It’s back on!

I know my posting has been sporadic at best in the last number of months and I’m not going to give excuses for this, only to say you need to put time into all aspects of your life in order to keep things running smoothly and I wasn’t doing that, therefore changes had to occur. I’ll continue posting at a greater rate in the future and, hopefully, you’ll keep reading.

There’s been quite a number of things happening in the world of Arsenal over the last couple of months and, as always, they cover the good and the bad. We’ve been knocked out of all cup competitions and are left only with the Premier League at the moment, which some will argue is a positive, since it means we can focus more fully on our goals there. I have to agree that the team has been too unstable since last fall and trying to balance many competitions at one time has proven to be difficult. Since losing the FA Cup tie against Sunderland we’ve looked a brighter team that has greater concentration on the pitch. Our wins since in the league (Blackburn, Sunderland, Spurs, and Liverpool) have shown positive performances and a ready and willing attitude. We’ve turned things around, now can we keep it that way?

This weekend has seen some interesting results for us, though we don’t play until Monday. Our main rivals for a Champions League spot are still on our heels, but the good news is Liverpool has fallen further this week with a 1-0 loss to Sunderland. Nicklas Bendtner scored the only goal and proved that he is still good for something, even if not playing in an Arsenal shirt. My favourite result of the weekend thus far is clearly Spurs losing to Everton, helping us narrow the gap to third place if we can capitalize on their slip in tomorrow’s game against Newcastle.

What’s certain is that the chances have been lining up for us to move ahead and secure a top four finish, but the concern is whether or not we can maintain the current form we exhibit. If we want to be successful this season (and right now I’m defining successful as a top four finish while keeping Robin van Persie in the team) we need to take advantage of the opportunities given to us. If we want Robin to sign a new contract with Arsenal, then we need to finish in a Champions League spot and show that we’re competitive at the highest level in England. Even with the rocky start to the season we’ve had, we’re still not that far off the mark.

There are eleven games left this season and we need to make a serious run of them to get the job done. A win at home to Newcastle tomorrow would be a great start.