Welp, that's not how we all wanted Sunday to go. Given the chance to cut the lead at the top to two points, against a team wracked by injury and fielding a whole bunch of reserves and kids, Arsenal instead produced one of their most insipid displays of the Premier League season so far, losing in an annoyingly familiar way and further raising the bar marked "YOU GOTTA DO BETTER THAN THIS".
So what better way to rebound from that than to play Swansea City, a team that Arsenal have struggled against recently? Granted, Arsenal did win 3-0 in Swansea in October, but last year they did the double over Arsenal and it's fair to say Arsenal always have issues breaking down the Swans; with confidence seeming to be a bit low after the last couple weeks, this game is taking on more importance than a game against a relegation struggler normally would. Which is annoying.
Arsenal came out of the United game with no fresh injuries, but with lingering doubt over the form of Alexis Sanchez; trouble is, if you sit Sanchez for a week, plan B is very, very risky.
Look. I'm running out of bromides and rah-rah words; this has been a tough week and Swansea won't make it any easier. As much as these things can't be quantified and shouldn't substitute for actual metrics or measurements, I'm tired of watching Wet Dishrag Arsenal; I want them to be mad about what happened on Sunday, and I want them to come out like they have something to prove, because guess what? They do. They need to prove they should be mentioned as title contenders. They need to prove they can improve on a dire display.
Mostly, they need to prove that those of us who thought they'd challenge for the title weren't wrong, and that they're actually a better team than results have shown. I want a reason to think they CAN win the championship, instead of yet another demonstration of why they can't.