Football fans around the world woke up yesterday to the not-so-shocking news that the Court of Arbitration for Sport have given Manchester City a big big let off and they are no longer going to be banned in Europe for two years! Surprise surprise! Had it been Arsenal facing that two-year ban though, it would have been increased to four!
The news reported today on Sky Sports that City have been let off from the suspension first given to by “UEFA’s club financial control body” (CFCB) in February for “serious breaches” of club licensing and financial fair play regulations”. This has just made Arsenal’s chances of reaching European football even harder, although I think we did a pretty good job of that ourselves given our last two results against Leicester and Tottenham! But had decisions and results gone our way in both games, then things would have looked just a little bit different right now!
We may just have to accept mid table as our new home for the end of this rather appalling season. With three games to go and nine points the maximum left for us to gain, why can’t we finish the season off with a flourish? There’s only a matter of the three games being with the current Champions Liverpool as our next opponents and relegation fighters Aston Villa and Watford still to come, so what’s all the fuss about?
What are our actual chances of getting the whole nine points when Villa and Watford need it more, so to speak? If we were to produce a miracle and win all three of our remaining games, then we would have to hope that all five teams above us lose all three of their games left for us to get third or fourth place. Get praying Gooners!
We might even have a chance if we finish mid table to get into European football, by winning the FA Cup, having to get past City in the Semi-finals first though, it has been done before and I have no doubt we can do it again, given that we love Wembley and if we play a lot better than we did against City at the Etihad and against Spurs yesterday. If only we could cut out all of the silly mistakes we tend to make then we might just be able to get our hands on a trophy for the fourth time in 6 years!
Stranger things have happened hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman