Martin Zubimendi has pushed back against the idea that Arsenal are runaway favourites for the Premier League this season, instead placing their chances much closer to even.<\/p>\n
Since joining the Gunners he has suffered only one defeat, and Arsenal sit three points clear at the top of the Premier League. That early advantage and Liverpool’s recent poor form have encouraged many to anoint Arsenal as clear title favourites; Zubimendi is not among them.<\/p>\n
When asked by Radio Marca to assess the club’s prospects of ending a two-decade title drought this season, he was cautious. “I couldn\u2019t give you a number,” he mused before adding, “but I do know we\u2019ll be there. Football is very fickle, and details make the difference. They\u2019re small details, and sometimes it\u2019s even a coin toss.”<\/p>\n
Arsenal have finished second in each of the past three Premier League campaigns. No team in the 137-year history of England’s top flight has been runner-up in four consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n
Expectation remains high at the club, but Zubimendi insists that the atmosphere inside the squad is not one of burden. “I\u2019m really not feeling it,” Zubimendi told AS in a separate interview this week. “No one here talks about obligations or having to win anything. This will be the reward for the work we put in during the season, and more than pressure, I see the fans eager. They know what it\u2019s like not to achieve their goal. More than pressure, it\u2019s motivation.”<\/p>\n
He highlighted the foundations of Arsenal’s current form: defensive solidity and set-piece threat. At Craven Cottage this weekend Arsenal denied Fulham a shot on target and scored the only goal from a corner.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re a very well-rounded team,” Zubimendi insisted, “we work very hard on both the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents before each match. The staff does an immense job giving us the necessary tools to make everything easier.” “We\u2019re a very solid, very compact group where we all want to win, and that\u2019s transmitted,” he added.<\/p>\n
On set pieces he smiled: “The truth is, it doesn\u2019t surprise me,” he grinned. “Set pieces are something we work on every day; you can also see it in our league; it\u2019s not just us, but many teams are scoring goals. It\u2019s an area I\u2019ve had to improve and pay close attention to.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zubimendi puts Arsenal’s title chances at around 50-50, stressing hard work, defence and set pieces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[1162,1100,1169],"class_list":["post-3951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-defence","tag-midfielder-mentality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}