Arsenal’s April collapse brings back bad memories

Arsenal are not doing well right now, and it seemingly came out of nowhere unless you’ve been paying close attention this season.

The team has looked great at times, and it has just got by on other occasions, but no matter the wins, the losses, and the draws, the team was not bullying very many sides the way that the top clubs do. The Gunners were scraping by on heart, determination and grit, and it took just a few injuries to derail the dreams of an entire season.

Somehow, however, the season and the top four ambitions are not yet to bed, even with the terribly timed run of form at the least opportune of all moments. Somehow, points against Chelsea, Manchester United, West Ham and Tottenham will likely put Arsenal back in a position of power and control, yet even then, losses to the likes of Newcastle or Everton could allow for any of those teams behind or even with Arsenal to bounce back into a top-four spot.

The club has not done themselves any great favors by having another August all the way in late March and early-April. Should they find themselves in Europe at all next season, they will have to be thankful that they were even able to pull it out considering the unfortunate fall that has occurred against the likes of Crystal Palace, Brighton and now Southampton.

Southampton 1-0 Arsenal: The easy parts are hard and the difficult parts are easy as Premier League ambitions falter

Why have Arsenal have struggled so much recently? It is truly like August all over again, except that the schedule was more forgiving than then, and it has not seemed to matter regardless. The nine points that were dropped to those three aforementioned lots cannot be harped on enough by this author. Right now, this team should be two points behind Chelsea for third instead of goals differential behind Manchester United for sixth.

It is a sad state of affairs, and one made even sadder by the Tottenham loss to Brighton earlier in the day; Spurs were acting Spursy and yet, so too apparently was Arsenal. Now, with potentially the hardest run of matches of the entire season for this team, and the pressure of external expectations, injuries and the demands of one another, the team must respond without some of its best players as the time has come to either put up or shut up as they say.

Mikel Arteta should not receive all the blame, just as he should not have received all of the credit earlier on in the year. He is a good boss and with a deeper team, his problems would be less accentuated currently than they are presently. While it might be easy to get on the boss and his side, that team still has a chance in each match they have remaining, and a resilient club like the Gunners simply needs a spark to reignite the fire that has burned inside of them during stretches of this campaign.

Points are needed and, despite that the schedule doesn’t look any more promising than before Arsenal dropped nine points to terrible outfits, there should and must be some. For without hope, there truly is no chance; without hope, there is not even reason to endeavor to do better in any sense – regarding anything at all.

Chelsea will be no easy task – as they never are – but they are a top three team in the Premier League and Arsenal must prove that they can defeat a team of that calibre between the rough season against the top two clubs, and recent unbearable run of form.

And so, hope must be carried and held like a banner even in the face of unfortunate odds. Few believed that Arsenal would be at this point at this stage of the season, and fewer still believed that they’d only fall out because of poorly timed injuries; this team has beaten many expectations – including those of many of the supporters – and it now requires the support of all fans and Gooners to push this team over the hill at this late juncture of the season.