Arsenal: Are we actually title contenders, or aren’t we?

Arsenal’s title-contending chops will be debated endlessly, so let’s get in on the debate – is this club actually a legitimate title contender, or not?

Arsenal are starting to make some people sit up and notice. So much so that the debates have started about whether this club can continue their run and be classed as genuine title contenders for the first time in years.

The evidence is there. There’s a winning mentality within the squad, heads aren’t dropping when we make mistakes and there’s no longer any individual performances. The argument that a lot of skeptics will have is that three of the games in our ten game winning run has come against inferior opposition in the cups and the other seven have come against weaker premiership sides that in theory we should have no problem beating.

This is true, but I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that if this same group of players played the same run of fixtures under Arsene Wenger we would not have won all ten. Maybe at a push five or six with a couple of draws and most certainly a defeat.

That is full credit to Unai Emery and with no disrespect to Arsene Wenger. You only have to look at the performances of Mesut Ozil to see the difference. He’s tracking back in his own area, winning the ball and making things happen.

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He was anonymous for the first 30 minutes against Leicester City, but he got himself into the game, stood up and gave one of the best performances in a long time. Compare that to Ozil 12 months ago – disinterested, sulky, anonymous.

Not anymore. Ozil is finally playing with something I very rarely saw him play with under Wenger – passion.

The same goes for Alex Iwobi. I was all for having Iwobi shipped out in the summer, another wasted player whose talent was never fulfilled and in all likelihood would waste his career at a mid-table club. He couldn’t beat a man, couldn’t cross and was lazy. Fast forward 12 months and he’s completely reborn, powerful, fast, tricky and looking like becoming a real gem.

What I’m getting at is you can see the difference in mentality in the players. The talent was always there in the team but for whatever reason Arsene Wenger just never utilised it. Arsene Wenger always used to say that his players had passion, desire and cohesion that was never evident with him. Now its all over the pitch.

That’s what title-winning teams have, that passion and that desire to keep going and, more importantly, to play as a team. We probably will be asking too much to win the title this season. Maybe. But can this team win a Premier League title? I think yes.