Okay Arsenal fans, we might still have a nice surprise in store from Arsene Wenger in the last few days of the January transfer window, but if not then we have at least signed a promising young defensive midfielder in Krystian Bielik and what seems to be a very good and versatile defender in Gabriel Paulista.
We also have Ozil and Walcott back, with Welbeck and the Ox due back in the next week or two, followed quickly by Jack Wilshere and that will leave just Arteta, Diaby and Debuchy in the treatment room. And we will need as many of our best players as possible as we are fighting on three fronts and are still sitting outside of the top four of the league.
Although things are looking up for Arsenal, I thought I would have a look at what we need to do to make sure that we do not drop out of the Champions League places for next season because of our ups and downs so far. Looking at last season, we had 51 points after 22 games and still finished fourth but we seem to be doing things the opposite way around this time. At least we all hope for a better run-in, as last year we took just 28 points from the last 16 games.
The same this time would leave us on 69 points, the same as the spuds got to finish in sixth place last year. 73 points would have been enough to finish above Everton in fourth last season and to get that would mean us taking just over two points per game. To equal the 79 points we got last time we would need 2.5 points per game between now and May.
To put that in perspective, that would allow us to lose two and draw two games and win all the rest. With away games at Tottenham and Man United aas well as home ties with Chelsea and Liverpool to come, we do not have a lot of room for manoeuvre.
With Southampton continuing to impress, United better than last year and with players like Di Maria and Falcao still to find their feet and with Liverpool about to get Sturridge back, can we do it?
Our main rivals
Spud
Soton
De Gea United
Chelsea
Citeh
tough if we do not strengthen our depleted squad….
We are under pressure but Southampton will choke.
Southampton were supposed to be relegated in the summer after sellling off all their best players(Best players? Really?). Remember? Some how they not only defeated that notion but now are making a lot of people sit back and look at them with admiration and respect. Southampton drew aginst Chelsea, defeated Arsenal(twice), beat ManU, just losing to Liverpool on the opening day. All their summer signings are looking like the work of a genius and everyone craves their recent players.
And the Southampton manager has the ManU fans asking the uncomfortable question, “Did we get the wrong Dutchman?” and Spurs fans asking, “Is Pochettino really all that?” after the dross they are serving up week in week out. (Pochettino owes half his salary to Eriksen, even yesterday he saved him the blushes)
But your Username is 100% right and Chelsea or City will win the league, and maybe moneybags ManU will finish above Southampton. But there is still hope that Southampton can do it agaist all odds. Yes a very romantic approach to look at things instead of being pragmatic but it reminds me why i fell in love with Arsenal in the first place.
sorry i still don’t see southampton finishing in the top 4. The players that everyone is “clamoring” over is just not that special to me. I know I’m not giving you any facts but i just feel they will fall off.
It’s not over till fat lady sings,it’s now that most players back and others hitting form that the next 6 games will answer all Questions.Hope fully the players he has and the ones he bought will decide who he goes for in Summer.Defensive he is ok,midfield ok,Strikers thinks he needs to get a great finisher there. CB
I think we’re the best of the rest outside the top 2 by a fair distance honestly. This first half of the season has been little short of awful from us and I’m fully expecting us to cement 3rd pretty soon before the season ends.
Southampton don’t have the top4 experience and will drop off
United are kidding nobody, they’re complete garbage
Liverpool can have Sturridge back all they like, but unless he’s bringing Suarez too there’s no threat.
Spurs as ever seem to have that something missing
Everton have had tiny squad destroyed by stretching over European football.
1. Chelsea
2. City
3. Arsenal
4. Most likely United (expecting the cream to eventually rise)
Robin Van De Gea United are totally Garbage….
if its not for De Gea super saves…they would have been bottom 5….
and yet we keep losing to them. But that stops this season at Old Trafford.
well..everyone could have a go at them and beat em…except for us…
someone under the payroll of De Gea Utd?
We keep getting tonked by Stoke too but I’m not worried about them beating us to top 4. Our little United hoodoo will break at some point (OT this year I reckon). We’re still far superior the past couple of seasons
Yeah we are definitely under a lot of pressure to perform.. Trust me, Saints wont come down the table.. They have now got only PL matches to play week in week out and they have already played almost all the heavy weights in Chelsea, Arsenal, Manu and only got Manc to play..
On the other hand, Manu has all the tough fixtures remaining.. Chelsea, Manc, Arsenal and Liverpool-away to play (And Cambridge as well, lol..!!) With these kind of fixtures, they will lose an awful lot of points in the run in.. And we just have Lfc-home, Chelsea-home & Manu-away to play.. Our fate is in our own hands..
Thump Liverpool when we meet them, we wud keep a clear distance behind us.. Our Manu game is the penultimate game of the season.. I suppose by that time we would have leap frogged them and any point gained would make our top 4 safe..
And Spuds…!! they will lose their way on their own.. dont need to worry a lot abt them..
I think their away run in does n’t guarantee too many points. Surely we can’t and shouldn’t read anything in to the this so called “easy” run in. Their away games are against Man C, Chelsea, Everton, Stoke, Sunderland, Leicester, West Brom and QPR. So the top 2, EFC and SCFC both difficult places and Everton cannot get any worse (can they?) and 4 who are likely to be in or hovering around the relegation spots. I actually think this is one of the toughest PLs yet – there are no pushovers IMO.
United will improve
They have Mata and Do Maria and Falcao, RVP will come into form. Falcao is an excellent striker. He just hasn’t adapted well and had enough playing time.
Southampton will not improve but don’t really need to. They are a good team. They beat us 0-2. Beware. They are not a fluke.
Spuds are close to us but do not impress me at all.
I think worst case scenario, we finish 5th place behind United and Southampton
Best case scenario we finish 3rd, ahead of United
However realistically, I think we will just squeeze by Southampton for 4th place.
I hope we get at least 3rd. I don’t want to qualify for champions League again
Which RVP you talking about?
Chelsea or City for the title.
Arsenal has finally got most players
back from injury so will get 3rd.
United and Southampton will battle
for the last place. West Ham 6th.
So it’s a very slow work day and I open my Insta account to check updates from Arsenal on Gabriel. While flicking through posts and pictures, I find one from Ramsey with a very cute dog and captioned to suggest a name for her. He named her “Halo” the day after. But i wanted to see what people suggested, so i started to flick through the comments. One made me chuckle.
Some witty SOB said to name her Lord Bendtner. Ha ha ha ha. 🙂
Good Morning guys. Have a great day.
P.S.- Laurent Koscielny is now officially on twitter. Follow him, you fat-asred fcukers.
I think there will still be a major twist in the tale.. Manc were not the same without Yaya and Ivory coast last night have secured the CL spot much for their liking.. Chelsea with couple or more injuries (with cesc reportedly injured) can lose their way too.. Saints wit the form they are in, if they could hold on to their next 3-4 games they have real chance to move above Manc..
I know, its a gamble to bet on them not to win the league.. But, if Manc can hold Chelsea on for the draw this weekend (Costa & Cesc possibly out), Saints can count on them for title challenge as well..
*QF spot.. God I am so obsessed with talking abt CL spot all the time…
Whooooahh pal!!!
Southampton winning the epl??? 😀 😀 😀
That will be soooooo awesome, better than Arsenal winning it 😀 …not that I support soton above arsenal, no no nooo, not at all! but you get me guys, right? it will be strangely awesome. Plus it may embarrass Wenger a lot n make him resign 🙁 🙁
SMDH 🙁 🙁 🙁
What is it with people here 🙁
We have been saying Soton will falter since September last year and have they?? Well, they have only easy fixtures remaining n a ucl spot to entice and drive them to wins.
We will be extremely lucky to get 4th n I repeat EXTREMELY LUCKY 🙁
But we will win the champions league 🙂 and spurs will win the europa cup 🙁 talk of SIX english teams in the champions league 😀 😀 😀
But talks of Southampton or man u falling of are just wishful and desperate thinking. Be real pals 🙁 🙁
Soton will finish top 4…they have nothing to play for…..they are the new liverfool
The top 2 is not as nailed on as everyone for me. In my opinion, i see a positive run of games or momentum as the way to see their strength. Chelsea was on fire at the begining and has dropped off a little. Surely they have players to go on another run but they really lack depth. They have 6 senior defenders! And if anyone of them has to suffer a long term injury, it’ll too tough for them to cope. Luis may be injured. Fabregas may have injured his hamstring and they rely too much on him! Costa should be banned also as there is a hearing on his stamps. Without fab, costa and eden and oscar having played almost every game of the season, its too much a gamble. They really dont have a bench! Remy, drog, schurrle are decent but they did not feature much. And they have ramires to replace fab! Their fit def’s are cahill, c*nt, zooma, azpli, iva. Yesterday luis had to be carried off by stewards. With 5 senior def’s its too much to play in pl and cl. Not to mention the cup final! And cahill has been shi* as well!!!
Would’nt have put it any better mate..!! Exactly.. The point is “They dont have enough depth”.. Their players have played an awful lot until now and we could very well see the young legs of hazard & oscar are really starting to wear down.. I guess Fabregas’ is the first of many more injuries to come..
Cahill is world class….top top top defender
Based on this season alone he is far from it he is getting dropped recently for zouma he is a poor mans kosceilney
He has 5errors leading straight to goals this season already no one in the prem has that many
Season after season…its always fighting for 4th…..
Hafiz great news. Santiago Bernabèu to be renamed Abu Dhabi Bernabèu. Is the “House of Rahmans”™ brokering this deal?
If city lose this week, we still have little chance to get second, but it means 85% chelsea will win the title. City without toure is rubbish, he scored 20 goals as midfielder last season. Look what happened now without him.
70 points will be enough for 4th this season.
Our next 6 games are Very winnable I expect 5 wins out of 6 from us we will be in the top 4 after the next 6 games with 10 games remaining I really do think Arsenal and Utd are nailed on for the top 4.
lol, the players we have are exceptional, Ospina in goal too being a goal guardian instead of mistake prone joker is a HUGE plus. Our exceptional players have hit form and most have improved, and there is Walcott to return soon.
Our rivals will drop points too, many of them against each other. I have no worries at all, certainly no worries about that Middlesex club. As for the Saints, all clubs punching above their weight in January slide down the table by May. Hull City with Phil Brown were in the position of Soton at the same time of year and relegation was decided on the last games in May that season.
I think George Burley’s Ipswich Town were the closest to pull a shocker in recent years just before we bought Richard Wright from them. That was over a decade ago and it’s harder today than it was then when there were no Billionaire owned clubs dominating the top 4.
Though the mathematics are right, I feel like you’ve missed some important stats out. For starters, we were top of the table on those 51 points and then suffered a major flop in form. This year we are coming into form at this time it seems. A win at the weekend and we’ll be on our best streak all season in PL and across all comps. Secondly, other teams were on higher points scores at the same time last year. Spurs in 5th at this point last season were on 43 points – 4 higher then our current 39. This year has been a low points year, everyone is dropping points. Thus the tally at the end will probably be lower this year for needing that top 4 finish.
I’d also like to comment on the concept that Man Utd are good. They’re not. They are absolutely riding their luck at the moment and if a few teams bother to do the business against them they won’t be a threat. We cannot bank on that though and have to play our own game and get our points in the bag.
Southampton are due a bad spell. They’re good, but they’re not phenomenal. Teams early in the season did not give them enough respect and they’ve rode out games due to a good defence. One or two injuries and they’d be dropping points. I’m not holding to that happening, but it’s certainly a good probability.
Why am I saying the other teams aren’t that good? This season NOBODY is that good. We’ve been poor and need to get better. Chelsea even have been susceptible – see Bradford. We cannot sit on our heels, we have to play now. Negativity would not help though – this is the point we have to be positive and say we can definitely do this.
If injuries aren’t too severe, I think we could get 2nd. I feel we are the only top team with positive momentum –
Chelsea may wobbly, I hope they do, but may be too solid, and reliable to pass, but I think Man Shitty is more vulnerable, with Tore out for a few games, hoping we can start to catch them
Man U have been very lucky, I hope that runs out soon. And I don’t fear Spuds, or Liverpool much this season
COYG!