Walcott still believes Arsenal are No 1 by Ash
Over the past few years Arsenal fans have had the horror of unfortunately witnessing the decline of Arsenal, whilst we watch our North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur rise up the table. For many years our celebrations for finishing above Spurs have been early on in the season, however the past two seasons have forced Arsenal into a very difficult position of having to make up ground and eventually finishing above them by just one point.
‘Mind the Gap’ has now become a more regular occurrence from the Gunners and although it portrays our ability to still finish above them despite being 10/12 points behind at some stage, it is also a reflection on the difference in trophies. In terms of success Arsenal are by far the greater team, however at this current moment you have to start to fear what Spurs are building. However ahead of the North London Derby, Arsenal and England international Theo Walcott still insists that Arsenal are the better side.
When asked if their summer spending had taken them past us, he replied, “Not at all. I feel we’re very, very strong.
“Everyone makes out our squad is very weak and there are not many of us but I think we showed in the last few games that we bounced back from a bad result in the first match and proved a lot of people wrong. Every club are different and they invested their money very well. For us players we just want to do a job on Sunday, we don’t care if they have brought in £30m stars.
“They have some very good players and a very good manager but we need to make sure we focus on ourselves. The way we’re playing at the moment we believe we can beat anyone.
“It’s a massive game and I always enjoy them. The fans make it very special. It’s very early in the season considering there is an England game coming up but us players love it and it’s a fixture I always look at straight away. Tottenham are playing very good stuff at the moment but we are looking very sharp so for the neutral it’s going to be a pretty impressive spectacle.”
They have bought fantastically well this summer and I fear they will not miss Bale one bit if he does leave. They have strengthened in all areas of the pitch and ultimately they now have a much stronger squad in my opinion. Both teams have talent there’s no doubt about that however I feel with some of the players they have brought in like Lamela, Soldado, Paulinho and possible Eriksen, they may just edge it above us.
It is a good time for us to play the spuds now. The one thing going for us this weekend is that their new players have yet to gel, and they are still getting used to life without Bale who was a one man game winner for them last season, while we are almost the same team that finished last season on a high. Over the season we will lose this advantage if we don’t strengthen the squad.
However, a few signings from Wenger and we can quickly turn this around. They may have those players mentioned above but imagine if we signed some of the Real Madrid players, we would once again be on top. It’s going to be a difficult game for us and ultimately a very difficult season if things stay the way they are. Of course I have support of Arsenal finishing above Spurs, but do we all have total confidence? I’m not sure.
