Our Title Challenge is Just About Over: Stoke Report

After the disastrous loss to Stoke this weekend I was about to say that our title challenge is now over. Those were my thoughts right after the match but after seeing Liverpool lose to the Spuds I've changed my outlook - slightly. As I see it, and I hate to say this so early as November, but our title challenge rests on the fixture against Man Utd this coming weekend. If we lose to the Mancs then we will be just too far behind with too many losses to win the title. Hopefully Arsene Wenger will see this at that time and decide to go for the three other trophies, because after a loss to Man Utd the squad will just be too deflated to compete.

I'm hoping the fixture in midweek in the Champions League will give us enough confidence to face Man Utd but all we can really do is hope. This side seems to live off confidence and when there is a lack of it we go on a streak of three or four bad results in a row, and unfortunately we have bad confidence right now. Conversely however if the team are high in confidence then we tend to go on a tear, winning four or five matches in a row. This is because of the youth in the squad as confidence affecting games is very much an occurrence with young players. Arsene Wenger knows this but this is his dream: to build a young squad and win a trophy by keeping to his principles and keeping faith in his young side. There's nothing we can say or do that will change his mind.

I should mention the Stoke game itself here, despite it being painful to remember. We played just flat. It was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from the team, but this time there was a genuine excuse. The players were just so tired and burned out after the game against Tottenham that they simply didn't have it in them to perform at the Britannia. I don't want to be apologetic for the despicable performance, but there was a reason this time. The match was horrible not just in the performance, but we also lost Van Persie to suspension (what was he thinking?), and possible Adebayor, Sanga, and Walcott all to injuries. Sanga and Adebayor's injuries didn't look too bad but Walcott's did. Remember his surgeries last year on his shoulder? Remember how he explained it had long been a problem area for him and he was finally getting it fixed. Well, I hope I've mistaken the injury for the wrong shoulder, but if it was indeed the same shoulder then this could be a serious problem for Theo. It may require surgery and it may bring back a recurrence of his shoulder problems. Again, I hope I'm overestimating this injury, but I fear I'm not.

That's that then. We need to get a confidence boost in midweek against Fenerbache at home before Man Utd at the weekend in what is surely the make-or-break match of our season. It's disappointing that such a vital fixture has come so early this year but it has and we have to be up to the task. I'm an optimist in case you haven't realised by now, so I'm not going to say it's over yet, but if we lose to Man Utd next week I fear it just may be finally over for us.

Fab 4