We’ve come to the season’s midway point, and as things stand Arsenal is 4 points off the top with a game in hand, in the FA cup 4th round, and in the knockout stage of the champions league. It is entirely possible that we win all three of those trophies. Yet if you listen to the football pundits out there we won’t win any – Why?

The oft repeated answer is that, football is a squad game and we don’t have the squad to win. That’s the refrain we constantly hear from those who know better, sadly, as with any mantra repeated enough it becomes a truth, an absolutely irrefutable belief.

Don’t believe the hype.

Anyone who takes a cursory look at the Arsenal should immediately see the gaping holes in the strength in depth arguement. To keep things simple lets look at the squad members used in the premier league so far.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint a 1st eleven let’s look at how many games we’ve missed “important” players compared to other teams. For important players we will take 2 from each area ie. 2 strikes, midfielders, defenders. Where a team uses predominantly 1 striker the we will use 3 midfielders instead.

I’ve chosen for Arsenal, Van Persie, Arshavin, Fabregas, Denilson, Gallas, Vermaelen, and Almunia.
Chelsea includes Drogba, Anelka, Lampard, Essien, Terry, Carvalho, Cech.
ManU, Rooney, Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Vidic, Evra, van der Saar.
Man city, Tevez, Adebayor, Barry, Ireland, Toure, Lescott, Given.

So how many times had those 4 teams had to use players other that those “important” team members?

Chelsea – 19
City – 18
United – 32
Arsenal – 29

It’s obvious that united have their injury problems and that is highlighted constantly, the whole world knows, but you can see that we are not far behind.

Now I understand that the situation is much more fluid than described here for example missing all of your centre backs is much worse than missing 4 players in different areas of the pitch, but this is where squad depth comes into play. Just as ManU have had to rely on 3rd a 4th string players so have we, the difference is ours are better.

Take the strikers for instance although I chose not to include Bendtner as important, when he is fit he plays he is a starter whom we’ve missed for 10 games, so together with van Persie we played more than half the season so far without our 2 main strikers yet we’ve scored 51 goals what does that tell you?

The fact is the people that talk about lack of squad depth are too lazy or too scared to open their eyes and see what is really happening. Where would Chelsea be if they had to play 10 games without both Drogba and Anelka, or United without Rooney and Berbatov?

The difference between us and them is that our strength lies in the team ethic, and style that courses through the club from 1st team to academy. As a result the gap between the Arsenal 1st team and the reserves is the smaller than our rivals, and Arsene will have no problem throwing in Kyle Bartley at centre back if the first 4 was injured.

Strength in depth is just an argument used by pundits who find it hard to admit that Arsenal can win this league, and that won’t change until we’ve actually won. The only thing we can do about it is give Arsenal our full support, the more we are written off as contenders the better our chances of winning.