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Are Arsenal genuine title contenders this season?

By on July 14, 2017

Pre-season is underway and the new campaign is just around the corner so it’s time we have a closer look at whether Arsenal should be among the early-season favourites for the Premier League title.

It’s safe to say last season was a disappointing one overall as despite winning our third FA Cup in four years, we finished fifth in the league and missed out on Champions League football for the first time in 20 years.

As it stands, Arsenal are currently most bookmakers fifth favourites to win the 2017/18 title at best odds of 12/1. Manchester City are the 2/1 front runners with defending champions Chelsea close behind at 3/1 and United and Spurs make up the top four.

Arsenal are currently enjoying the first leg of our pre-season tour in Australia but we soon head to Beijing where we take on Bayern Munich and Chelsea in pre-season friendlies.

The rise in prominence of online casino Indonesia, China and other Far Eastern countries has led to an increase in sports betting, and particularly on the Premier League, so we could see plenty of Asian money being placed on Arsenal if we impress against Bayern and Chelsea.

However, it’s clear that people here in England don’t consider Arsenal to be serious title contenders right now so Arsene Wenger has a lot of work to do during the summer to build a squad capable of competing for top honours.

I personally think that odds of 12/1 on Arsenal to win the title are tempting as we have a hugely talented squad already and have snapped up Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette so far this summer.

Both players are world class and strengthen positions we’ve needed to add to for some time so I think our team will be much stronger this coming campaign when compared to previous years.

The boss is hoping to sign Thomas Lemar from Monaco while Mesut Ozil looks set to stay so if we could just persuade Alexis Sanchez to sign a new deal then I’m quietly confident we’ll put in a serious challenge for the title this year.

To be honest, Sanchez’s future could define our hopes for next season. Losing the Chilean super star would be a huge blow as he scored 30 goals and provided 19 assists in all competitions last season so it’s going to be extremely difficult to replace that threat if he does leave.

Let’s pray we manage to persuade Alexis to sign a new deal as keeping him could just be the difference for Arsenal this season. If he stays, I will certainly be putting a few quid on Arsenal to win the title.