Arsene Wenger is not yet ruling out the possibility of Arsenal winning the Premier League title this season as he has stated that massive consistency can help achieve that.
The Frenchman is confident things can turn around during the very busy festive period, when teams have to play many games within a short duration. The 64-year-old also shoved claims which state that the contest is already a two-horse race between Chelsea and Manchester City. In his own view, the fight has just begun.
In each of the last three seasons that they have been at the top of the table at Christmas, Jose Mourinho's side have ended up winning the league trophy. Chelsea currently lead Manchester City with three points, Manchester United with seven then Arsenal lag behind with a whopping fifteen points.
Nevertheless, Wenger is still optimistic that his side got what it takes to return into serious contention that will put pressure on the teams ahead of them and widen their chances of stepping up.
When asked whether the league title is now open to only two teams, Arsene Wenger replied “Let’s see how the schedule goes over Christmas. We’ll have a much better idea at the beginning of January. It can still change. That’s why I say, ‘let’s wait’. Will it only be Chelsea and Man City? Today you can say maybe, but it is still a long way.
“Chelsea play Champions League, Man City do as well, then you have the FA Cup and Chelsea play in the League Cup. There is still a lot to go. But what is for sure, the teams like us and around us, they need to be massively consistent to have a chance to come back.”
Arsenal who remained at the top of the table for a very long time last season ended up losing the title to Man City. Injuries played a major role in their predicament and that was why Wenger was so active in the summer transfer window but despite the signing of Alexis Sanchez, Danny Welbeck and Co., the Gunners haven't really had a good run so far in the present campaign. Wenger says that injuries to key players and World Cup hangovers are two factors that have played a part in Arsenal's shaky league run. Three of his boys were part of the German team that won the Brazil 2014 World Cup while three others were with the French national team till the concluding stages of the tournament. The Gunners have also recorded a number of injuries during the first half of the season.
“I don’t think we have gone backwards in the quality of our squad because if you look at the five players that we bought, you cannot say that one of the five players is a failure,” Wenger said. “I can’t deny that we are behind much more than last year because we have had a depleted squad since the start of the season, and the fact that we got so many important injuries at the back cost us too much. We lost Debuchy and Koscielny at the same period for three months. It’s too much.
“After the World Cup, we had too many players who came back not ready to compete again and then you look at the number of players that we lost when they just came back to their best. We had no Walcott, no Wilshere, no [Mesut] Özil, no Debuchy, no Koscielny, no Arteta, no Giroud for long periods.”
Asked if his team would be able to match that of Chelsea by the time his injured players all return, he said: “I think it’s better I don’t talk too much and we perform on the pitch at the moment.”
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