No matter how many points Arsenal have dropped so far, Mikel Arteta absolutely refuses to give up on Athe Gunners reaching the European places via our League position. Ahead of tomorrow’s game, the coach was asked what he thought a successful season would be, and he told Arsenal.com: “To win the next game against Sheffield United. That is the only focus that we have. It is nine points [to fifth-placed Chelsea], eight games is a lot to play for and mathematically everything is possible but we have to put a run together.”
And, to be honest, we do have quite a run of winnable games in front of us – starting with rock-bottom Sheffield tomorrow. Shall we have a look….
Apr 11: Sheffield United (A)
Apr 18: Fulham (H)
Apr 23: Everton (H)
May 1: Newcastle United (A)
May 8: West Bromwich Albion (H)
May 12: Chelsea (A)
May 15: Crystal Palace (A)
May 23: Brighton & Hove Albion (H)
So the obvious banana skins there are Chelsea themselves, and maybe Everton, Let’s assume we WILL beat Chelsea, then we only need to make up 6 points on them. So let’s look at their fixtures….
Apr 10: Crystal Palace (A)
Apr 20: Brighton & Hove Albion (H)
Apr 24: West Ham (A)
May 1: Fulham (H)
May 8: Manchester City (A)
May 12: Arsenal (H)
May 15: Leicester City (H)
May 23: Aston Villa (A)
Hmmm, the Hammers could give them a go. Man City obviously, Leicester won’t be easy either, and Fulham could be fighting for survival.
Could we really catch Chelsea? Looking at those fixtures….
No we cant – no we wont – this article is a complete waste of time
in reply to Ashley
Absolutely
Neither we can nor we’ll do.
NO CHANCE
No
No chance ..
Focus on the EL because that is probably the only hope Arteta has of retaining his job next season .
Everything is possible with belief that it can happen.
In reply to Harold.
Lol,
Why don’t you go and explain that to Arteta and the players instead of us fans.
We are not the one who play those matches.
Chelsea will have to lose at least three times and we have to win all our remaining games. Tuchel is having his honeymoon and Arteta’s honeymoon is over long time ago
It’s unlikely isn’t it GAI?
Mind you, Palace have pulled one back
Yup, Chelsea will win in Selhurst soon
12 points currently and the Great Arsenal in 11th. Bottom half. 😭😭😭
Never thought I would see this so soon.
Thank you Arteta!
No chance the way we’re playing, and Chelsea are currently thrashing Palace anyway. Need a miracle just to make the top 6!
#11th
#thankyouArteta
#saveusbrendanrodgers
#rodgersforpresidency
Not a cat in hells chance! Artetas team is getting 1.4 points a game, that is mid table form and not European. Realistically we are miles away and nothing in the next few weeks is changing that. Artetas baffling negative tactics (using tactics loosely) are not producing the wins or points we should be getting.
I wonder how it will be like not playing in Europe for the first time in over 20 years.
Hopefully, it becomes a blessing in disguise for us.
This is not me being negative. Realistically, we will not win the Europa League.
Slavia return leg is like a mountain to climb with us needing 2 goals and above.
If we manage to do that. Not sure we can knock out Villareal
Wrong, we need one goal, the rest is incidental.
SJ
I think as long as we score and they don’t, that’s enough on the away goal rule
SueP and SJ, Arsenal only have to win the away leg by any margin to take the tie after a draw in the first leg. A draw will bring away goals into play.
Absolutely no hope with arteta&his lazy players,even west brom has better hope of avoiding relegation than arsenal making top six
No.
In my opinion this COMPLETE MESS currently mascarading as Arsenal Football Club is due to a culmination of factors over neigh on a decade.
Many of these deficiencies have not just manifested since Arteta’s arrival, but have been entrenched for far too long.
However, are current performances anywhere near acceptable ….. NO !
Issues need to be addressed, and that’s an understatement.
Very, very depressing.
Well it’s 12 points now and was impossible when it was 9.
Rumour has it that Leno wants out of the club!
Why couldn’t he have said that earlier before we sold Martinez?
Anyway, I’ll pay for his taxi.
Please tell me that’s not true!
We allowed EM to go … it makes me want to weep
Catch Chelsea?? You must be joking!
We’ll be lucky to finish in the top half of the table. And to think I had such high hopes for this season… sigh…
Declan.. Where the hell has that come from about Leno?!
Just a snippet I first picked up from Pedro on LG and then did some digging. Cant find the main reason but he certainly doesn’t look happy these days.
Thanks, Declan. Yes, I just saw it on there. You’re right, he doesn’t look happy – not many of them do..
Leno a joke.
Can’t catch a ball.
Punches out into trouble.
Distribution poor.
Wolves game.
Enough.
Play Ryan.
laughable, can’t see us winning on Thursday then it will be free fall, I can see us losing another two three games, the style of football is negative, dreary and backwards. Arteta is a novice completely out of his depth, the board selecting Edu was another joke. The Kronekes have no ambition to move Arsenal forward we have been in decline for a long time, it will take years to restore Arsenal back to where they belong, but at the moment we are a mid table team with an inexperienced manager running us into the ground
I started laughing to my self reading your thoughts.
I thought a right doom and merchant but I couldn’t but agree with a lot of your words.
The owners have sold us out and dont care bar the money. The old owners who sold out to the new owners didn’t care and took the money
MA is an inexperienced manager who is learning his trade and at times out of his depth but I do see good things and I am prepared to take the pain and wait as we need to be patient. No matter if he is in charge or a new manager appointed Firstly they still need to clear out the dross who have been hanging around for every and a day and until we do this we will not be able to move forward.
By the way i can see us winning on Thursday
Keep the faith
Onwards and upwards
Yes allanball08
If it wasn’t the truth, it would be comically funny.
You made a lot of sense to me
OT.. El Clasico.. Benzema 🔥
Trust the process
I will with Brendan Rodgers in charge.
David Ornstein reports that Arsenal still believe that with time and investment Mikel Arteta will prove the right man for the job in North London.
AJ. I am certain the club are of that mind, as I am too!
All the naysayer fans are whistling in the dark and will not get their wish, whatever they say or think.
Yes jon, as long as Mikel Arteta can keep Arsenal in the EPL and not be relegated, KS&E will be satisfied. It is very lucky for Arsenal from top to bottom, that they are playing in empty stadia, otherwise there would be riots.
WE HAVE ALL HEARD THE EXPRESSION, “ITS THE HOPE THAT KILLS YOU!
Fortunately on reading all the posts above mine, I see that no Gooner, myself included, will be remotely in danger of being “killed by hope”!
I prefer realism every time and am glad to see that on THIS topic so does everyone on here, bar none.
Even Harold who advocated “belief” did not say he expected us to catch Chelsea, so I include him with the realism ones.
I include AdPat in that too, even though he wrote this Devils Advocate article to upset us all. But in vain, as we (at least those who have posted so far)ALL have no foolish hope!
You want realism Jon?
Nothing you say is by any means a fact, it’s simply one man’s opinion and NOTHING else.
So when I say some fans are arrogant this is an example
We have won 3 of our last 10 prem games
Yet we are now debating if we can go on a winning run and saying only a couple of games are difficult
Can no one see how arrogant that is ?
Dan, I call it “dillusional” with this group of players and lack of guidance and leadership. Remember those end of season runs under Wenger, when the premiership was beyond the reach of the Club, yet a Champions League place was achieved? This group is incapable of that.
Sorry, we haven’t a hope of catching them this season or the next. Just look at the young talent they have and if they sign Haaland in the summer they could go all the way next season.
I am not sure I can place my money on our defense not conceding against Slavia, hence the worst case scenario of needing at least 2 goals.
Another completely stupid article. Arsenal have to get past not just Chelsea; but Liverpool, West Ham, Spurs, Everton, Leeds and Aston Villa, who are all above us. Whatever Arteta says, he has only one match of any consequence on his mind (that can get us into the UCL next season), and that is against Slavia Prague. If Arsenal can get a result in Prague, then there is still something to look forward to, if not, I fear the worst.
Everything now depends on what happens in Prague, including Arteta’s job. The EPL for Arsenal is a dead rubber, which the manager should use to blood more of his youth team, push the tried and tested further towards the exit door and also have a complete overhaul of his current game strategy,which is miserably boring, not to mention unsuccessful.
My sentiments exactly, Joe. 👍
MA should be out of a job regardless. League position is the best way by far to measure the consistency and potential of a team/manager
Winning a few knock out games is great but we need to focus on the league.
Poor league position means:
-less cash
-less allure
-less fans
-leading to less revenue
How many kids growing up now do you think globally will want to support Arsenal? This results in a shrinking fan base over the long term. This has a huge revenue effect in the future (next 10-20 years)
👍 Your last paragraph – sad, but true..
We cant even.make it to EL!
3 – 4 years back, a kid seeing me in an Arsenal shirt came and asked “Uncle why are you supporting Arsenal?”. I told him before you were born there was this player named Patrick Viera who was the reason why I started watching Arsenal games. That kid had a bemused look in his face which I had when I was a teenager and one of my friend’s father told us he was a Newcastle United fan.
A bemused look… while I receive laughter and sympathy!!! How times have changed
Spot on, Joe..
No Auba today.. he has the flu ☹
Or he flew?
How do you catch flu when everyone wears a mask, we are all social distancing, not seeing anyone, no hairdressers etc? But of course, these rules don’t apply to some people. Perhaps he caught it having his hair done recently!
Catch Chelsea! Can we even overtake the teams above us?. This season is gone already! Hopefully, everything goes well next season!
The season ended in december when the owner and board failed to see the writing on the wall and kept arteta in place .. hindsight is a wonderful thing but some of us called it back then … though tbh i didnt expect it to get so bad quite so quickly … with the greedy yank still milking the club i dont see the real change needed in the summer but if they are not planning for a transition to a new manager the clubs death spiral will continue … yday confirmed that a team that cost a fraction of ours and whose squad on paper is clearly inferior can with a proper manager still achieve impressive results ..
Arsenal are most likely to be either 8th or 9th.
The most likely top 10 in the league, based each team winning the games they should. The two big issues in the top 10 fight are Chelsea’s difficult run-in (5 games against teams in the top half of the table) versus Liverpool’s easier fixture list (1 game against a team higher than they are in the table), and Leicester’s tough schedule (final 3 are brutal games) and uneven form against the better teams, and West Ham’s game-in-hand as well as the Hammer’s 2 games versus top-half teams.
Arsenal only have 2 games against superior opposition remaining, while Spurs have 4 games against top-half opponents. Leeds are a bit of a wild card, with 3 games against top-half opponents. Aston Villa’s brutal end of year schedule will ruin their fine year – with 5 of their final six games against top-half opponents.
1st – Manchester City – 94 points
2nd – Manchester United – 79 points
3rd – Liverpool – 70 points (goal difference)
4th – West Ham – 70 points
5th – Leicester – 69 points
6th Chelsea – 68 points
7th – Everton – 66 points
8th – Tottenham – 61 points (goal difference)
9th – Arsenal – 61 points
10th Leeds – 58 points
11th – Aston Villa 50 points