Jamie Redknapp has claimed that Arsenal are now ‘slight’ favourites over Tottenham to land the fourth and final Champions League spot after their win over Chelsea last night.
The Gunners joined their noisy neighbours on 57 points with that win at Stamford Bridge last night, with both sides now having played the same amount of matches, with both having just six matches left to try and win the race for fourth.
Last night’s win ended a run of three straight defeats which had seen us lose our odds-on favouritism to return to the Champions League, but we now have reason to believe we could well return to the elite European competition.
Jamie Redknapp agrees, and claims we could well even be most likely to do so after our win, despite still sitting fifth in the table on goal difference.
Redknapp said live on Sky Sports television coverage of last night’s encounter (via Football.London): “He (Arteta) changed the system today, swapping from a four to a three at times, but it was a massive result. There is no underestimating how big this result is and gaining that momentum.”.
“They have some really tough games coming up with Manchester United at the weekend, and Tottenham Hotspur also, but it gets them right back up there, and they could be the slight favourites now in the race for the top four.”
I’m certainly not getting ahead of myself in thinking that we will get over the line, especially with more tough fixtures against Man United and West Ham coming up inside the next week, as well as having to go away to Tottenham where the fourth spot could well get sewn up depending on other results.
We have to do as the old cliche says and take every match at it comes, and analyse our situation as we get down the nitty gritty matches, but at this point there are too many variables.
What the win does mean is that we know we will claim fourth if we can win all of our remaining matches, but as we know, that will be no easy task.
Do you agree that the win now makes us the most likely winners in the race for fourth?
Patrick
Its too close and too early to call.
Nobody knows what will happen not the fans, the coaches, the players, the pundits not even the super computer which just looks at the latest table anyway. Because as you quite rightly observed “there are too many variables”.
Chelsea who have owned 3rd place for 6 months were abysmal on Wed night gifting Arsenal 3 goals with horrendous defending while their attack spurned 7 top chances. They will probably batter their next opponent. Arsenal fans have gone from throwing in the towel after Southampton to now a few days later talking top 4 after Chelsea. But United who just got butchered at Anfield are just as likely to rock up to the Emirates ignited by the emotional return of Ronaldo and maybe score 7 with out of form Rashford (a la Nketiah yesterday) grabbing a hatrick. A draw is no good to either side so both sides may play real deep and try to nick it or both sides will throw the kitchen sink and we will get a 9-7 scoreline. The only thing I am certain of is if Ronaldo scores he will look to the heavens saying this one is for you my son.
Haha is a joy to read your insightful yet witty posts.
No, I do not agree! The simple FACT is that Spuds are still bookies favourites, albeit fairly narrowly but not THAT narrow! We do have thr most difficult fixtures of thre two clubs and it is foolish to ignore that. And our still injured key players.
IF WE WERE TO LOSE SAKA FOR SOME TIME IT WOULD BE HOPELESS. I, AT LEAST, NOTICE AND ALLOW FOR IN MY ODDS, THAT HE IS KICKED BY ALL AND SUNDRY FROM PILLAR TO POST.
The fact that we dropped nine points in three games, when we SHOULD, at least, have got five or more, will prove decisive against us IMO.
Spurs may be considered favourites but I would only make them so at this point because they have a better goal difference than Arsenal.
Neither Spurs nor Man U, who are the other main challengers for fourth, have demonstrated reliability in performance or results. Both looked poor in their latest fixtures. It was particularly interesting to see how Brighton nullified the threat of Kane and Son. If other teams are able to replicate this Spurs will be in trouble.
We have to play both spurs and Newcastle away, very difficult games indeed.