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Arsenal: 4 Reasons This Team Is Different Than Years Past
Arsenal found themselves needing a great escape against Olympiakos in the Champions League on Wednesday. Should they have been in that position originally?
In a post-match interview after Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Greek Champions Olympiakos, Olivier Giroud and Per Mertesacker’s words perfectly described the situation Arsenal have often found themselves in during recent seasons.
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The Gunners’ French forward Giroud was ecstatic about his – and his team’s – performance in Piraeus on Wednesday night. While he was positive, he also recalled the other occasions on which Arsenal had lost to Olympiakos in the away fixture, and restated the importance of their recent victory.
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The situation discussed earlier – which that win against Olympiakos perhaps minimized the gravity of – is the situation Arsenal end up in a lot. This happens when quite a few fixtures have come in quick succession for five or six weeks, and the injury list begins to pile up. The injury list becomes so long that all of a sudden, half of the starting eleven is rotational from game to game because some of the role players are incapable of stepping up in place of the injured stars.
Over the past six league campaigns there has been a trend of Arsenal faltering at one point during the winter period; this has been due to a lack of depth, and injuries to key players.
This season, they finish match day 15 in second place, two points off the top of the Premier League table. That makes three seasons out of the past six where the Gunners were in the top three after 15 weeks of football. All six times, they have ended up outside of the top two. If the Gunners are not faltering just yet, it would appear that they will do so later in the season.
However, there has been a succession of things lining up correctly for the 2015/16 campaign to be a break in the pattern. There is no certainty in the thought that the Gunners will undoubtedly make a step forward by the end of the campaign, but there is reason – so far – to think that this season will not be like every other Arsenal season.
Here are four reasons I believe Arsenal’s squad is going to be galvanized during this upcoming January period.
Next: 4. A Massive Away Win In Greece Against Olympiakos