Laura Woods has made an interesting claim about Arsenal's title race with Manchester City, claiming finishing second wouldn't be a failure.
Back in August no one could have predicted where we would end up being in the battle for this season's crown as Premier League champions.
City were expected to defend their title with Liverpool their likely challengers, having pushed them so close at the end of the previous campaign.
Arsenal self destructed in the battle for the top four last May, losing to Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United in quick succession and that was followed by people mocking Mikel Arteta, as his seemingly bonkers methods were shown on the All or Nothing docuseries.
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However, the Gunners have basically been leading the charge in the league since the start of the season, and even opened up an 11 point gap on City at one point.
The draw with Liverpool at the weekend, saved by Aaron Ramsdale after they were two goals up, left the gap at six points, and put Arteta's side in risk of soon finding themselves behind their rivals.
Pep Guardiola's team have a game in hand and host the north Londoners at the end of the month, making them the bookies' favourites again.
Despite the possibility of throwing away a big gap on their rivals, Woods, an Arsenal fan, believes it wouldn't constitute a failure for her team, should they miss out on their first title in nearly 20 years.
"Of course I will be disappointed, massively disappointed, but they [Arsenal] were supposed to fail every minute, after the first few games, and at Christmas," the presenter said on talkSPORT.
"Come the New Year, Arsenal were supposed to fall away and they haven’t. They have proved everyone wrong.
"I don’t like these kind of binary arguments about if you win the league or if is a failure.
"I think there is so much more you can celebrate in football, so for me, no.
"If you’re asking me as an Arsenal fan, do I remember the 2022/23 season, I will say yes, it was amazing.
"And yes, we missed out on the league, if Arsenal lost it for example, but I had some amazing memories from that season.
"As an individual, if you’re asking a fan, if it is a failure, some will say no, but others may say yes."
On one hand she's certainly got a point, no one would have even expected that they'd be second, and success is relative, plus winning isn't everything.
However, having got them in this position, there's no doubt that Arteta and many others would consider it a failure to get over the line.
Also the team should probably consider not winning the title a failure, as anything else wouldn't exactly be an elite mentality, but that doesn't need to spill over to fans such as Woods.
Topics: Arsenal, Laura Woods, Premier League, Manchester City, Football
Ryan Sidle