Don’t give up Arsenal fans – Miracles DO happen….

Can a Champions League miracle happen? John Velez

Apart from the FA Cup, Arsenal have been an embarrassment in every other competition for a good 15 years or so. Bottling it like we did at Newcastle should hardly come as a surprise anymore. In fact, it’s the norm for Arsenal isn’t it? I guess it’s why many Arsenal fans don’t even bother getting angry these days.

It’s not a FULL blown bottle-job just yet though. There is a very tiny glimmer of hope. A Spurs loss at Norwich, coupled with a home win for Arsenal over Everton will get us that 4th spot. Defeat at Newcastle was even more frustrating, given that a draw would have meant Spurs had to win their final game to be sure of CL qualification. Now they can afford a draw, with their superior goal difference.

Focusing on Spurs, I can only see a win for them. I cannot even see Norwich scoring! That said, miracles can happen, albeit rarely. Wigan beat City in the cup final, Porto winning the CL, Leicester winning the league, Spur’s epic comeback away at Ajax, to name but a few.

Even though Norwich have nothing to play for, there are some other factors to spur them on. It’s their final PL game this season, and what could be for many years, and it’s in front of their home fans. After a dreadful season, they’ll desperately want to give their fans one last good memory, and what better than beating a top 6 team like Spurs.

Add to that, Spurs missing out on the CL as well. Norwich have no affiliation with Arsenal, so although they do not care who finishes 4th, any team loves the idea of effecting something for their opponents of the day. Victory against a top team is enough motivation normally, but that motivation will be amplified given they can stop Spurs getting into the CL. The Norwich fans will really get behind this as well.

Then we have the other part of the equation. We have to beat Everton. Something I do not feel confident about. Yet another injury to Tomiyasu, other key players missing, many others like Saka and ESR not looking fully fit, and a drop in form again. Pickford’s in the form of his life, Richarlison is popping up with some key goals of late, and Everton has just secured safety, meaning they’ll be nice and relaxed for their final game of the season.

I know some people do not think we’ve progressed under Arteta, but this is the first time since the 16/17 season we have gone into the final game with something realistic to play for, and remember that NO ONE gave us a chance of even being in this position. We did have a very slim chance of 4th with one game to go under Emery in the 18/19 season, being 3pts behind Spurs, but it was very unrealistic, given they had a +8 better goal difference. So we needed to win, they needed to lose, and we also needed an 8 goal swing.

Imagine the pain of Norwich beating Spurs, and us not beating Everton. That will be devastating! Equally, imagine Spurs blowing it from their position. A lot of banter to be had either way.

There’s thousands of Gods out there, so I guess we better start praying to them all for an Arsenal miracle!

Jonbo

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39 Comments

  1. Miracles did happen this season.. And we rejected those miracles! Who would have that we would have been 4th with 2 games in hand.. But we blew it away.. It was all in our hands.. Arteta is all to blame and next season we will be 6th or 7th once out of form teams regain their form

  2. Whether we make it in the top 4 or not is my concern anymore. My concern is the piss-poor mentality this team has carried with them for years now. MA has hailed himself as the one that has changed this mentality and culture but the reality is that this has not changed.

    What I’m keeping my eye on now is how our contract management unfolds over the next few weeks. We have quite a few players coming up on the “1-2 years left” mark.

    Bellerin
    Leno
    Torreira
    AMN
    Pepe
    Mari
    Xhaka
    Soares
    Saliba
    Saka
    Runnarson
    Okonkwo

    MA/Edu have been terrible at contracts, I’m hoping to see an improvement.

    Also then on 3 years remaining is something that needs to be looked at if the players aren’t part of the plans or if they are and if they are on low salaries it also needs to be nailed down:

    Martinelli
    Partey
    Holding
    Gabriel
    Ode

    1. Spot on PJ

      of course, it’s certainly not a forgone conclusion that the Spuds won’t cock things up come Sunday, but I think after the last two underwhelming performances I’m even less convinced that we can get a full 3 points out of our fixture…beyond all that, I’m a tad torn between the notion of potentially embarrassing ourselves in the CL, especially if we continue down this same tactical path, and my belief that finagling that last spot is vitally important to our upcoming recruitment activity…what a sad state of affairs to be actually having to deal with such mental gymnastics….if only we weren’t so dire for stretches, we could have been sitting pretty by now

  3. Some of us are not worried about spurs losing their match.
    It’s more about us winning ours.
    I mean like someone said , he has confident in spurs losing that match than Arsenal winning theirs.

  4. “There’s thousands of Gods out there, so I guess we better start praying to them all for an Arsenal miracle!”
    All Gods believe in truth and the truth is Arsenal have been abject in must win situations, have a weak mentality in crunch times, poor man management by the manager, lack of motivation, egoistic and at times an arrogant manager, a very poor January window wherein key acquisitions could have changed the scenario, losses to Brighton, CP and Southampton which have come back to haunt us, etc., the list goes on.
    All Gods help them who help themselves and the way Arsenal played in crunch games this season including the Cup games, we didnt really help ourselves. Still hoping for a win to end the season, a good summer in terms of key acquisitions and really fruitful next season.

  5. I wonder why my post has not been posted on the site. I responded before any other posts were up on the site in response to Jonbo’s article.
    My response was as follows.
    Hi Jonbo there are not hundreds of gods out there, there is only one God who made Heaven and earth. He loved you so much He gave His only Son to die on a cross to take the punishment for your sins so that when you die you can be with Him in Heaven.

  6. You are correct that miracles do happen.
    Despite “being an embarrassment in every competition except the fa cup for the last fifteen years” , along with dross, mentally frail, lazy players and, of course, no defence, the following miracles did happen.

    We remained an established top four team (some say there were only four teams in the PL at the time of course), we remained an established club in the CL and enjoyed European football for over two decades and we remained, as was hinted at, the club with the best fa cup results during this time.

    The real miracle would be if we finished in the top four again, had participated in European football last season and won another fa cup.

    Alas, the world we live in is not a fantasy world of make believe, it’s one where we have to rely on Norwich City to help us get CL football once again and surely, even if that miracle happened, wouldn’t it be still be “embarrassing” to only finish in the top four?
    Plus, of course, failure this time, in said fa cup actually means a complete failure in every area of the season… if we use the author’s analogy of what failure means.

  7. It’s not us who have given up but the people running the club and the fans who support their process. And even should a miracle happen what is their to celebrate? Comfort that Spurs are well and truly Spursier than us?

    1. If the people that run the club had have given up then we would in the relegation zone, not fighting for 4th 🙄

  8. Arsenal v Everton (Draw). Yes Everton are safe now but they will put on a good fight against arsenal. Arsenal confidence is low… I know the game is at the Emirates but I think the game will end in a draw. Wonder how the fans will response on Sunday…

    Spurs will hammer Norwich. They are down already.

    I just don’t see Arsenal qualifying for champs league now. We blow our chances yet again.

  9. The issue is not Spurs loosing to Norwich, but we loosing to Everton. As simple as that. The team moral seems to be so low at this point I’m not sure what to expect from them. Hopefully we win and hope for the best.

    1. Absolutely Gai👌 I agree with you.
      I look forward how Edu/Arteta deals in the transfer window. Who we buy can determine how next season will turn out for Arsenal and Arteta will have no excuse.We need another left back Tavares not good enough, we need a good DM to stand in for injury prone T. Pathey, we need a good winger to challenge Bukayo Saka and also be able to play as a striker ie Gakpo of PSV and we need a top striker to replace Lacazette ie Dawin Nunez or G Jesus. I prefer DNunez because of his goals return and height for aerial threat; can’t guarantee GJesus would give 20 goals a season. I think some players will go on loan again and some will be sold. If Saliba is retained I guess we are good at the back.

      Ramsdale

      Toyasu/White Saliba. . Gabriel. Thieny

      Pathey. R Neves/Xhaka/Yu Tielesman

      Bukayo/Gakpo. Odegard. Matinelli/ESR

      DNunez/Gabriel/Cluivert L

      1. I think Magalhaes’/ Saka’s agents are looking for better options and advising them to delay the new contract signing. We’d likely have a very busy transfer window

      2. Don’t you guys get tired of making same excuse every season that next season will be the season Arteta will be judged and he will have no excuse but then he fails and you guys turn up with more excuses. Same tape on repeat season after season.😏

        1. I agree, I get extremely tired of the same negative comments every year.
          We are in 5th, we are in Europe. Can we not be happy and build on that?
          We have a young team that can only get better with experience, but if you keep calling them @#$@ will they feel supported?

    2. Son will definitely turn up. He’ll be striving for the Golden Boot Award. I’m kinda with you gotanidea, we don’t deserve it. But in football, anything can happen. If Everton play the way they did against Crystal Palace, they will beat us. They showed real gust and character to come back from 0-2 down. Everton displayed everything that we lack. Happy that Frank Lampard and his lads avoided the drop. Hoping the same for Burnley. But as for Arsenal, want a massive disappointment they’ve been. And all of the early hours of getting out of bed have been very unhealthy. Should there be a miracle, can you imagine the Arteta faithful coming out of their caves saying, “I told you so”. I was wavering after the FA Cup 3rd round against Nottingham Forest. From day one, I gave Mikel Arteta the benefit of doubt, as well as Edu. My lad, who is very high up in the Australian Army, often says that the majority of the players lack self belief, self discipline, and self motivation. You couldn’t trust them going into battle. They would go missing in action. Me and the lad don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to Arsenal. He’s very critical. All season he’s been predicting Europa League. I suppose that’s all they deserve. Champions League was there for the taking. Next season will be alot tougher. They’ve been a huge disappointment. 5th place is as good as 8th in my eyes

      1. Everton have survived the relegation, so I expect them to succumb to the Emirates atmosphere

        I like your military analogy. I’ve also predicted a top six finish since last summer

    3. If it does happen then we do deserve it, as we will have amassed more points than that lot.

  10. This season’s been such a rollercoaster that you never know, it could end up with a miracle.

    However I have almost zero hope for this weekend, it’s no longer in our hands and It’s difficult to imagine a Conte team bottling it at the last minute

  11. True GAI, we don’t deserve to be in the CL, we shot ourselves in the foot, it’s over. I have talked to the God’s, no miracle this time.

  12. I can’t believe we’re pinning our hopes on a relegated team that have only won 5 games all season!!
    Although Newcastle had as you say ‘nothing to play for’ yet still managed to outclass us for 90 minutes!!

    1. And we get hammered if we dare to say that our expectations have been lowered.i mean when people call it a boost for Arsenal when our opponents have several injuries,how sad!!

      1. Siamios, we’ve relied on injuries in the past to claim top 4. Last game of the season at WBA, their number 1 goalie was out. The replacement, Martin Fulop made 3 basic errors that allowed us to win 3-2.

        Also who can forget the last game of the ’06 season. Final game at Highbury we had to beat Wigan and hope the vermin lose at West Ham…

        🎼We laughed ourselves to bits, when Tottenham got the shits, Lasagne🎼

  13. Reminds me of this scene from Dumb and Dumber;

    Lloyd Christmas- What do you think the chances are of a guy like me and a girl like you ending up together? One out of a hundred?

    Mary Swanson – I’d say more like one out of a million.

    Lloyd Christmas- So you’re telling me there’s a chance

  14. I’ve never been a fan of clichés/buzzwords..but even if a miracle were to happen it would only paper over the cracks.it will not change what I think of the team,things like lack of character,hunger, motivation, spineless,no leaders and dare I say it,dull football,I can’t believe our goal difference +9(I think), dreadful !!we are ARSENAL,a team which used to be known for its fluent, positive ,entertaining,attacking football even when we were conceding a lot of goals, we knew that we would score goals, creating chances no matter what.☹️😞😭

  15. The whole season has consisted of United, Spurs and Arsenal repeatedly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. So whose to say it can’t happen again, but I doubt it. What does get me when I read Arsenal posts though is that no one really seems to look at what next season will look like. Newcastle’s oil money will start to bite. West Ham might have made top four this season without all the European games. Next year it could be a lot tougher to make top four than this one. Conte is slowly developing a tougher mentality at Spurs, Arsenal need to do the same. Otherwise it won’t matter who you buy.

  16. This was our best chance for top 4, and we choked it away, yes choked.

    Newcastle will invest heavily, Man Utd will add to their squad, Conte will improve spuds even more. With Europa we will be in a dog fight with West Ham for a top 6 spot even.

    Sorry but I don’t see much from this year to excite me for next. Until Arteta changes his tactics, how much impact will a striker have?

    Is Laca really as poor as his goal tally shows? No, he isn’t; not a top striker, but should be getting more than 10 goals a year.

    So many people were throwing dirt and burying Auba, yet he’s scoring for fun at Barca.

    At some point the club has to address the issue of why our strikers have been so poor, why no one leading the line seems to be a goal threat.

  17. What miracle! We had the chance, we blew it, we are now hoping for miracle. We’d better start thinking of a way out of the dreaded situation we find ourselves. Arsenal needs real cleansing!

  18. Even if we win, Tottenham only need to draw with Norwich City to secure 4th place due to their better goals difference. Not so difficult for them.

  19. Deja Vu! There’s talk of some Spurs players (including Kane) going down sick with a virus or possibly food poisoning. Happened before on last day of 2006 season when we pipped them for 4th.

  20. It’s of course legit for Jonbo to compose a “miracle needed” article. And, extremely rarely, one off miracles sometimes do happen.
    I am sure that not a single poster on here expects a miracle to happen for us this weekend and neither do I.
    In reality land where I always prefer to dwell, the expected result happens far more often than not.

    I forecast a Spuds win at NORWICH, PROBABLY BY THREE OR MORE GOALS.

  21. Everton away- horrendous refereeing (stamp on Tomi it’s ok wasn’t intentional. End up losing the game.

    Burnley home-should’ve have won laca miss always comes to mind.

    Southampton away- should’ve won 5-1 Forster on fire

    Brighton home- pathetic

    In my opinion these are the games that truly cost us this season.

    Spurs and the toon away is just how we usually play sideways and gutless same as Arteta did as a player.

    My signings for the summer if possible would be as follows:

    Bassey/Taposa=CB
    Neves/Grillich/Ruiz=DM/CM= 2 of the 3
    Gakpo/Kamada/Berradi/Bowen=AM/Winger= 2 of the 3
    Nunez(dream signing and my first choice)
    Jesus (I’m not sure about)
    Olly Watkins
    Scammaca
    Borre
    Oshimen(no chance getting him)
    DCL(no thank you)
    Richarilison(unsure)

    Could also try Martinelli through the middle

    Also I believe if we could make massive profit I would sell Gabriel to fund other signings like Liverpool have done

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