There is a quite widely held theory in the football world that Arsenal have become a team that just cannot seem to produce our best performances when it really matters and there is evidence that the proponents of this theory can point to for support, most recently the slips against the likes of Swansea and Man United that effectively ended our chances of the Premier League title.
I think we can also point to periods and individual games that go against the theory as well though, such as the hard fought draw at Man City last weekend, the brilliant win away to Olympiacos that kept us in the Champions League and the strong finished that Arsenal have produced a few times in recent years to get back above Tottenham after the spuds had got themselves into a top four position.
Unfortunately we cannot dent our north London rivals that this time around but we can still finish above them if things go our way and it would also be a nice way for the Gunners to finish off a generally disappointing season if they could produce the sort of performance that we know they can.
The fact that the pressure is pretty much off this game should help Arsenal to click and play the fluent, creative and exciting football that makes us the best team in the country when it happens. So will we see Arsenal go out with a bang against relegated Aston Villa on Sunday?