Arsenal truly come alive in win over Chelsea

Arsenal’s Young Squad Has Enough to Secure Top Four

The Smith Rowe and Saka contributions continue to bring a smile to our faces – even if the latter’s penalty was likely a missed call by the refs – and the effective, positive and flowing football should continue against a Manchester United side that got absolutely eviscerated by Liverpool in their most recent match.

A win against the Red Devils will effectively put United out of reach of a top four position, while a win would keep the team in the game so to speak.

There were mistakes in the match, however, and the defense was not perfect either. The back four of Nuno Tavares, Gabriel, Rob Holding and Benjamin White was interesting and more effective in some ways than had been seen with Cedric in recent matches. Tavares made one obvious mistake to allow for the second goal of Chelsea’s evening, but looks to be settling into his role and the boots of the injured Kieren Tierney. Cedric did also make an appearance as a substitute in the latter parts of the second half, and he deserves great praise for how he has performed this season since the injury to the new lad Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Granit Xhaka paired with Mohamed Elneny in the middle of the pitch to provide a more sturdy and trustworthy defensive midfield than had been previously possible with Albert Sambi Lokonga, and the fluidity of the team was apparent from early on in the affair.

That the young Arsenal are fighting so vehemently is positive, as well as reassuring, at this point in the season, and with the adversity that the team has fought through both in August as well as in the recent weeks.

There will be more adversity in the coming weeks as well, however. Arsenal are not done fighting yet, and have really only fight themselves back into fighting contention. They must now get the deal sewn up so to speak, and must win matches that include the likes of Man Utd, West Ham, Tottenham, as well as versus hungry, desperate clubs like Newcastle, Leeds and Everton.

Yet here they sit, and with the opportunities possible to and for them, there is no excuse for any further letdowns in performances as has been witnessed across two stretches of this season. This team is better than that and is learning how to be consistently great in real-time, far ahead of the schedule that many pundits put together for this club.