Chris Sutton has claimed that he can see Arsenal messing up their chance to land Champions League football, with just two more wins needed to secure our place in the top-four.
Tottenham gave themselves a chance to qualify by beating us on Thursday evening to close the gap in the table to one point, while their win yesterday means that they currently occupy a spot in the top-four, knowing that they will return to fifth in the table should we secure all three points at Newcastle tonight.
While we have some fears over our defensive personnel, and are currently left to guess on the availability of our centre-backs, Sutton has gone a step further to predict that we are due to ‘slip up’, and that he expects us to end the campaign by missing out on the CL places.
“I think Spurs will now (finish in the top four),” Sutton predicted live on BBC Radio (via HITC). “Big win against Arsenal on Thursday. Absolutely wiped the floor with them.”
The pundit added: “Arsenal have got work to do. I think they will slip up.”
Admittedly, our defensive woes does fill me with a level of uncertainty, and I’m worried that we may well have to switch to a back five in order to bring security at the back, and changing things at this crucial point in the campaign is far from ideal.
As much as I’m worried, I trust in Arteta to have his team ready for the task in hand regardless of the players which we are forced to call upon. I’m definitely nervous, but I certainly won’t be predicting us to allow our season to unfold now.
Patrick
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Video – Mikel Arteta talks about Newcastle, injuries and the Top Four race
Switching to a back 5 with so less defenders is quite unlikely. The ideal scenario would be to play Tomi in central defence along with White, provided he is fully fit and pray that Tavares has a decent game as LB. Just dont get Xhaka in either defence or full back positions, let him continue his partnership with Elneny in the midfield. I am worried about the form of Joelinton and Guimaraes for Newcastle and hope Arteta has a plan to stop their midfield. Also I hope ESR starts to add finesse and pace to our attack.
I believe Gabriel will be playing tonight alongside White.
I think most Arsenal fans will be afraid of a slip-up.
I still see us as a team that has not shaken the habit of the last 5 or so Wenger years during which we would self-destruct under real pressure.
Look at the number of red cards and other errors including strange team selections we have faced this season. The Spurs game was a prime example. Stupid red card, strange decision not to replace Holding once he was sent off and we did not play conservative enough. A draw would have served us well.
Newcastle is a difficult game and given the pressure that we face I would not be surprised if we shoot ourselves in the foot.
Needless to say, I wish for nothing more than a win and am already stressed out.
Partey and Tierney are such big losses to us.
@John63
You’re kidding right? Four people of our current squad were here under Wenger, Elneny, Xhaka, Holding and Arteta. Three of those are players, one is the coach. Whats the excuse for the the other 9?
The narrative is to still blame Wenger for some odd reason, in spite of 16 new players and 250 million spent.
Also there are excuses for the “youth” in our squad, but I guess Wenger never did so when he was manager? Saka and ESR fall under this “youth” umbrella, yet have managed to score 10 goals this year.
The excuses should really be wearing thin at this point, but the narrative is strong among many with Arsenal.
NY Gunner – I didn’t mean to blame Wenger. I think something seeped into our DNA during the last Wenger years. We crumble when we have real pressure on us. This is not something of the last 3 years IMO.
And last night’s predictable implosion was further evidence of that.
We can surprise on the upside after we lose 3 games on the trot and have no more expectations on us. Then when we are in the driving seat we can not handle the pressure.
That seems to be club illness, it happened under Wenger, Emery, and Arteta. In the earlier Wenger years when we had big characters who were great players, it didn’t happen.
We switched to talented small fragile players at some point who play fantastic football but who were fragile in the head and who got injured often.
It’s normal to be afraid at times like this but that fourth spot is our’s.