Is public opinion really this naive?

I submitted my vote on The Times sports poll this morning and noticed a shocking figure in the results.

Now I know I’m largely in the minority here but I honestly believe that Arsenal have a great chance of winning the league this season. While British press and football pundits have written off Arsenal’s hopes of lifting the title I have no doubt we’re going to be contenders.

It makes me sick to listen to “the experts” talk about how Arsenal are going through a transitional period in our history as this is simply not the case. Seemingly if you bring in a whole string of young, talented players to a big Premiership club you’re immediately cast into the “transition” category and any chance of winning is left to the other big clubs.

Arsenal have had an amazing pre-season warmup and winning the Emirates Cup as well as the Amsterdam Tournament, against some very heavy opposition is surely a show of our character? And yes, even despite the loss of legendary Arsenal skipper Thierry Henry we managed to came back on Sunday in the final 10 minutes of the game to seal a very important victory against Fulham.

As our newly appointed captain, William Gallas says:

Last year was not easy because we had too many injuries but this season everything has changed. And I can tell you it changed in pre-season – how the players train, how they fight on the pitch – and when I saw that I said ‘we will do something’ this season.

While we may not be The Invincibles any longer I think it’s naive of the public to simply discount this very experienced and motivated side.