Arsenal: With 50 points in the first round, how can they not be favourites? (Hi Gary!)
Arsenal reached 50 points after their win over Neville’s Manchester United, with the Gunners sitting in 1st place in the table and +5 from Manchester City with a game in hand. So how can it be, with such a score, that they are not considered the favorite?
No one can say that the spectacle Arsenal put on in the game against Manchester United is the best they have shown this season.
They were nervous in the first half, turned the game around without being clearly superior to their opponents, were leveled by a Ramsdale error and were asked to manage a difficult situation for themselves. The fact that although they were ahead, 10 minutes later, the pressure was on them again.
And yet, the youngest team in the league in terms of average age had the acumen to do it. They pushed, looked even harder for the goal and finally they scored with Eddie in the final minute, with the Englishman becoming the first player in 15 years to find the back of the net against the Red Devils from the 89th minute onwards.
The final whistle blew and Arsenal managed to have played all their first round games at the end of the day with very little loss of points. They only lost to Manchester United at Old Trafford, drew with Southampton at St. Mary’s and drew with Newcastle at home. The only game in which Arsenal has not managed to score a goal.
So in these circumstances, the Londoners have accumulated 50 points and become the 5th team and the 4th different team to do so, exactly halfway through the league.
What are the precedents in the Premier League era? Chelsea in 2005-06 under Jose Mourinho and Manchester City with Liverpool from 2017 onwards.
Initially, the Citizens did so in 2017-18, while Liverpool are the only club to have done so on two occasions, in 2018-19 and the following season.
In the first, they lost the title in an epic 98-97 points duel with Manchester City and in the second they won the league for the first time in the 21st century, reaching 99 points.
We won’t say that Arsenal will reach these levels of scoring, but in any case, they should be counted as favourites. It is unnatural not to realize it. Their run is in the Premier League history books and Mikel Arteta’s side clearly have the edge to reach their first league title in 19 years!
Dimitris Manakos
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