If there was such a thing as a great weekend without kicking a ball, Arsenal have just had it. In fact, a fantastic week.
A period of days where if we do finish in the top 4, these are the days we look back on at the end of the season as our turning point.
While celebrations at Wolves were a little over the top, if it was the moment a young squad believed they could qualify for the Champions League, then that’s all that matters.
The Tuesday before they had watched Man United drop points as Burnley. 24 hours later, even more unexpected was Spurs’ home defeat to Southampton.
I have always doubted if the Gunners had the fire power to put a run together needed to finish in the top 4.
That was the assumption, that one of Man United, Spurs and West Ham would find consistency.
Yet if none of those three find any form then what is required to finish above them might not be as difficult as first thought.
Our victory on Thursday was our first win this year, so it would be premature to predict a sequence of wins. Yet results elsewhere have put our fate in our own hands.
United have been dropping silly points for a while – they would have banked on 6 points in their last two fixtures.
Even considering their Spursy reputation very few would have envisaged both the Saints and Wolves would win at the Lane.
The Hammers have won once in 4 Prem games.
So suddenly, despite with just one win in our last 6, the League table looks promising.
We have 3 games in hand on West Ham, only one of which we would have to win to go ahead of the Hammers.
We have 2 games in hand on Man United, who we are only a point behind.
So, it’s a case of whoever is the most consistent in the run in will be dining at the top of UEFA’s table.
All 4 are consistent at being inconsistent at the moment.
There’s constant talk at Old Trafford of players not being happy with training while Conte hasn’t changed the mentality in North London like it first seemed.
So, we should be comforted by the fact that not just are we in control of our own destiny, if we do slip up it’s not obvious that anyone is taking advantage.
I still question if Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are enough to get us to the level we want but I’m thankfully developing hope that the others are not in a position to take advantage of our flaws.
Could we be the best out of a bad bunch?
Be Kind in The Comments
Dan
WATCH – Mikel Arteta discusses the Wolves win and Arsenal’s red cards
Everyone is snatching defeat from the jaws of Victory. Two wins you go 4th. Two losses your now in 7th. According to many of our fans Spurs and Utd showed ambition by sacking their managers while Arsenal’s season was over after a poor January. Yet two weeks later our “hopeless” team and Manager with no ambition is closing in on CL football 🙂
FACTS. A lot of egg on the some of the people faces in here. Some of you hot so use to trashing your own team that its automatic to you now and the celebrations were not over the top. We play with 10 men because of a ref wanting to make headlines.
One win in 6 is egg on face ?
Its 4 wins and a draw and 1 loss in last minute to Man City
Thats our PL form !
Yeah but in our last 6 games it’s 1 win
Hence why fans have a right to share their concerns and shouldnt be told they have eggs on their face
morning Admin pat
I totally agree with you on this subject.
a great week for us and it for us to throw it away even at the stage of the season.
points in the bag and games in hand.
i know we got knocked out the cups in Jan, we should have seen off city but the difference i see between us and our competitors for the top 4 race
is that we are actually like defending as a team. we seem to enjoy the dark side of football of keeping clean sheets. 11 in total behind city and pool.
Ramsdale and co have been immense this season when our backs have been against the wall.
it will be tough and i expect it to go down to the wire but i still believe we are capable of finishing top 4 come the end of the season.
nicking 1 nil wins breeds confidence and confidence will give us the ability to be more expansive, which will bring more goals.
we are a very young side who will have there ups and downs but we have all seen what they can do on there day, such as the City home game. we all walked away feeling we were robbed of the 3 points. not many time have we been able to say that in the past seasons against city.
onwards and upwards
Brentford will surely be a bonus.
Our destiny is fully in our hands to make the top four this season.With Man utd and spurs all dropping points left and right.As for West Ham, I don”t consider them as a genuine top four rivals cos they will always fall by the way side.Our defence and midfield are solid enough.The only problem is our attack, or the lack of it.Laca and Nketiah are anything but reliable.I think it is about time Arteta start using Pepe as a number nine.I am sure he won’t do worse.
I predict that the Laca captaincy will lead our squad.. he seems to have a no nonsense air about him unlike Auba
If we miss out on top 4, it will surely be because of scoring. More accurately, the lack of it. Our defense is very good, Ramsdale has the best clean sheet percentage out of all the goalkeepers (11 clean sheets).
We’ve scored only once in the past 5 games which is very worrying as I don’t think we can grind out 1-0 wins for the rest of the season.
Its in our hands, and fixture fatigue is on our side.
Tottenham has FA Cup matches, as does West Ham. Man United still has CL.
Liverpool, Chelsea, whom we will both still play, have CL, FA and Carabao to play.
Its definitely in our hands to finish top 4. Home games against Brentford and Wolves won’t be easy but very manageable. I’m quietly confident of getting 6 points from there.
I highly doubt we finish in top four. Our main CFs are distracted by their futures and they aren’t clinical scorers either, so we’d likely have difficuties to score against the top ten teams
On the other hand it could be that playing for their futures brings out the best in them.
According to ESPN, Lacazette has been talking to Lyon and said “see you soon” to Aubameyang. Whereas Nketiah has reportedly been talking to Aston Villa and Crystal Palace
GAI
i have noticed over the course of the season your views have slowly become more and more negative on the outcome of our season.
Cheer up, less then 20 games to and your misery will be over
Alan, I just want to be realistic
Well, whats stopping you then?
Brilliant week, back with our destiny well and truly in our hands.
It has been a good week in that our main rivals have not picked up many points. It is however far too early to be in celebratory mood.
We still need to play the games and pick up points ourselves. The good thing is it that it’s all still in our hands.
When the Wolves game got cancelled due to Covid – I was disappointed. We were doing well and that breeds confidence and a winning mindset. Games already won are better than playing catch up. Look at Spurs! Let’s hope we don’t go down with a whimper
It was a good week but Arsenal has to take advantage of the fact that our rivals for top 4 have dropped points. That can happen only if we win our own games and that can happen only if we find our scoring boots again. A 1-0 lead is not safe in all games. Laca and Nketiah have to step up big time and I hope Arteta brings back Pepe in the reckoning, I am sure he will score goals and take Arsenal to the top 4, Arteta must have confidence in Pepe.