The Arsenal goalkeeper says the club can beat Manchester City into second place. Realistic or not, his attitude is the right one.
Supporters never like to hear of players resting on their laurels, happy to simply pick up a pay cheque and carry on.
So Arsenal fans will be especially glad to hear of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny’s boast that Arsenal can climb past City into second place.
Manchester City fans may scoff at the suggestion, but if they continue to stumble, Arsenal will gladly seize second spot.
After all, a similar scenario happened in reverse last season.
Arsenal ended the season horrifically, and went into freefall. They lost out on third place to City who overtook them, pushing them back into fourth, when such a scenario seemed highly unlikely.
Szczesny said: “Man City have lost their chance of the title – it was a big blow to us last year and they might drop a little bit, so who knows maybe we can catch them as well.”
It is though just a possibility, rather than a likelihood.
We don’t know how City will react to losing to Arsenal at the weekend, and will find out tonight when they face West Brom.
Now the pressure is no longer on them, City could bounce right back to winning ways, or – as Arsenal found last season, a loss of form and feeling of deflation is not so easy to instantly turn around.
Whether Szczesny is making empty boasts or not, it is positive that he is not just content with seeing off Tottenham to claim third, and is intent of finishing as high as possible.
It is an attitude all Arsenal players should have, and with eight wins in their last nine, they should believe anything is possible right now.
They travel to relegation threatened Wolves tonight and will be confident of three points.
Importantly for Arsenal, if they could complete a remarkable turnaround and finish above City, they would humiliate Samir Nasri who left them for ‘better things’ last August, and repeated his claim earlier this week.
The gap is 10 points, and seems impossible in just five games, but Arsenal overhauled a similar gap to Spurs in less than that period. It would need a momentous further choke from City though, who will still be harbouring faint title aspirations.
It may be a long shot, but for Arsenal it is worth a try, and better to look upwards than over their shoulders.
Can Arsenal catch an imploding City or is it a distant dream?
image: © wonker
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