Yes, we all know that Arsenal gave us a terrible performance against Crystal Palace on Monday, but it is fair to say that right now Patrick Vieira’s team is one of the most inform sides in the Premier League at the moment, especially at Selhurst Park. In fact, in all competitions since New Years Day, the Eagles have only been beaten by Liverpool and Chelsea.
The good news is that this weekend Chelsea were humbled by lowly Brentford and Man United were held by Leicester, so we are still on course for Third or Fourth if we can regain our confdence against Brighton on Saturday. Okay, so Tottenham got a very good win aginst Newcastle, but despite the doom-mongers we are still favourites to finish in the Top Four.
As Arteta said on Monday night: “We’ve got a game in hand still and we need to play. We know that with nine games a lot of things are going to happen, we have to play each other and we have to play some big games coming up. We have to focus on ourselves and the problem that we had today is not Spurs, it was us and what we did in the first half.”
It is of course imperative that Arsenal bounce back against a Brighton side that has nothing to play for, and considering they are currently safe from relegation and have only won one of their last ten games. They will certainly not be a tough challenge like we faced at Crystal Palace, even if we have to play without Tierney, Partey and Tomiyasu.
Also we are playing with the Twelfth Man behind us at the Emirates, where we have only lost to Liverpool and Man City in our last 14 home matches, and with another three points in the bag, perhaps the Arsenal fans will be less pessimistic than they are at the moment.
Onwards and Upwards!