Gunnerism III: The Sky's Still the Limit for Arsenal

Subir ShresthaOct 29, 2007

If Arsenal's match against Liverpool is any sign of things to come, I, for one, am not worried.

Our brand of football attracts a lot of attention from the fans—as well from the critics.

We've been the team to beat in the past couple of seasons, even when we weren't realistic title contenders.

It seems as though managers try extra hard to shut Arsenal down, and prove Arsene Wenger wrong.

Last season, some teams came close. This time around—you all know the story.

The special focus only strengthens my claim that Arsenal are the team to beat. The hungry opponents all acknowledged our superiority.

Even Carra admitted it during his interview: Arsenal were not in the best of form, Liverpool played well, and yet, the scoreline was a fair result.

The 1-1 draw against Liverpool helped our cause in more ways than one. For the record, I'm not saying I prefer this result to a win—I'm only looking on the bright side.

The biggest takeaway is Almunia's excellent form.

The string of saves that he conjured were more than ordinary. His confidence has definitely been boosted, and it showed on the pitch.

As for the one goal that he allowed—let's just say Gerrard should have his right leg registered as a lethal weapon.

(Just in case you were wondering about the power of that shot, take note of how far out the ball drops on the rebound after it hits the net.)

The back line seems to be defending and communicating consistently. One could argue that Fabregas stepped out of the wall against Almunia's wishes. This led Eboue to take a step left, which opened up the path for Gerrard's laser.

If anything, the game helped Almunia's case as the No. 1 choice over Jens "no-one-humiliates-me" Lehmann. His performance solidified Almunia's instinctive prowess, at least on set pieces.

In all honesty, Jens should be shown the door, but that won't happen so long as we don't have a better backup than the unproven Fabianski.

I sincerely hope Wenger goes shopping for a true "world class goalkeeper" in January.

Which brings me to my point of this match being a blessing in disguise: Our inflated ambitions (if there were any) were surely brought to a check.

Sheddy Singh (ESPN) mentioned that we don't have the burden of worrying about records now, and we can get back to focusing on our game.

The game also revealed some areas that need improving. We can't afford to miss those open-goal chances. Enough has already been said about Adebayor's first touch. Imagine what could have happened if that were RVP.

Bendtner's miss should also limit his complaints in the future. Granted, the ball came in quick off the rebound—but if you whine about not getting more time on the pitch, you'd better deliver when you get the chance.

On an entirely different note (forgive me for wandering off topic, but I just had to mention this):

Tottenham aren't even fun to have as rivals anymore.

They have Juande Ramos now, but he can't help if they aren't defending the ball, can he?

Now, if only Tottenham upgraded their central defence—but that's another article in itself.

Also, just throwing this out there:

Would it be entirely out of the question to get Bale from Tottenham next season— he seems like a good back up to Clichy.

I'm particularly interested to watch Hargreaves Vs. Fabregas next week. In any event, the game will only go so far as to determine if we lift the trophy unbeaten...or with a few blemishes along the way.