How high can Arsenal climb? Is the Champions League still possible?

The win over Wolves moved us to just 3 points behind yesterday’s opponents in the last Guaranteed European spot, but surely our aim now must be to try and get as high as 5th, and hope that Man City’s ban is upheld.

Obviously we are not going to catch Liverpool and Man City anyway, but Man United are just 6 points ahead, Chelsea 8 and Leicester 9. So it is quite possible that one or two of those could drop lots of points if we carry on winning and try and get into the Champions League spots.

The Wolves win was massive, and our next game is maybe even more massive being against third-placed Leicester. Mikel Arteta though refuses to look too far ahead and just wants to take one game at a time, as he told Arsenal.com when asked if the Champions League was still his aim. “I am in the race to try and win against Leicester and then let’s see what happens. Two weeks ago it looked impossible and we know the fixtures that we have in the next few weeks… we try to improve as a team every time to give us a better chance, the better we play the better we compete. At this level of intensity if we play like this against any team, we will make it hard from them, and then we will see.”

Judging by yesterday’s excellent performance there is no reason why we can’t do the same against Leicester and make it 5 wins in a row, and Arteta explained why he thought we had improved so much. “I think the reason we can win against any team is because at the moment we are enjoying suffering together.” he continued on Arsenal.com. “In difficult moments, if you can enjoy doing that then you will get rewarded because we have the ability afterwards to hurt teams. At the moment, we don’t have the ability to batter teams for 95 minutes. If you are not able to do that you have to be very able to compete and be a team. A team means that the 11 who started and all of the subs really make a difference in the game.”

So, if we see Arteta’s new team spirit get us another three points on Tuesday, maybe we can start dreaming again?

Onwards and Upwards!

50 Comments

  1. I’m afraid I think it’s wishful thinking but happy to be proved wrong

    Champions league brings in money and better players. It can also persuade a particular better play to re sign

    It’s hard to know whether a EL place is more beneficial over giving Arteta extra time to get things right next season

    1. Not necessary CL will bring new players because of owners…
      Owners will not sanction money For transfer because it’s evident That there will not be crowd in stadium next season as well so no ticket revenue..

      1. This hasn’t stopped other clubs investing in players, most notable so far being Chelsea. Whilst there is less money at Arsenal to spend expensive players have been bought by the owners

        I agree that football will look different next season but I can’t imagine now that spectators won’t return. In fewer numbers but if we are able to sit on a beach or socially distance in a pub then I can see a return of some sort

        1. Well Chelsea has unlimited oil funds which Arsenal owners cannot match…
          And other thing even if we have crowd in stadium still it won’t full flooded stadium…
          Stadium capacity will be filled one third or half so still half revenue is gone..
          All we expect may one or Max to max 2 signing

          1. Arsenal can match financially but owner is more interested in making money rather than spending it!!

    2. I’m with you sue ,left it to late now to catch up with the pack ,a good end to the season will do fine and hopefully get our confidence up for the start of next season ,looks likely that we will be playing Thursday night football at best for the foreseeable .

    3. If this was last season where every team in the running for CL looked to out choke each other, than we would waltz into the Champions League. But it’s not. Man U, Chelsea and Leicester don’t appear to be losing much form. Sixth is probably as high as we can get but as they say, it ain’t over till it’s over.

  2. Probably not…
    If we would have won against Brighton then it might have been possible…
    But not now..

    1. I also see that horrible result against brighton as the one who will cost us big time. Imagine if we go on a winning streak with all the difficult fixtures and miss out on 4th by 1-2 pts, i will be pissed.

  3. I will only start to believe in our chance at champions league if we beat both leicester and tottenham. We passed our 1st big test but 3 more await. We are 6 pts behind man utd but i see chelsea and leicester as more likely to drop as they have more difficult fixtures.

    Chelsea have liverpool, sheffield and wolves to play. Leicester have a more difficult schedule with us, sheffield, tottenham and man utd.

    1. It’s the closing down Declan that’s making the difference, just like Guadiola does at City. Arteta’s finally getting his tactics across to the players

      1. I agree Kenny, it was very noticeable that when we lost the ball we regrouped and hunted the Wolves down in packs. Our movement off the ball was much better too.

        1. Agree Declan, movement of players is something that’s not always noticed by the average fan

  4. I am just happy to see the improvements in the team under Arteta. I am looking forward to next season.

    That said, I see it as possible to reach Europa league. Champions league would require a lot of luck.

    1. Me too!! As long as we’re in Europe… I really miss the CL, but fingers crossed we’ll qualify for it next season!

      1. Ooh and just think, we may have Cazorla back on board next season coaching…. plus maybe his son in the academy? Along with Pires’ son!! Sorted 🙂👍

  5. Not that sure of CL. Our coming matches are tough one. Let’s be realistic. But one can never say.

  6. As Sue P sensibly says(as is usual) it is wishful thinking BUT we must still bust a gut to try and we now do look a ggod bet for the Europa . I personally did not give us more than an outside chance even of that until now. When such as even Mustafi and Luiz can play as they did yesterday, it must be more than apparent that in Arteta we have a very special man in charge.

  7. I think CL is out of reach, but I do hope we can secure Europa League. We are so close to being a very good team which will be even better if we sign Partey who could be the Vieira figure we have been missing for years. The other signing I would love is Willian who I think is the best player at Chelsea who do not seem to appreciate him as they should.

  8. Any tiny hope of Champions League football vanished at Brighton. Even if we manage to keep on winning, we need at least a few teams above us to start slipping up.

  9. No, the two defeats at the start of the restart have put the kybosh on CL football. The best we can hope for is EL and a good run in that, winning it would be more profitable than going out early in CL anyway.

  10. Brighton essentially killed that hope. Even a draw wouldve kept them alive, but every point matters and we slipped up. The next miracle would be win every single game until end of season but that is highly highly improbable. A Europa spot is the best we can do and with how turbulent this season has been, that would be okay.

    1. Also, I am positive for next season. I am starting to believe that Auba will sign a new contract, and that would be the best thing to happen to our summer plans because we wouldn’t have to replace him and can focus on midfield and defense. Arteta’s 2nd season, things will start to take shape.

  11. Champions league is possible…..
    Chelsea,wolves,leicester all have tough fixtures ahead.And the best thing is some of them play each other.

    Man utd is on some form now thanx to pogba and fernandes but they still struggled against norwich so not sure about them too.

    I am optimistic unlike some ‘realists’ and i think that we do have a ‘big’ chance.

      1. After all in my opinion we deserve it.
        The things we have been through,the emotions,the heartbreaks….😑

        COYG
        Lets fight😎

      2. Yes always possible for us to make the CL but we just need to make sure that we win our matches and then hope that others lose, unfortunately only winning our games is on the teams hands the rest is luck

        So let’s feel lucky

    1. Sorry for being a realist but except once in the last 20 years you have needed at least 66 points to get in the CL, the absolute most we can get is 64. Not a cat in hells chance us getting CL. Get real! LoL

  12. If we can attain that 5th position, then we are in champions league spot, assuming the ban on Man city is upheld. It is doable, let’s go Gunners.

  13. A lot of ifs making this impossible to predict.

    All we can do is focus on next game, win it,

    Technically we can’t make it, but up us to win each game, have no regrets.

    I did not see fixtures for other teams but of course anything can happen.

    It can get real tight winning next 2 games.

    Think Man U , Chelsea will be in top 4, Leicester will drop out top5. Upon Man City ban confirmed, we stand a chance to finish 5th…

    Let’s get real, level Man U plays at today, they can finish 3rd. Chelsea wins moat games. That’s why I see Leicester team we can kick off from Top5.

  14. It pains me to see that the least position we would have achieved this year would be 3rd…

    But because of poor team management i.e.(letting the likes of Mavropanos, Mkitaryan) leave on loan and keeping guys like Guendouzi, Bellerin stay.

    Anyway all is possible with the right team selection
    Martinez
    Mustafi…Mari…Luiz
    Soares… Ceballos… M-Niles… Tierney
    Pepe… Aubameyang… Nelson

    1)Bellerin is never a starter when Soares is around

    2) Always said Martinez is the best goalie since the days of Wenger

    3)Always need more TECHNICAL players in midfield i.e. M-Niles over Xhaka

    4) Nelson is the best we have in No. 11. Chill out with that Saka bul**t

    1. Nelson? SMH

      Martinelli
      Saka
      Eddie N
      ESR
      Willock

      All of these youngsters are further
      along in there development at this
      stage in there Arsenal careers than
      young Nelson.

    2. AMN in midfield is based off of what tho? He hasn’t played in the midfield in well over a year at this point.
      And Nelson??? Bro. You’re benching a player with 11 assists this season for a player who so far is nothing but academy hype. Many academy players dont translate well to the mens game, and Reiss may be that guy. There’s a reason Nagelsmann always had him on the bench too despite his goal record. His development is not at the level of the other young English talents. Also, Luiz HAS to be at the center of a back 3 or he’s useless.

  15. OT.. What an incredible performance from Southampton.. City’s 3rd successive away defeat 😳 First time for Pep!! Plus…. they’ve lost more than we have now! Makes our win at St Mary’s even more sweeter 👌

    1. Indeed Sue. We must be very careful with teams as Villa and Watford who was actually in top 10 for a minute; now fighting for their lives. We also play 2 teams fighting for Europe and 1 who aims to finish with over 100 points, set a new EPL record!

      We in for a fight…

  16. One game as a time e as Proof used to say, come on the pitch to get all 3 points. Only focus.

  17. Yes, it is possible. But no I won’t put pressure on our team to reach CL or EL just to be in Europe for the next season while I’m looking for a team for the future.

    Let MA work on this team, building confidence with them winning some more games, FA will be great with the strong contenders over there.

  18. As Arteta says it should be taken one game at a time and net we should be focussing on Leicester. Also Southampton beat City so we can go with confidence to Wembley thinking we can beat City. Up the Gunners!

  19. I do think UCL is a bit out of reach, not impossible though.
    We shouldnt get ahead of ourselves, yes we just beat a team above us but we still have Leicester, spuds and Liverpool in our next 3 games which will be very tough games.
    I think if we show fight in the remaining games, it will give us confidence going into the new season and show the rest of the league we are back with some fight.

  20. Even with wins we need to rely on a lot of other things happening to get top four or five. Lets see what happens with Leicester – if the form continues, then Europe is realistic. We would need to win all the games and get a bit lucky to get CL. While the team is definitely playing better I am not sure that we have the consistency and strength to get all the points.

    Bottom line though, this is definitely positive.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors