Arsenal: Is There Too Much Hype to Win EPL?

If you have read any tabloids, listened to any interviews or simply googled “Arsenal” in the past few months, you are overly conscious of the fact that Arsenal are going to win the Premier League this year. Apparently the Gunners were one 33-year old Czech international away form the title.

Obviously I am liking Arsenal’s chances as well. They have gobs of potential and the only thing that can slow them down is the cold, soul crushing injury bug.

But is it also possible that there is simply too much hype surrounding Arsenal this year? As in too much hype for them to possibly live up to expectations? I am still waiting for the first person to dub them the new Invincibles (I’m holding myself back).

This Gunner’s squad has even more hype than last years squad after the Alexis signing. Of course, last years Arsenal squad was stricken with the injury bug early on and did all they could to recover and nab

second

third place. But this year, the team is even better, so what is stopping them?

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Before addressing that question, lets look at how much hype is surrounding this team.

Arsene Wenger himself said that Arsenal “are not far away” from a title. Future captain Aaron Ramsey said that this club is “capable of challenging for the Premier League.” Oft-displaced left back Kieran Gibbs has noted that “we can really aim for the league.” Mathieu Debuchy pointed out that, you guessed it, “we have all the chance to win the Premier League. Everyone’s favorite rhinoceros, Per Mertesacker, urged Arsenal to show their title credentials and who could forget Chelsea defender John Terry saying that Petr Cech was worth an additional 12-15 points, which would have been enough for last year’s Arsenal to win the league?

Everybody and their sister has called on Arsenal to win the league and for me, that is a bit unsettling. Anything less is going to be a major upset and I am in agreement with that. On paper, Arsenal have everything they need to win the league.

But keeping our feet grounded is a major necessity, this is the English Premier League where nothing is a given and to leave nothing for doubt in predicting the winner is to set yourself up for major disappointment.

Arsenal still have weak points in this impenetrable castle’s walls. For one, while the ramparts that Francis Coquelin defends are incredibly strong and well-built, behind him there is nothing, there is a massive exposure that can be exploited should something happen to our oft-broken-nosed warrior. Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini may be the back-up, but tell me that you are confident in any of those three’s defensive abilities and I will vigorously question you.

The Gunners need that extra measure to prepare for the worst. There is no shame in being a doomsday prepper. Why? Because come the worst case scenario, the doomsday preppers survive and those people that stood around saying nothing would happen are left… well, dead.

Arsenal’s striker situation is also remotely flimsy, though perhaps not as much as perceived. If you asked me to rate how much Arsenal need a new striker on a scale of 1-10, I would say somewhere between a 2 and a 9. It really is hard to determine when each striker is some form of a question mark.

Olivier Giroud has all that is necessary to be a coldblooded killer up front but he still has episodes of disappearing. Theo Walcott may very well develop as a center striker, but given his injury proneness and his lack of experience at the CF position, he remains a question mark.

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Is There Too Much Hype and Pressure on Arsenal?

By Josh Sippie | Jul 26, 2015

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