Arsenal closed the gap on the top-four of the Premier League last night with a win over Southampton, but is there any chance we can make it?
Our side climbed to within four points of Liverpool, who have played a match more than us currently, as well as us sitting three points behind Manchester City.
Man City’s hardest fixture is most likely the visit of Leicester on Saturday afternoon, and a failure to win the home fixture would see them dragged right back into shaky territory. I firmly expect them to overcome the Premier League champions, but Jamie Vardy may have other ideas…
They currently look assured of their place, and should be happy to be playing the early match on Saturday, before we were able to put added pressure on their fourth spot.
Should they fail to win however, that could add extra pressure to our fixture, with that extra belief bringing extra importance, but the already-relegated Sunderland side shouldn’t be able to dent our form.
If we get the expected win over the Black Cats, we would move to within one point of Liverpool, which will ramp up the pressure for their trip to take on West Ham, who earned a well-earned win over in-form side Tottenham only last week.
The pressure appears to be off for the Hammers, and the London rivalry will have built them up for last week’s win, and hopefully the giant-slaying fight remains in them this weekend. Liverpool are far from guaranteed the win on Sunday, and have been far from impressing in recent times either.
I will probably write off our chances of Champions League football if we fail to win on Saturday, or if both Liverpool and City win this weekend, but nothing is guaranteed in our beautiful game.
Will West Ham be keen to hurt Liverpool, or will they prefer to add misery to our campaign? Can we still breach the top-four spots?
Pat J