Pretty logical stuff from F365, bolded the main points that struck home for me;
Arsenal
Five wins from the first 15 games is worrying; a five-point gap to fourth is not insurmountable. It's time for a reality check at Arsenal.
As I wrote after the north London derby, the thrashing of Spurs only papered over the cracks in the team's performances and that win remains the Gunners' sole victory in their last six Premier League matches. But talk of an era ending following Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to Swansea is both pre- and post-mature; the club are still in three cup competitions this season, while a title tilt has been impossible for a number of years.
Arsene Wenger has made a rod for his own back after claiming Arsenal could win the Premier League in September, but it would have been foolish for anyone to have believed the manager. This is an incredibly tough division - the European Champions only finished sixth last year - and after losing Robin van Persie in the summer, the Gunners were bound to struggle in their fight for fourth.
Chelsea are also finding life difficult at the moment, with one win in their last seven top-flight matches. But the difference between the Blues and Arsenal is that Roman Abramovich will probably spend £46million on Falcao in January to serve as a (relatively) short-term fix. This financial doping maintains a glass ceiling at the top of the table that Arsenal currently have no hope of smashing through.
For a club that has won the Premier League three times in the last 15 years, it's difficult to accept second best but, as much as Arsenal appear to be in a period of decline, their seven-year slump is mainly influenced by the rising power of money. Wenger spoke of the team's psychological issues after Saturday's defeat and these extend to the club as a whole, with Arsenal forced to acknowledge they are now only leaders of the chasing pack.
With the Premier League out of reach for the foreseeable future, Arsenal realistically have only three trophies they can challenge for each season. Of those, the Champions League has been dominated by one of the best teams in history over the last six years (since they narrowly beat the Gunners in the 2006 final), the FA Cup has been won by only six clubs in the last 17 years (four of which have won the Premier League in that time), and the League Cup is seen as a fifth-rate competition (below Champions League qualification), with Liverpool's achievement last season dismissed by their rivals.
Football is largely uncompetitive and after several years at the top it seems Gooners are only just starting to realise there is no god-given right for Arsenal to win any of these competitions. Complaining fans should at least be grateful that their club is in a far healthier position compared to the vast majority of others in the pyramid.
There are, of course, many things Arsenal fans should feel ungrateful about, with ticket prices at the top of that list. It seems inherently wrong for the club to charge the highest prices in a league they can't win, but at the same time they operate on a supply and demand basis - if the stadium wasn't full every week, the board would have to reassess their pricing structure.
One final point is that while it's painful to see the best players leave every year, this is something that almost every club, especially below Arsenal, has to deal with. Even Manchester United were powerless to prevent Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid, while as a Blackburn fan I've watched the winners of the club's Player of the Year award depart in a steady stream, often to fail at other teams - such as Roque Santa Cruz and David Bentley - which only makes it worse.
The clubs Arsenal players have left for highlight the Gunners' position under the glass ceiling, with Van Persie departing to have a genuine crack at the Premier League, Samir Nasri, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gael Clichy leaving for Manchester City's money (or success that is based entirely on money) and Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas heading to one of the biggest clubs in the world at a time when they had/have the best team.
It seems absurd to chastise Wenger for allowing top players (who he developed) to depart, when Henry is lauded every time he returns to the Emirates. It's worth remembering that Wenger has also had offers to leave, having been courted by Real Madrid for many years, but has chosen to stick with the club.
Times are hard, yes, but Arsenal also have a lot to be proud and positive about. So quit whining.
