Do Gunners Bottle like always, or will Arsenal hold nerve?
Former Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna understands both the promise and the scars that come with wearing red and white, and his recent comments land against a familiar backdrop. Arsenal have been here before. Late winter and early spring have too often been the months when Premier League title pushes and European dreams quietly unravel. The list of collapses is long enough that it barely needs repeating.
“You never know in the Premier League,” Sagna said in an exclusive interview with BetVictor for Sports Talk Media. “You have so many good teams. Every year you tend to have one team that wakes up – this year it is Aston Villa, before it was Leicester. Every year you have a surprise team.” That unpredictability has historically hurt Arsenal as much as anyone, especially when pressure tightens and rivals find another gear.
This season, expectation feels heavier than ever.
“The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world,” Sagna said. “You can never lose or draw a game in the Premier League, especially in the last few months. The pressure is so big and the build up will be on Arsenal because everyone expects them to win this year.” That pressure was laid bare in the recent loss to Manchester United. The question now hangs in the air: was it a brief wobble, or the start of something more troubling?
A new narritive?
Arsenal supporters have seen this movie before. A big defeat, doubts creeping in, confidence tested at exactly the wrong time of year. Yet Sagna sees reasons for belief.
“They have won games this season that seemed to be difficult, and this is the mark of champions,” Sagna said. Arsenal have repeatedly found ways to grind out results, something past versions of the club struggled to do when momentum began to fade.
Their European form offers another contrast to history. Arsenal’s Champions League campaigns have often ended painfully just as spring approaches, but this season has looked different.
“They are top of the league as well in the Champions League,” Sagna noted, pointing to a maturity that has been missing in previous runs.
Sagna also emphasized that this moment did not appear overnight. “We need to praise the last four or five years because that built up to what Arsenal are today,” he said. “To be able to build such a group and have such a good squad, that is not easy.” Managing expectations, minutes, and morale will be crucial as pressure mounts.
“I think, yes, they have a chance to win the Champions League,” Sagna said. “They were really close last year.” With qualification already secured, he added, “Maybe that will put less pressure on them.”
For Arsenal, history looms, but so does opportunity. The coming weeks will decide whether old habits resurface or whether this team finally breaks the cycle.
