Arsenal: David Luiz ambition admirable

David Luiz has stated that he and his Arsenal teammates want to challenge for Premier League titles. While that may seem a little foolish, his ambition is admirable, and important.

Sport is about winning. But at the end of a match or a season or competition, only one can win. And when you are competing in a 20-team league campaign, there is an already an acceptance that only a few certain teams can actually win.

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In the Premier League, it was fairly clear that only Liverpool and Manchester City had a realistic chance of lifting the trophy come next May. They are the class of the division. But that does not mean that other teams should not aim for a genuine and sustained title challenge. This is professional sport, after all.

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And at Arsenal, that is precisely what they are doing. This week, NBC Sports conducted an interview with newly signed centre-back David Luiz. They profiled his move from Chelsea, his character, and what he has brought as a leader in his new dressing room. As a part of the piece, Luiz stated that he and his teammates have ambitions to challenge for the title, both this year and in the future:

"“For me, if you start something, and we’ve just started the Premier League and all of the competitions, if you don’t think you can win the competition then you won’t start anything in your life. I want to win titles with Arsenal <…> My vision, my ambition and my will is always to fight for the title and between the club, the players and the coach, we have the possibility to fight for the title. I think this club deserves to shine again <…> I think we’ve started really well and we just lost one game in the Premier League. I think the team is improving and now we are in third in the table but we want to finish this season fighting for the title.”"

That may seem somewhat stupid to say. Liverpool have won every single game so far this season, Man. City have no centre-backs and still sit a point above Arsenal, while Luiz and his teammates have hardly looked convincing in their performances thus far. But such ambition is important to have within a dressing room.

How can you expect to compete at even a basic level if you do not think that you have a chance of winning? Surely, there must be a goal to aim towards, a target to reach, a title or trophy to attain. And as Luiz states, for Arsenal, that is the Premier League title.

Now, that does not mean that you do not self-scout and recognise your own flaws. Luiz, Unai Emery and co. must concede that they are a long way off City and Liverpool at present and have a lot of work to do to close the gap. But it should not be a completely hopeless situation either.

The Luiz signing may not be panning out on the pitch. But off it, he brings a relentless and prolific winning mentality that Arsenal have lacked for many years. And it all stems from his ambition, however foolish it may seem.