Arsenal: Can This Belief Win Them The League?

The Game against Hull away at the KC stadium was supposed to be a routine win for the "in-form" Gunners, but they were made to work hard and dig very deep for the three points that will make them stay on as title contenders.

Arshavin had opened scoring, finishing with aplomb in the 13th minute of the game, something that the gunners have manged to do just once this season—scoring inside the first 15 minute of a league game.

That was done by Captain Fabregas in an away game at Turf Moore against a Burnley side that was ready to take the game to their opponents. That game ended even as both sides scored a single goal apiece inside the first half to secure a point.

There were similarities between these games. The Gunners have never scored inside the opening 15 minutes of a league game and they did it that time in the seventh minute.

After scoring they conceeded a penalty which was converted by Graham Alexander in the 28th minute. But as hard as the gunners tried that night of Dec. 16, they could not find that goal to secure all three points.

Fast forward to Mar. 13, 2010. The game looked like a formality for the "in form" gunners and it looked more like it inside the 13th minute, with Andrei Arshavin making most of Hull's defensive mistake to finish clinically (this was Arsenal's 100th goal of the season and their 800th in the League) to put Arsenal in the lead.

Arsenal could've put the game beyond their hosts, but failed to take their chances. This must have fired up the home side as they took the game to their opponents.

They got a reward from the assistant referee who failed to spot Vennegoor of Hesselink who was in a clear offside position, but was able to spot the slightest of contact on him from Sol Campbell and flagged for the referee to point to the spot. Jimmy Bullard Stepped up and converted to equalize for the home side.

There were lots of Drama after that which included a red card for the home side's captain George Boateng, and plenty of debate if Arsenal's veteran defender should have stayed on after his challenge on Zayatte.

The Home side held on for one point with 10 men and made the Arsenal side labour very hard. But in the third minute of six injury time minutes, Bendtner who had written his name in Arsenal's history books in mid week, latched up to loosed ball from Myhill to give the gunners all three points.

After the game Arsene Wenger said the team had the belief that they can win the league this time around. He says his young squad had the desire and Belief that they can win something this year.

"We will give absolutely everything to do it. You saw that in the game today," said Wenger.

"We were a bit jaded but we kept going. We needed the three points and we got it after the 90 minutes."

What comes to mind after that statement if you are a keen follower of Wenger and his troop, is that we have heard this kind of statements from the gaffer for the past two seasons, when the team were grinding out results going towards the end of the season, and then finally imploding very close to the finish line.

I tend to push those thoughts to the back of my mind and agree with Wenger that its a possibility this year because there are reasons to be very optimistic this year.

In games like the away game at Stoke and the last one at Hull, Arsenal would have struggled to get a point from those games. But the lads have battled to win games up till the final whistle of these so called "hard games".

Also Arsenal have dropped less points to the teams in the bottom half half of the table compared to last two seasons. So far they have dropped just seven points these teams this season.

Adding to all that everyone at Arsenal is fired up this season to delver and the points are there to prove how very close they are to glory. They have been very close in recent seasons and have been in similar positions to throw it all away now.

They grind out results where they would not have done before, and like Bendtner said after the win, they have the belief that they can win the league this season.

Having seen the team go this far and looking at the next set of battles they have to fight, I will agree with Bendtner on this one that Belief can win them the league this season.