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In the wake of the defeat to Liverpool at Anfield or the draw with Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium, the mood would not have been reflective of where the Gunners would instead find themselves mere weeks later. As of their victory over West Ham on Saturday, swiftly followed by Liverpool’s defeat to Chelsea, Mikel Arteta can look up at the table and see his side top of the pile for the first time in this campaign.
This should not come as too much of a surprise, however. Neither of the Premier League’s last two champions were able to beat the team that finished second in either of those two seasons, Arsenal, across the two fixtures they faced them.
The title was won by the side that was consistently the best against the other 17 teams in the league. So far, that has been the Gunners who have won every game outside of their meetings with Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola.
Liverpool have lost to both Chelsea and Crystal Palace, while City have been beaten by Brighton and Tottenham Hotspur. Looking at who the bookies are looking at for the league and the majority have Arsenal around evens to lift the league.
While Liverpool has slumped to odds around 3/1 after defeat to Chelsea, the trend extends beyond domestic patterns.
Arsenal completed their second win of the UEFA Champions League, beating both Athletic Club away from home and Olympiacos at the Emirates Stadium by 2-0 scorelines. Whereas Liverpool suffered defeat to Galatasaray, Victor Osimhen scoring the only goal in a victory in Turkey.
Opta have Arsenal at 18.1% to win the competition, with Liverpool second at 14.7%. PSG have dropped to third now despite their win over Barcelona, and the holders are given a 13.96% chance.
Considering Arsenal have been runners-up in the last three league seasons, and semi-finalists for the first time in more than 15 years in the Champions League, this is quite some level of faith being calculated in Arteta’s side’s chances. These remain just numbers for now, and the Gunners need to find a way of turning the belief into something tangible come May.
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