Arsenal: How to preserve the feel-good factor

There is a feel-good factor surrounding Arsenal after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. Now, their attention must turn to preserving it.

It has certainly been a while since Arsenal fans have started to get a little confident. But after Saturday’s performance, they are certainly starting to dream that the club can end the season strongly.

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After the recent doom and gloom around the club, what with recent performances and things going on in the background at the club that have left the fans feeling discontented, Saturday’s North London Derby was definitely a breath of fresh air.

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I can’t remember an away performance against the top six where I was genuinely upset that the Gunners failed to secure the three points. If Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had worn their shooting boots and Harry Kane had been rightly given offside in the incident leading to the penalty, then I’m sure the team would have seen the game out.

These are all what-ifs, of course, but the main thing was that for the entirety of the game, Arsenal were better than Tottenham, and after the match, the general discourse around the club has been positive. The important thing now is to preserve that feel-good factor.

Unai Emery got his team selection and tactics spot on Saturday. But now he has set the benchmark and must continue to do that in every game. The players, too, have also got to look at the performance and believe that they can build from this, especially when you consider they have arguably a bigger game coming up this Sunday.

Manchester United, in their current form, will provide a tougher test than Tottenham did. But Arsenal are more than capable of beating them, if the players stick to what they have been doing and cut out the silly mistakes, something that might be easier said than done going by their recent history.

The defensive performance on Saturday was probably as good as any this season, but it was also undermined by that everpresent lapse of concentration, the culprit again being Shkodran Mustafi, who foolishly and needlessly barged over Harry Kane to concede the Spurs penalty.

The key for the Gunners now is consistency. As has been levelled at them in the past, their inability to replicate performances throughout a season has been hugely detrimental to their top-four and title hopes. Now that they have the momentum, being able to perform at a high level each and every week is absolutely vital.

With results for Chelsea and Tottenham going their way in the last few weeks, it’s certainly not impossible to conceive of a third-place finish, however foolish that may have seemed just a few weeks ago. Arsenal have put themselves in a great position to end the season brilliantly. Now, they just have to keep the feel-good factor going.