I know it's to soon to judge, even Arsenal fans are keeping silent atm, And despite not reaching the February/march month where Arsenal usually struggle. But there are signs of Arsenal improvement that I guess their fans have noticed it.
Its too soon for CL but would they win PL already ?

• Arsenal played the stability card, No big changes on tactics nor signings but they had an effective transfer market : Xhaka, Mustafi, Perez : Xhaka and Mustafi already won their starting place and erased last year weaknesses. Perez for depth and probably given playing time as he is starting to find his marks on the field between his teammates.
• No big injury crisis : Its been a long time I didn't see both Ox and Walcott both fit and in form, its also the first time that Wenger has that many choices and depth to make his XI : two 9 with different abilities : Perez is technical and fast, Giroud is physical can be used for long balls aerial combinations and not bad at short pass combination, Iwobi silently progressing.
• Defensively : Mertesacker is back from injury but both Gabriel and Mustafi can be played aside the established Koscielny who won his starter place in France and look very solid. They also have 2 defensive mid and will get back Cazorla soon.
• Both Sanchez And Ozil look consistent which wasn't the case in the past, Sanchez is on fire and well Ozil CL performences are just out of this world.
• The team looks confident and hungry, players look like having fun on and outside the pitch.
• They used to drop point while completely dominating games, lately they win games without playing extremely well : as an example vs Stoke after the CL effort some players like Ozil had a terrible start but they have that gap level between them and their rival that garanteed them the win despite an early PK agaisnt them.
• They have been outrageously dominating small teams in both PL and Europe, last time they ended up first of their group was in 2005/2006.

All this points makes me think they are PL contenders already, in addition to Manchester clubs not at their best form. Only Chelsea/Liverpool are likely to give them a fight in the long run, the bad point is that from this 3 they are the only ones to have to worry for CL, which give a fictive lead to Chelsea in the long run.

I know it's too soon, but it's been a long time all these points were not there at the same time for Arsenal, what do gunners think about it ? What do rivals think ?

Midfield Department, Arsenal have the better squad, but in the defense and attack, i think chelsea have the better players. But Arsenal vs Chelsea will be the most important game this season for both teams

@Sun:

Arsenal's attack is way better

I think our defence with Mustafi became much, much better, probably best since 2006. Even Gabriel is becoming more comfortable, I guess he finally understand language, we will see tonight how he does. It's hard comparison when Chelsea plays on 3 center backs, but I would say our defence + right side is better on individual positions. However Monreal/Gibbs are nowhere near Azpilicueta's level.
Chelsea wingers are more dangerous for opponents than our and the midfield is pretty much balanced. Chelsea got better holding players while I think we have more creativity going upfront.
And for comparing strikers, I don't want to compare Costa and Alexis, both are in amazing form, and I hope they will continue.

Yeah Im curious too. Lolz, how's Arsenal's attack is way better??

now we can come back to earth..

Kind of surprised that's not a shared opinion. Arsenal has scored more goals on the season, albeit not by much, and has the natural potential to score more than Chelsea due to the midfield setup. Playing Matic and Kante at the same time is great for defensive solidity and winning back possession, but it is hardly a catalyst to putting the ball in the net. Arsenal's front of Sanchez - Giroud - Walcott + Ozil has the edge on Chelsea's Hazard - Fabregas - Pedro + Costa because of course it does. Playing a CAM and/or 4 attacks instead of 3 will always translate to more goals scored. Hazard and Pedro play as true midfielders with defensive responsibility, whereas Sanchez and Walcott (as well as Ozil cause he's lazy) do not have that task, freeing them up more in an attacking sense.

This does NOT mean that Arsenal is better as a whole, in fact I can use the example of Rafa Real and Zidane Real to illustrate this exact concept. I find Chelsea's midfield to be far superior to Arsenal's, and Arsenal to have more attacking ability, in both theory and in practice.

When Carlo figures the situation at Bayern, Arsenal clearly have no chance until then Bayern should really look out for this match.
To be honest I hope I see Neuer acting like a lil bitch again :')

I think they answered the question today... Lol...

@jozemourinho

...

Sneaky +1

1pt would have been good result considering that Everton played that game like a final, i ade a bet both teams to score at 1.7 odd here, Everton didnt win for a while and having meryside derby. Arsenal players looked tiired, Wenger didnt rotate that was a mistake imo.
Both Everton goals conceded on marking errors on set pieces, well lets see what happens next, Ozil game was just awful.

Anyway Arsenal chances still depend on Chelsea form, If Chelsea keep consistency, it will be a one horse race if they drop points then contenders will appear...

Hazard has a minor injury.

@chelsea8 As long as Costa, Moses, Alonso, Kante, Luiz and Dave are fine, I'm not too worried. ;D

In my eyes we can't mathematically win the league anymore.

Also Tiki_Taka, we topped the group the season Ac Milan beat us. We played second leg home. Correct me if I'm wrong but it was 2011/12.

And like I said.... Consistency is KEY.

@amir_keal In 21 game, Chelsea can drop more than 6 point. Have some faith lad. ;)

It's not even that. All I want is us to pick up the 3 points where we can. If we can't do that, we won't win the league.

I'm trying though. However, this man managing Chelsea was the same person who had revived Juventus from it's rather bad 3 to 5 year spell.

Dropping points is very hard, especially in the December stages, we could be so far off them. We are too inconsistent to be challenging, and I believe this season will be the same as usual. Disappointing set of result, I think the last time we went past the knockout stages was when we beat Porto. Not good enough from our side.

In my eyes we can't mathematically win the league anymore.

WUT

I don't expect Arsenal players to live up to their expectations this season. Majority of Arsenal fans are doubting their team and Wenger or just expect them to fail, on the meanwhile they will change about either stay or leave about Wenger 20 times this season and all this negativity will make Arsenals journey harder. I never saw Arsenal fans behind their team for at least half a season in the recent years or at least behind their manager. Just a negative crowd that expects their team to be world class in every aspect of the game.

I might be wrong but this is the impression I get by most of their fans year after year. Not speaking about any specific member of the FR forum.

No Joze you are right. I doubt the team not to only guarantee me to win games, but to pick up points. After Christmas last season we were top by 5 points (probably wrong), and then we blow it and get 10 points behind Leicester

Don't get me wrong, there will be bad days, like Barcelona when they lost 1 2 to Alaves. Then they go and hammer City 4 0. At Arsenal, not only does this happen too often, but we never show the drive to get back and pick up the points where we should have.

Fans do say this because they have seen this happen for too many years. Yes, we have been rising in the table for the last 3 seasons ( 4 3 2) but in these seasons, our points tally have gone down. Last season, I believe a lot of the big teams just failed big time, like Chelsea. However, even when trying to be positive I doubt we will finish 2nd with 71 points this season.

Quikzyyy, just look at how we have been performing. A few months ago Chelsea were nowhere and now they have 9 wins in a row. I'm only asking to pick up points where we can. I am not really surprised if someone came to me and said what I have said in this forum. I truly believe this.

In reply to JozeMourinho

I don't really know if you're mocking Arsenal, but that too is a problem, The club must show ambition for all stakeholders, not only themselves and Wenger, I disagree with booing and blaming one person for everything, but I agree with the fact that if we cannot do it in the right way we must be vocal. Our last 'acceptable' season in my opinion was 09-10, when we came 3rd.

Look at Barcelona. They show their own resilience. Enrique even takes the blames. You got Wenger blaming the fans. No, us at a WHOLE club must look at ways to improve.

Real isn't a good example, but that doesn't mean we should go copy them. They booed a player that had played over 500 times for them.

You are right amir. As long as Arsenals average fan thinks like you I don't expect Arsenals squad to play for anyone besides Wenger and their bank account.

How we have been performing? Except matches vs PSG, Leicester & United we have performed much better than in previous years. If you can't see this you're wrong. The old Arsenal would lose the match against United, wouldn't win against Burnley and probably some other matches.

I'm only asking to pick up points where we can.

So basically you want to win us every game we play?

Any Arsenal fan who though we will win easily vs Everton away is a fool.