How far can Arsenal go this season?

After Mikel Arteta has turned the season around, how far can Arsenal go in the Premier League and Europa League this season?

By Adam Le Roux

After two massive wins in three days Arsenal look to be firing on all cylinders once again, with the Gunners looking fresh and fired up for whatever comes their way.

After one of the worst starts to the season in the club’s history, you could have been forgiven for thinking that this season was a right off as we approached Christmas, with the boys in red and white slumping to just one win in ten Premier League games.

But since the festive period Mikel Arteta has turned things around dramatically, with spirits raised and confidence riding high, people are becoming expectant of Arsenal Football Club once again.

They may sit tenth in the Premier League table as things stand, but that doesn’t mean that a late surge up the table can’t happen, with Sunday’s defeat of Leicester providing one of the best performances of the season.

Now the question is how far can Arsenal go this season?

Gunners have found flair and freedom

That display against the Foxes was chalk and cheese compared to the turgid showing against the same opponent at the Emirates earlier in the season, as Jamie Vardy stole all three points for the visitors.

No, this was an Arsenal side that looked revitalised and free of the shackles of the early part of the current campaign, when chances - let alone goals - were proving hard to come by.

It would be easy to point the finger at the arrival of Martin Odegaard for exactly why this turnaround in fortunes has occurred, with the Norwegian excelling game on game in that creative midfield role.

The 22-year-old has allowed his teammates to express themselves in ways they haven’t been able to in other periods of the season, with his nuance and deftness of touch providing the ammo for the forwards to perform.

And with these positive results breeds confidence, which you can see in everything that the Gunners are doing right now - no Aubameyang or Saka against Leicester, no problem, we’ll just bang three goals in against the top four contenders anyway.

The late, late show against Benfica as well, how often would we have seen Arsenal throw in the towel in matches gone by, in seasons gone by even? But this side had the belief to fight to the bitter end, which turned up trumps.

The players are walking out with their heads held high and chests pumped out right now, and we are all seeing the consequences of that change in attitude.

Domestic doubts are left to dangle

There is always one team that goes on a late surge from mid table to challenge at the top towards the end of the season, and why can’t it be Arsenal this time around?

While others around them falter, the Gunners look to be hitting their stride at exactly the right time, with the triumvirate of Odegaard, Saka and Aubameyang getting onto the same wavelength, and producing the goods in front of goal.

With Burnley up next in the league, Arsenal have the chance to boost that morale even more with a convincing win over the Clarets, with revenge in store after Sean Dyche’s side stole a 1-0 win at the Emirates earlier in the campaign.

Then comes the make-or-break period - the second North London Derby of the season, followed by a trip to fourth-placed West Ham - which will more than likely determine where Arsenal will be looking towards come the end of the season.

With just two wins in their last seven league outings, Spurs are in free fall at the minute, with Jose Mourinho’s side experiencing a slump just as bad as their neighbours did earlier in the campaign.

There isn’t a much better time to face them at the Emirates, and with a record of just one defeat from 11 home matches against Tottenham, history is firmly on the hosts’ side.

And if it’s history you want, then two defeats since 2007 against West Ham is another one to add to the list, and if that impressive record continues, then Arsenal will be entering the conversation for the top four spots soon enough.

An out of form Liverpool are next up, before facing bottom-half opposition in six of the remaining eight games of the season, if ever anything spelled out ‘end of season winning streak’ surely that is it.

To make up eight points on the Hammers in 12 games might be tough, but definitely not impossible the way this crazy season has been going, why not throw a couple more twists and turns into the mix?

Gunners gagging to get over Greek grief

It was just over a year ago that Arsenal and Olympiacos last met in the Europa League, and although the clash was pre-lockdown, you would have thought there wasn’t a single fan in attendance when Yousseff El Arabi grabbed a 120th minute winner for the Greek side.

The silence that surrounded the Emirates crowd was deafening, as just seven minutes earlier Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had scored the goal they thought had got them through to the last 16, only for that to be wrenched away from them in the dying seconds.

And after that wound had just about healed, the band aid got pulled quickly off again last Friday, as the pair get set to do battle again on the European stage.

But how good must it have felt to inflict the same sort of pain onto Benfica last week - at the very same Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium that they suffered the heartbreak - as Aubameyang struck at the death to put the Gunners through.

That winning feeling is infectious, and Arsenal will again travel to Athens ready for the challenge, with the lure of a quarter-final place within reach.

With Arteta resting six players for the trip to Leicester there will be plenty of fresh legs for the clash with the Greek giants, and with the European stage the only way to get any silverware this season, the Spaniard will be going all out to turn this season into a success story.

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