This season’s Premier League title race is shaping up to be the most entertaining and competitive in years, according to Arsene Wenger.
The campaign has had many surprises, with Leicester City second in the table behind Arsenal only on goal difference. Crystal Palace, West Ham, Stoke and Watford are all in the top half of the table while teams that usually occupy the European spots are struggling in the bottom half of the table.
How do you measure [the best title race]? On entertainment? Then look at the audiences of the Premier League and of the rest of the world, then you come to give me an answer, and it’s yes. At the end of the day public opinion decides that [it’s the best]. I believe that when, for example, in Greece the leaders were 18 points in front of the second place, they played 15 games and had 15 wins. In France, Paris Saint-Germain are 15 or 16 points in front. If you have that everybody will say it’s boring and it is better you have the situation we have today where seven or eight teams can win it.
Arsenal missed the chance to go top over the Christmas period but they managed to finish a wonderful 2015 at the top of the table after a 2-0 victory over Bournemouth. Leicester City dropped two points at home to Manchester City the following day, allowing Arsenal to remain on top for the new year.
Being top on goal difference doesn’t make a big difference, it is just down to how well you play, your performances dictate all that and you have to be guided by your performances. After that it is reassuring to know that if your performances are right you do not need bad results from somebody else. That is one less stress. It is a bad thing in our job – we always want to be successful and we wish that the others are not.That is not a very good feeling in our position, but once you are first you can just focus on your performance.
With the north London side winning the most points in 2015, Wenger is hopeful his squad can capitalise on their run of form in the new year and sustain it until the season’s end and lift their first Premier League trophy in over ten years.
I heard last night the cliché… ‘nobody wants to win this league’. I can say as well that everybody wants to win it. And if you were in the game you would think that’s not the case – everybody wants to win it but it’s difficult.
