St. Totteringham soon

After they both won yesterday, you could feel that Aston Villa and Tottenham are breathing down our neck – Villa are 3 points behind and Spurs are 8.

Whilst top 4 is certainly not yet secure (our PL stays is though as we can no longer get relegated!), we need to keep the focus on the teams as above us.

As long as we keep winning, we will continue extending the lead on those below us whilst putting pressure on the teams above.

There will be another St Totteringham’s Day again this year, I am certain of it. We probably only need to win another 5 or 6 games to gaurantee it. But we have bigger fish to fry.

Liverpool “overtime”

Yesterday Liverpool scored with the last kick of the game against Nottingham Forest. It was no different to us scoring a winner against Luton earlier this season.

Injury time is always a “minimum” and you need to account for further stoppages for time wasting, injuries, etc that occur. If 8 minutes are on the board after 90, than you should not be surprised that closer to 9 minutes is played.

During injury time, Nottingham Forest had two players booked for time wasting. The corner they scored from was also taken before 98 minutes was up. Forest failed to clear the corner and it is not unusual for refs to not blow up until the attack is over and ball properly cleared. Again, we got this advantage against Luton and won a free kick which we were then allowed to take and score from.

Every team will have this sort of winner (or 2) over the course of the season. I think Bournemouth last season. Wolves the season before.

It’s football.

Managing injuries

It is interesting to listen to Mikel Arteta talk about not rushing the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Thomas Partey and Jurrien Timber back from injuries – about how important it is to allow them to fully complete their rehabilitation before slowly integrating them back into the first team.

There was definitely a feeling a few years ago that we would rush players back. That they would play before they were ready. And the result was they would often break down again.

The fact we have not felt the need to rush the likes of Partey back shows the strength of our squad these down. And even when Partey is back to fully fit, he has a battle to get back into the Arsenal first team.

Declan Rice is clearly the first choice in that position now, and Jorginho has been on fine form recently. Partey will have to earn his chance.

Due to others being in the FA Cup, we will have some end of season fixture congestion.

Chelsea will already be re-arranged, and if Wolves overcome Coventry, that game will be move to mid-week as well.

If we can get Partey, Jesus and Timber back fit, as well as Tomi and Olexsandr Zinchenko, it will allow Arteta to make changes without losing quality.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Partey and Jesus both get 20 minutes tomorrow, whilst I imagine Timber’s return is pencilled in for after the March international break.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Keenos

Black on black X Highbury X Bruised banana ….https://t.co/vlaHeBXgrG pic.twitter.com/yI7Z50XYxB

— 🎗 ///SHE WORE/// 🎗 (@SheWore) February 29, 2024