. The key to success is the ability to take all three points rather than one point when travelling back from fixtures against the bottom half of the league. In this regard I feel the attack is better, the defence is better and the squad is able to absorb key injuries more effectively.
I also can see the development of youth; Saka, with another year under his belt, Martinelli with another years growth, the emergence of Saliba as a high performer, the addition of Zinchenko who already looks like a quality addition, the arrival of Jesus who seems to have energised the final third and the return to fitness of Partey all augur well for volume of games this time around.
All these factors are tangible but I want to say a few things about the intangibles.
The set of players are likeable, they seem like good guys and while this isn't always a winning formula in itself, a harmonious dressing room is always a good thing. The flash Harry (singular) has long gone as have those that were not fit for purpose. It appears that this current bunch are in it for the long haul; together.
A successful pre-season does not a successful league campaign make but it does give some momentum and that momentum carried the team to a well deserved victory at Selhurst Park.
So to add to my optimistic opening sentence I am also predicting a trophy. No, not the FA cup that we regularly acquire, nor the League Cup (or whatever it's called) but The Europa League. I genuinely feel that it is winnable and that the Arsenal will be the team that hoists the trophy at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest.
With my points prediction and my belief in Europa League victory we should be back in the big time of the Champions League for the 23/24 season.
A friend of mine said some time ago that he felt that for the club to fully recover from the end of the Wenger era it would take five years. This is year five so Up The Arsenal!
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so I said...