What Are Arsenal’s Chances Of A Top 4 Finish Midway Through The Season?

What Are Arsenal’s Chances Of A Top 4 Finish Midway Through The Season?

As Arsenal started their season this year after 22 years under Arsene Wenger, they did so with new Spanish manager Unai Emery at the helm and he made a raft of new signings in bringing in the likes of Lucas Torreira, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Matteo Guendouzi and Bernd Leno.

The new men have all fitted in rather well for Emery and have added to the new signings Wenger made last January when he signed Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang which means the make-up of the Arsenal squad has really been changed and over-hauled in 2018 for the first time in quite a few years.


At the start of the 2018-19 season many pundits like former Gunner Paul Merson suggested Arsenal would be competing for a top 6 place not considering them a threat for the top 4 and fellow pundit Gary Neville said there would be “some hurt” when he spoke of the Gunners season as they would be adjusting to life under new boss Emery.

The bookies agreed with the pundits in the early season giving the Gunners little chance of anything more than a top 6 finish and had them as a clear 6th favourite for the title and they were behind Chelsea and Tottenham who were 4th and 5th favourites by a distance relatively speaking. Those amongst us who take advantage of offers like bethard bonus codes, likely will already know how much the view of the bookies and pundits has changed since the beginning of the season where it was pretty unanimous that the Gunners were going to struggle.

The bookies for starters now have Arsenal as 5th favourites for a top 4 finish and they are available at 5/2 with a number of bookies which is a significant difference to Manchester United who are 6th favourites for a top 4 finish and they are available at way longer odds at best at 9/2. This shows how much things have changed from the early season and the effect of Unai Emery’s 22 game unbeaten run after the first 2 games of the season where Man City and Chelsea beat the Gunners to hand them 2 losses to mark the start of Emery’s tenure.

Pundits too are recognising that this is more than a transition year for Arsenal under Emery and that they are very much top 4 contenders with both Paul Merson, Gary Neville and and a host of their colleagues saying as much. The goals of Aubameyang have been significant and the added bite and legs that Torreira and Guendouzi have added to the midfield have made a real difference as the club are a tougher opponent and there has been improvements in goal too with German Leno taking over the number 1 postion from Petr Cech.

The game against Liverpool at Anfield this Saturday on BT Sport (check to see how you can access the game) could prove pivotal not only for Arsenal’s top 4 chances but also for Liverpool, Tottenham and Man City’s title aspirations.

Arsenal played out a tough 1-1 draw with Liverpool at the Emirates earlier in the season when Paul Merson gave the Gunners no chance but Arsenal came back strongly to tie the game and were ultimately the better side according to most media outlets.

So we think that Arsenal are basically in a dog-fight with the in-form Tottenham Hotspur, the resurgent Manchester United under Ole Gunnar Solskaer and Chelsea for a position in the top 4 (assuming Liverpool and Man City finish first and second in whatever order). We think Arsenal will do it but they will need to avoid more injury trouble and Unai Emery should just stick with Mesut Ozil and also give plenty of game time to Henrikh Mkhitaryan as the Gunners need their creativity and guile in the team to feed Auba and Lacazette.