Arsenal vs. Shrewsbury Town: Gunners Must Prevail to Jump Start Slow Season

To say that Arsenal is off to a sluggish start this season is a tremendous understatement. They are scuffling, and desperately need to get their season going with a win, and a big one.

Currently, they are ahead 2-1 at home against Shrewsbury Town in Round 3 of Carling Cup play. That's obviously not the Premier League, but a loss, or even a draw would not do any good for the Gunners when EPL play resumes on Saturday.

There's just been nothing consistent about Arsenal this year. They have had a really hard time scoring goals, but have been reasonably good at keeping their opponents off the scoreboard. Obviously, the 8-2 loss to Manchester United is a glaring exception.

In their last match, the Gunners managed three goals, but allowed four to the Blackburn Rovers.

At some point, something has to give. Obviously, they aren't going to win every match, but Arsenal does need to do something that gives them some confidence. If they can't, then a dismal season awaits.

The EPL isn’t going to get any easier. Nobody knows that better than Arsenal. Sure, teams tend to get better as the season progresses, but that applies to all of the Gunners’ opponents as well.

Shrewsbury Town is a good club. It’s not as if Arsenal can just take them for granted, and walk away with an easy victory.

But that’s exactly the point. Arsenal needs to pull matches like this out. Managing a draw or loss doesn’t do any long-term good for them. This is the kind of match where a win will go a long way.

How far? I don’t know, but a tough win feels much better than a tough loss does. With a 2-1 lead, they are playing the kind of game that needs to be played for the rest of the season. The goals are there, but so is the defense.

Whether that holds up for the rest of this match and season remains to be seen, but holding a win in this one would be a good way to get the season going in the right direction.