Arsenal: Why Gunners have the ‘fear factor’ and are now the Premier League team to beat
It’s not hard to see why Arsenal are many people’s favorites to win the Premier League this season.
Take their results against Newcastle, West Ham, Fulham and Crystal Palace compared to their matches in the previous season.
The Gunners beat them all this time but dropped 10 points in those games as they fell short of the title race last season.
They drew at Fulham, drew at home with Palace, and lost at home to West Ham at Newcastle.
This meant the Gunners finished second for the third consecutive season, this time 10 points clear of champions Liverpool; This showed how important such results were to the final result.
What is even more impressive about Arsenal’s start to the season is that they have played Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle United away and Manchester City at home and are still four points ahead of Bournemouth.
Although they continue to win, their traditional rivals are not doing so well. In fact, for the first time since 1992, none of Manchester City, United, Liverpool or Chelsea are in the top four of the Premier League at this stage of the season.
Former City defender Nedum Onouha told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It’s interesting because we have some misunderstandings and that goes for Arsenal as well. People call them fixed-piece FC and so on.”
“But they are among the teams that conceded the most shots, conceded the fewest goals, conceded the fewest chances and conceded the fewest shots in the Premier League.
“They’re great. They’re top of the league and they deserve to be there.”
The pressure was initially on boss Mikel Arteta; He spent around £250 million on eight transfers in the summer to seek that elusive first title since 2004.
However, it has paid off well so far, with the league’s second-leading scorer and the team having the tightest defense despite a number of injuries.
“Arsenal can do a bit of everything now. The whole team has a fear factor.” Former Gunners striker Theo Walcott has been added to BBC Sport. “People are afraid of them and it’s great to see.
“It’s becoming normal now that they don’t concede a goal. They’re going to have a bad period and last year there were a lot of draws, but I don’t think that will happen this year. There’s faith in the whole club now.”
Former Arsenal and England striker Ellen White described Arteta’s men as “a juggernaut that seems hard to stop”.
