The top four is still very much on for Arsenal.’
I personally would not put Paul Merson up for any awards for ‘Arsenal fans favourite pundit’, especially when Arsene Wenger was still Le Prof, so I was very surprised to see that he is one of the very few sports commentators to still think that Arsenal can beat Spurs to the coveted Fourth Place.
And his reason for believing this? It’s because he thinks they “have got a Tottenham in them”, which in Goonerspeak normally comes out as “being Spursy”.
This is what Merson told SkySports: ‘I still feel Arsenal are in it because Tottenham have still got a Tottenham in them. I don’t mean that in a horrible way, but they still have got a Tottenham in them. Everyone was going mad about them but they could’ve been blown away in the first half against Aston Villa.
‘Villa should’ve been out of sight and they only have to have one of those days in the next seven weeks. The 4-0 win over Villa covered over the cracks. They did some great stuff, don’t get me wrong, but in the first half Hugo Lloris had to make save after save.
‘So I’m still not convinced by Tottenham. The top four is still very much on for Arsenal.’
The thing is that with 8 games to go in the Premier League, that means there are still 24 points up for grabs, and as there is no such think as an easy game in the EPL it is even possible that both Arsenal AND Spurs could yet blow it, so it is still too early for anyone, even West Ham, to give up on the Top Four. It is not that long ago that Arsenal were back in 8th and seemingly hopeless, but then we had a good run and suddenly became odd-on to make it.
Didn’t Conte say just a couple of weeks ago that it would be “a miracle” for Tottenham to make Top Four?
Maybe Merson has a point and we should try to be a bit more positive that Arsenal can go on another good run?
Sam P
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The Spuds can be Spursey just as Arsenal can be Arsey. Wonder which one will crack.
Arse crack 😂
Spurs definitely can but can Conte? Man’s a serial winner. He left Inter on his own terms after winning the Serie A. He was sacked by Chelsea although he finished them 5th and won them the FA Cup (kind of a weird sacking but hey, its Chelsea).
Its hard to see Conte crumbling after all, Spurs have easier fixtures left and not to mention we are terrible at the moment.
Your take is more likely
A more realistic opinion. Merson is being biased here I’m afraid. If Arsenal can play as badly as he claims spurs did against villa and still squeeze out a 4-0 victory, I’ll take that. The top 4 is spurs to lose, all things considered (injuries to our key players and gulf of difference in coach quality), asides easier fixtures for spurs. I believe it’s a pipe dream to expect arsenal in top 4. We just lost the 2 games we should have won to stay in it. They were not even games against the top 6,that’s the sad part. Just forget the top 4. We need to move on from Arteta ASAP
We are both Spursy….who knows what will happen. We’ll likely know after the Man U and Chelsea games.
On the 24th April we’ll probably know if we have any chance or not.
Could be, but:
– Spuds’ remaining games are much easier than ours
– Conte’s tactics worked very well with a great ball-holding tall CF like Kane. He got major trophies with Vucinic at Juventus, Costa at Chelsea and Lukaku at Inter
– Spuds were more serious than Arsenal in securing a top four position, by signing two players. Whereas Kroenke seems to be waiting till the end of the season
– Kane would likely want to give a farewell present to Spurs fans, so he’d work his socks off to make sure Spuds get a CL ticket. Even if he gets injures, Spuds still have Kulusevski to be their main front-line pivot
Everything look good for spuds to be in top4 except strange things happen. We are not Man City who could play for too long without a recognized CF. And Lacazette hold up play seem to be found out by teams considering his performances last 2 games. If a team can cage Bukayo .S and G Matinelli I don’t know where Arsenal goals woould come from. I will rather be cautiously optimistic than be dissapointed season end. Realistically, I expect Arsenal to make Top6 but anything can happen in football.
Guardiola’s and Klopp’s systems are much better than Arteta’s, hence they don’t need a strong CF to win the ball possession in the opposition’s half
Tuchel, Conte and Mourinho are more realistic. Arteta must’ve known about this after managing Arsenal for 2.5 years, so I look forward to see his own CF in the summer transfer window
No one on planet earth expected Arsenal to get top 4 in the summer. As long as Arsenal get top 6 Arteta will be manager next season. 7th and we should probably be let him go.
2020 8th 56 points Arteta
2021 8th 61
2022 5th 72?
This would indicate good improvement admittedly from a low base.
Short term improvement but medium term zero improvement.
If you usually run a 5km in 25 mins but then slow down and run it in 35 mins for a while, but then start running it at 28 mins have you improved? No
My word, you must have been scrutinizing my timings
72 points? Are you kidding?
I agree its not over and Arsenal need to go on a winning run and top 4 will be there’s by the Grace of God 🙏🙏
The truth is that whoever gets the 4th spot are miles away from City & Liverpool and although I am not as convinced about Chelsea 4th place contenders are pretty far away from them also when it comes to consistency
United and West Ham are still in it, too much of a gap for Wolves now
But Spurs are in the best position right now, Kane’s form gets mentioned a lot but his goal count this season is fairly low for him, Son is outscoring him but together they could be the main reason Spurs get 4th
Kane plays differently now, he effectively does what we have given credit to Laca for doing, Kane does it better and we have no equivalent to Son, neither is a traditional number 9 at the moment, apart from that important aspect I believe we are a better team than Spurs
We are still building whilst Spurs have been where they are now for a number of years with Kane and Son long established and it will be interesting to see what happens down the road in the summer, as it will with us
West Ham are solid in most departments without anyone being outstanding anywhere, solid Manager and they have done very well in the last few seasons, no reason to think they won’t remain as a top 6 side next season and like us might be just one signing up top away from improving on that
No idea about United really, loads of talent but hit & miss, again interesting to see what a new Manager does there next season
As for us, if we can recruit the right player(s) to work with Saka, Martinelli and ESR up front I think we can challenge again next term and get a lot nearer to the top 2
Getting top 4 this season will be about Ode in my opinion, he has been so influential when we were doing well but didn’t get a kick against Palace and Brighton, if he can come back against Southampton and for the rest of the season we still have a decent shot at 4th
Come on you Gunners
Fingers Furnell
I so enjoy your posts
Reasoned and reasonable
Thanks SueP, enjoy the game at the weekend