Can we do it? Will we do it?

[Eboue-Why?]

Well, here we are, 17 games to go and top of the League. Most people, me included, fully expect Man City to go on and win it. Their squad suggests that if we finish above them then we'll have won the damn thing.
Looking at the 2nd half last night, you'd have to say that if we had invited pressure on ourselves like that against any half decent side then we'd have blown it and if we continue to adopt that plan then we're asking for trouble.
Can we do it? This season all teams will drop points with so many top 5/6 clashes coming up so from that point of view there is always the chance we could sneak it.
Will we do it? With tough away games to come, I'm telling myself that we won't. That way, I can't be disappointed but every 3 pts that gets collected, the hope increases and as we all know, at the end of the day it's the hope that kills you!!
If only we'd stuck another £10m on top of the £40,000,001 to test them and unsettle Suarez even more. No disrespect to Giroud who's playing his heart out up top but Champions tend to have a World Class striker on board

[TheCook]

I had forgotten how stressful the title race can be.

It's the hope that kills you.

[Dan_85]

Can we do it? Yes, if we strengthen the squad & give ourselves more options, a title winning side needs a deep squad. And if we find some bollocks to a) kill games off earlier and b) take points in the big games.

Will we do it? No. Wenger won't strengthen enough or in the right areas. The brutal fixture list of February & March will kill us with injuries/knacker us/shatter our confidence and we'll fall away during the spring.

Hope i'm wrong though!

[BournemouthRED]

I was hoping to get to May without having to talk about this subject! when anyone asks me if I think we will the win the league I just say 'long way to go' etc and shrug it off.

I really want to beleive we can win it this year!

[augie]

Absolutely we can win but absolutely we wont

People talk about citeeh's money and depth of squad but I honestly think that wenker and wenker alone will cost us the league. All it would take is two little adjustments and we could go from pretenders to contenders -

1. Buy that top quality 20+ goals a season striker - some people moan that such a move would create an over reliance on such a player and that we would miss some of the traits that giroud brings to the table ( ) but seriously we need a striker of the quality of a suarez who can make the difference in those big games. Giroud is all well and good in games like last night but on the big days, when chances are at a premium, we need a clinical top of the range striker to make the difference between winning those 3pts and dropping points

2. We simply have to be more tactically flexible - there will be games that we have to play with 2 strikers and the manager has to be willing to do so. We have to dispense of this plan that requires playing podolski, ozil, cazorla and ramsey out of position in the wings and then wondering why they are playing so shite We need to be willing to look and opposition systems and weaknesses and then alter our plans accordingly but our CIC knows only 1 way and refuses to deviate from that

People on here are happy to label me as negative but I honestly think that, this season, we are not far away from success - the problem is that this could be a one off possibility cos it is doubtful that manure will be as poor next season and I still don't rate this season's chav team. This could be the season which not alone see's us lift silverware again but will catapault us back into the top tier of clubs again

[Henry Norris 1913]

that bloke we had in 2011-12, the one who scored 30 goals in a season and saved us from middle table obscurity, we just need to play him up front and job done.
I assume he's still here, we didn't do something stupid like sell him, surely?

[DB10GOONER]

Can we do it? Yes, if we strengthen the squad & give ourselves more options, a title winning side needs a deep squad. And if we find some bollocks to a) kill games off earlier and b) take points in the big games.

Will we do it? No. Wenger won't strengthen enough or in the right areas. The brutal fixture list of February & March will kill us with injuries/knacker us/shatter our confidence and we'll fall away during the spring.

This 100%. We could, but we won't.

Also agree with augie RE a 20+ PL goalscoring striker. Been saying it for years.

But don't agree that RVJP is necessarily that striker. Out of 8 years with us we got 20+ PL goals once. Accepted he went on and did another year of it at manure but where is he this season? Inujred again. He won't hit 20+ in the PL this season and I'll wager his injury hoodoo is back big time and good, fuck him, judas cuntsore. A bigger mistake than selling Fuckwad Van Judasbastard was fucking up the attempt to sign The Hound of Anfield so badly.

[BFG4]

Can we do it? Yes, if we strengthen the squad & give ourselves more options, a title winning side needs a deep squad. And if we find some bollocks to a) kill games off earlier and b) take points in the big games.

Will we do it? No. Wenger won't strengthen enough or in the right areas. The brutal fixture list of February & March will kill us with injuries/knacker us/shatter our confidence and we'll fall away during the spring.

This 100%. We could, but we won't.

Also agree with augie RE a 20+ PL goalscoring striker. Been saying it for years.
With 21 league games played, Giroud has nine league goals, and yet for some reason, Wenger thinks we don't need a striker, a manager with this sort of thinking is the reason why we wont win it, really hope im wrong though.
But don't agree that RVJP is necessarily that striker. Out of 8 years with us we got 20+ PL goals once. Accepted he went on and did another year of it at manure but where is he this season? Inujred again. He won't hit 20+ in the PL this season and I'll wager his injury hoodoo is back big time and good, fuck him, judas cuntsore. A bigger mistake than selling Fuckwad Van Judasbastard was fucking up the attempt to sign The Hound of Anfield so badly.

Giroud has nine league goals in 21 games, and yet Wenger thinks he doesn't need to buy a striker, a manager with this sort of logic, is the reason why we wont win it.

[rodders999]

If we finish 3rd it will be an over achievement in my opinion. Like others have said it's all about having a top quality striker. When we have won or narrowly lost out on leagues in the past we had the likes of Smith, Wright, Anelka, Bergkamp, Henry even Adebayor (2010?) who either were, or almost were, the league's top scorer.

This year our top scorer will be around 15 goals shy of the golden boot I reckon. RVJP almost single handedly won the leage for manure last year, Aguero for City the year before, Drogba for the Chavs etc. etc.

You're just not going to cut it without a clinical striker of that mould.

[I Hate Hleb]

Yes. No.

[hut160]

yes. probably no- but in the lap of the gods
we are still scoring goals and creating chances- I never doubted that we wouldn't score last night, and as long as Per/Kos remain fit why cant we keep our challengers at bay?
if we had a Suarez/Aguero we would walk it, but we dont so we might have to rely on a bit of lady luck/refereeing decisions going our way.
Its too tight to call,but we have to keep beating the lesser teams and hope the others slip up
whatever I am enjoying this campaign so much and cant wait for the next game.
COYG

[VoiceOfReason]

We don't have what it takes to beat the top sides in the crucial games, so I'd have to say no.

It's the same old story as past seasons (as has been documented here many times over): cruise past the lower-half dross, get turned over by the legit title challengers.

On our day, in an isolated match, I think we're capable of beating anyone in the league. But I don't think we're capable of winning enough of those games, consistently, when it matters.

As this season has shown, we can turn it on against Norwich and Swansea, yet failed to beat Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd. Those are the games we need to be winning.

The only reason we're up there is because other sides have fallen away. Ferguson retired, and Man Utd are in a transitional season. Man City have a new manager, and Chelsea have a new manager. Once those sides have bedded in, we'll be back challenging for fourth in 2014/15.

It says it all that NO Premier League players were voted in FIFA's team of the year yesterday. The league is vastly inferior to what it was five years ago, and that's what's given us a glimmer of hope.

In a way though, this was AW's ultimate fantasy. Rather than actively improve his team, he'll just wait for the others to weaken, and take his chances. Obviously, our expectations have fallen so low these days that he's not even expected to succeed in this season of mediocrity, so the fans will give him a free pass purely because we're challenging half-way through the season.

[Dan_85]

We don't have what it takes to beat the top sides in the crucial games, so I'd have to say no.

It's the same old story as past seasons (as has been documented here many times over): cruise past the lower-half dross, get turned over by the legit title challengers.

On our day, in an isolated match, I think we're capable of beating anyone in the league. But I don't think we're capable of winning enough of those games, consistently, when it matters.

As this season has shown, we can turn it on against Norwich and Swansea, yet failed to beat Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd. Those are the games we need to be winning.

The only reason we're up there is because other sides have fallen away. Ferguson retired, and Man Utd are in a transitional season. Man City have a new manager, and Chelsea have a new manager. Once those sides have bedded in, we'll be back challenging for fourth in 2014/15.

It says it all that NO Premier League players were voted in FIFA's team of the year yesterday. The league is vastly inferior to what it was five years ago, and that's what's given us a glimmer of hope.

In a way though, this was AW's ultimate fantasy. Rather than actively improve his team, he'll just wait for the others to weaken, and take his chances. Obviously, our expectations have fallen so low these days that he's not even expected to succeed in this season of mediocrity, so the fans will give him a free pass purely because we're challenging half-way through the season.

Good post, agree especially with the bit about being back to competing for 4th once the others have settled back down. This is our best, and maybe only, chance for a while and i'm convinced AW is gonna fuck it for us. If we don't win it this year then I don't think we will do for a while

[MK Gould]

Think it's amazing that we're still at the top to be honest... Compare our squad to City's and no-one would have given us a hope of making it this far! If win the title this season then it will be our greatest ever achievement bar none!!!

If we're still top at the end of March then I'll start to believe... !

[MK Gould]

We don't have what it takes to beat the top sides in the crucial games, so I'd have to say no.

I know where you are coming from, but against the other 5 teams in the current top 6 our record is:
Played 5, Won 2, Drawn 2, Lost 1

We still have to play 4 of those 5 teams away...but we've had a good record on the road this season so no reason to fear them!