Arsenal can only ditch ‘bottlers’ tag by carrying on winning

I AM a closet fan of Arsenal. In my professional time they have always been a club that oozes class. They did bottle the title race last year, there’s no other way of putting it. But they look richer for the experience now. They’re showing no nerves. Even if they are not on top in a game, they’re playing with freedom and they have quality all over the pitch. They seem a tighter group. It’s most unusual that Ben White doesn’t want to play for his country. In 20 years’ time I’m sure he will regret it when his kids ask: ‘Dad, did you play for England?’ But maybe Arsenal is his priority. I’m a big fan of Martin Odegaard. There’s nothing to dislike about him. He has great energy, he’s a cute passer of the ball, gets his fair share of goals and he leads by example. He doesn’t strike me as a captain who would dig out his team-mates. He prefers to show them how it should be done. I’m just not sure if Mikel Arteta goes too far with his antics on the touchline.

There’s a fine dividing line between being passionate or stepping into trouble. It’s not a good look squaring up to the opposition manager on a regular basis even if it does get the crowd going. I think if it happens too often you need to ask questions of yourself. You can get away with it to a degree while you’re winning but, if you’re not, that’s when it can become a problem. Is the manager’s behaviour the reason? Is it a distraction? That will get levelled against him.

Right now, it’s great for the English Premier League that we have three teams with a genuine chance of winning the title. I may surprise you here but I think it would be even better for the Premier League if Manchester United were to join that group too because of their reach and their zillions of fans. For Arsenal, they’ve had a fabulous year but the only way to get that monkey off their back about being title bottlers is to carry on winning. That’s when criticism of their mentality will stop.