Despite all the negativity surrounding the club over the past few months, rescuing a draw against Spurs with ten men and sealing a comfortable 4-0 victory over Hull last night has given Gooners some fresh belief that our fortunes have turned.
A quarter-final clash with Watford awaits on Sunday before a shot to nothing trip to the Nou Camp, where our main aim is to save face as we bow out of the competition.
If as expected we beat Watford and progress to a semi-final at Wembley, attention turns back to the Premier League as we try to scrape our way back into the title race and chase the slimmest of chances that the title is still a possibility.
We have a fixture list of games that we are more than capable of taking maximum points from, but realistically it would be a miracle to hope to do that. All we can do now is keep the pace and put pressure on two inexperienced sides in Spurs and Leicester who aren’t used to the positions they are in.
In usual circumstances – with City, Chelsea or United being 8 points ahead with 10 games to go you would expect the title to be over, but although I’m only one of a few with this opinion, I’m not convinced Leicester will handle the pressure and points will be dropped. Arsenal are now rank outsiders and the pressure of being favourites has shifted away from us to them which can work in our favour.
At the moment, with a three point advantage over us and five points behind the Foxes, it’s Spurs who arguably have the advantage at the moment, as their squad has more quality than Leicester. Overtaking either of them is no longer in our hands, but if Welbeck keeps up his progress, Giroud and Walcott start scoring again and Ozil and Sanchez can produce some magic in the coming weeks, we have a chance to at least close the gap in the next month.
The main concern now is injuries again as we are without Koscielny, Per and Gabriel for our FA Cup clash and Aaron Ramsey who stood in at centre-back also limped off. But it could be the making of us. Something has to change with us stuck in such a rut, and with Arsene reluctant to drop his big name players. Throwing in some hungry players like Gibbs, Elneny and Chambers in defence could well shake up the side for the better.
The title is a complete long shot and Gooners are dejected even after out victory last night with calls for Arsene to go. But we can’t forget just how dangerous a side we are from the outside and how much Spurs and Leicester will be worried about our turnaround in form.
There are still plenty of twists and turns left in this title race, and if we manage to claw our way back to within a few points of Leicester with a few games to go, we can win the title.