Alan Shearer does not feel Arsenal are good enough to make top-five.
Arsenal will struggle to finish in a Champions League place despite the two-year ban placed on Manchester City, according to former Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer.
The Gunners started this season poorly and they have had to fire Unai Emery because of their poor performance at the start of the campaign.
Mikel Arteta was made their new manager late last year and he has helped the team get some momentum.
They beat Newcastle 4-0 at the weekend to record their second league win of the year and stretch the unbeaten run in the Premier League under the Spaniard to six games.
That win could easily give them the confidence to put together a winning run that may help them make the top five.
Manchester City has recently been handed a two-year ban from the Champions League, if that ban is upheld when they appeal, that would mean that the team that finishes fifth would qualify for the Champions League.
However, Alan Shearer still doesn’t think that Arsenal has the capacity to make the top five and qualify for next season’s Champions League.
“I don’t see them being good enough to get into the top five,” Shearer told Premier League productions, as quoted by Metro.
“I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done there and he [Mikel Arteta] won’t have the time or the players to do it all this season.
“They’re going to have to wait, spend a lot of money in the summer, and do a lot of things differently to what they’ve been doing, because I don’t see them being good enough to get into the top five.”
well that is his assessment based on the poor start. Now what if arsenal is un beaten in the remaining matches would it still be impossible for the team to finish fifth.?
That is Alan sheerars problem anyway.
Yep that 4-0 to his club does hurt and brings him in reality, newcastle will never finish in top5!
😂
It is disappointing but expected that a respected pundit speaking the obvious truth continues to upset some of the fans who cannot stand hearing unpleasant truths which disturb their own private fantasies and unrealistic hopes Any unbiased and rational person will easily see that a top five position for us this season is an almost impossible longshot. Even seventh is very unlikely.
For the past six games, we have kept 2 clean sheets, conceded only 4 goals (only liverpool have conceded fewer). Of the 4 draws we had, 2 of them were laboured through with 10 men.
We got improvements on players at key positions (shkodran, granit, mesut) and the overall team performances have improved significanlty.
So based on these facts, the prospect of us making it to top 5 makes sense especially if you consider that of all the teams that sit between us and the 5th spot, only spurs and everton have accumulated more points than us in the past 6 games.
I think that it is a stretch but not impossible Jon. This is such a weird year that picking form is hard to do except for one team.
Next few games will tell the tale for us – if we come out of the winnable games with maximum points then maybe we have gotten further around the corner than we thought would be possible. If we see the same inconsistency then we won’t get to 7. Champions League spots are close to zero, but Europa is not ridiculously far away.
One thing for me, relegation is not a risk but we could stay in 10th.
Stewart, I don’t say impossible either. But a very long shot – or a stretch if you prefer that word. They mean much the same thing I’d say! But my real point was that fans should be realistic and not feel insulted by a respected pundit and non Arsenal fan who , rightly, thinks differently from many of them. I dislike self foolers a lot and never indulge in that vice myself, simply becaue it is not being honest. As a long standing pro bettor, I NEED TOTAL REALISM WHEN ASSESSING MY PERSONAL ODDS ON ANY HAPPENING!
and I agree, we need to be a bit less sensitive by times – especially as virtually all of us have said the same things on these pages – but it is always different if the family complains as opposed to an outsider 🙂
Everybody’s talking about 5th place
being a CL qualifying place but from what I’m reading and hearing from man city directors,reps…I am not so sure now!
a lot can happen on appeal but this sounds pretty serious – MC people have to say that the charges are ludicrous and mean-spirited.
I agree with Stewart that this season has shown that there is one team playing way above the rest. Results elsewhere have been so hit and miss for everyone else too that it’s anyone’s guess what the final table will be in May.
Where I agree with Jon is that we are probably too far behind to be in a CL position. Another year of the EL is possible but the teams presently above us are there because they have been more consistent. Are they likely to have a wobble? I’m definitely not a pro bettor but might put on an imaginary couple of quid on Arsenal finishing in the top 6
Alan Shearer is right about Arsenal needing to spend to get us back to the higher reaches but will Kroenke splash the cash?
Typical of Shearer to be so anti Arsenal. He never got the better of us during his playing days. If Arsenal can manage a run of wins starting with the Everton game, we are very close to the no.5 as the points gap is not that much to cover. But the Man City appeal will decide whether the 5th position is up for grabs for the CL. But the signs of improvement at Arsenal under MA are for everyone to see except pundits like Shearer.