4th or 5th – Arsenal have the brightest future outside of the top 2

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Whether we finish 4th or 5th this season, I am more comfortable looking into our future than I have been for years.

We have the youngest team in the Premier League. With the youngest manager.

Even without investment, we will improve as those youngsters continue to grow and Mikel Arteta gains even more experience.

But we will improve, as the first time in a long time it feels like we actually have a plan in the transfer window under Edu.

When you look at the 4 clubs behind Manchester City and Liverpool, I think Arsenal are in pole position to be “best of the rest” next season.

Manchester United

Another new manager. Another new regime.

Manchester United are basically Arsenal of 2 years ago.

Too many over paid, ageing players. Too many egos.

Erik Ten Hag needs to do what Arteta and Edu have done over the last 2 years and ship out those that are not onboard.

As we have seen with Arsenal, this takes time.

Man U’s financial power might allow them to accelerate the process; but you feel that they need to turnover their entire squad to begin moving forward again. This will take them a few transfer windows

Chelsea

A 3rd place finish papers over the cracks of Chelsea Football Club.

Off the field the club is a mess following the Roman Abramovich saga.

Whilst they now have new owners (I think?), they no longer have their tanks of roubles pointed at other clubs.

It is well documented that they have lost on average £900k a week since Roman took over.

There will be huge changes at the club as the go from “sugar daddy” model to “US investor”.

They are also in crisis on the pitch with a whole host of senior pro’s set to leave.

Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger have already agreed deals that will take them to Spain. Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta are likely to join them.

Those departures will leave them with just a 38-year-old Thiago Silva in defence alongside Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr. That is mid-table centre back options.

They basically need to buy an entire back 4. And without Roman’s money Chelsea will struggle to replace them.

Problems continue on midfield as N’Golo Kante is clearly a player on the decline and Jorginho hoping to move back to France.

And then you have the Romelu Lukaku problem.

There squad clearly needs huge investment. But do the new owners have the money (and will). Or will Chelsea join the ranks of “self sufficient” and as a result will spend a few years in the wilderness whilst they rebuild?

Tottenham

Tottenham need top 4 more than Arsenal.

This season, 5th was Arsenal’s target. We survive and move forward with our plans regardless of whether it is Champions League or Europa League football.

Tottenham are struggling financially and in desperate need for that Champions League football.

Covid and the new stadium will put massive pressure on a club who are already run on a shoestring in comparison to the other “top 6” clubs.

There best 3 players – Lloris, Son and Kane – are all coming towards the end of their peak and plans will soon have to be in place to replace them. But Spurs do not have the money to buy players of the same quality.

Tottenham have made two very good signings in the last 12 months – Romero and Kulusevki. But both are only on loan.

Spurs will have to spend around £80m to make both deals permanent. That is £80m in transfer fees just to keep their squad at the same level as it is this season.

Without any high profile departures, they will struggle to finance any big moves beyond securing the services of Romero and Kulusevski on a permanent basis.

This squad is basically as good as it gets for them.

Arsenal

Youngest team in the league

Youngest manager in the league

I expect us to spend upwards of £100m on incoming transfers again.

Aaron Hickey, Youri Tielemans and Gabriel Jesus will hopefully just be the start.

The futures bright. The futures Arsenal.

Keenos

Dust ourselves down and get back on that top 4 horse

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I do not want to dwell on Thursday nights defeat too much.

With games coming thick and fast, we need to put it to the back of our minds, dust ourselves down and get back on the positivity train.

All I will have to say on it was there were 3 contentious decisions. All 3, if given, would have been considered soft. 2 were given, one not. The two that were given were against Arsenal, the one that was not given benefited Spurs.

Was it corruption? The TV companies fixing games for an exciting finish? Probably not. But it just shows how incompetent our referees are.

Looking forward, we have a game against Newcastle on Monday to get ourselves up for.

6 months ago, the trip looked like 3 points in the bag.

Newcastle would likely have been relegated, and a half empty, angry Geordie crowd would not exactly inspire the team to victory.

Since January 1st, Newcastle are one of the most inform teams in the league – Only Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham have won more points.

A lot will point to the colossal amount of money they spent in the January transfer window as the reason for their survival, but I think this takes away credit from Eddie Howe.

Chris Wood and Dan Burn have been solid, if unexceptional acquisitions whilst Bruno Guimarães took a bit of time to settle but is now putting in performances that are already attracting suitors.

What Howe has done is get a tune out of most of Newcastle’s existing underperformers. The likes of Joelinton, Jonjo Shelvey, Miguel Almiron and Ryan Fraser.

So credit where is due, Howe has done a great job for them.

The Newcastle fixture now looks a very different proposition.

It will be a packed stadium with 48,000 bouncing Geordies fuelled on Greggs looking to sign off the season with a bang in their last home game of the season.

The hope is now that they are safe from relegation some of their players might return to their earlier season form with their minds on the beach rather than the pitch.

They have lost their last two games – but these were against Manchester City and Liverpool so not much can be read into it.

Prior to those defeats, they won 4 in a row.

The lads will be back in training today, getting ready for Monday’s big game.

Mikel Arteta will need to get the players relaxed and mentally ready. Forgot about Thursday. Move on. And come away from Newcastle with 3 points.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Tottenham 3 – 0 Arsenal

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Tottenham Hotspur (2) 3 Arsenal (0) 0

Premier League

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 782 High Road, London N17 0BX

Thursday, 12th May 2022. Kick-off time: 7.45pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Cédric Soares, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli; Eddie Nketiah.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Ben White, Alexandre Lacazette, Emile Smith-Rowe, Nicolas Pépé, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Zak Swanson, Charlie Patino.

Red Cards: Rob Holding

Yellow Cards: Rob Holding, Emile Smith-Rowe, Granit Xhaka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 43%

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis, Neil Davies

Fourth Official: Peter Bankes

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Mike Dean; AVAR Lee Betts

Attendance: 62,027

The day has finally arrived. This is the most eagerly anticipated North London derby for quite some considerable time. We all know what is at stake, and what needs to be done; the preparations have been made, the team decided. Everything else is now down to the boys, and whether they can deliver the necessary goods in order for us to progress to the Champions League next season.

We kicked off the match in a red-hot atmosphere, and we certainly had the best of the early stages of the game. Martin Ødegaard had the first shot of the match, after just three minutes, but Hugo Lloris in the Spurs goal gathered the ball easily. Ryan Sessegnon got stuck in to win the ball back for Spurs, then ran down the right wing, however Gabriel did very well to stop him and won a free-kick inside his own penalty area. Rob Holding and Son Heung-min come together near the touchline; the Spurs forward won a free-kick and he was not happy with the follow-through, and complained to referee Paul Tierney; a couple of minutes later they clashed again, which the Spurs man made a bit of a meal of, to be frank. On the quarter of the hour, Gabriel Martinelli had acres of space to run into down the left, he cut it back towards Martin Ødegaard but the move was intercepted by the Spurs defence. We had another free-kick awarded to us after Bukayo Saka was fouled on the right, but Martin Ødegaard’s free-kick was easily cleared by the home side’s defenders. After twenty minutes, we had a penalty awarded against us when Cédric Soares was adjudged to have shoved Son Heung-min to the gound; Harry Kane made no mistake with the penalty kick. Shortly afterwards, Rob Holding was booked for a tackle on Son Heung-min, and the penalty gave the home side inspiration with them mounting a couple of strong attacks on our goal, fortunately none of them came to anything. Just after the half hour, the inevitable happened; Rob Holding was sent off for another foul on Son Heung-min, and we were now down to ten men and in trouble, quite frankly. Harry Kane got their second goal eight minutes before the break, and we were now very firmly on the back foot. We were under intolerable pressure, and we needed to get to half-time in one piece somehow. However, just before the break, Eddie Nketiah fired in a superb shot which was tipped over the bar by Hugo Lloris, but unfortunately the resulting corner went nowhere. We managed to hold out well (somehow) until the break, thankfully.

The home side kicked off proceedings for the second half, and with us down to ten men, and two goals down, what can we get from the second half? Within two minutes, the answer became clear; some sloppy play in our penalty area led to Son Heung-min easily scoring their third goal of the game. Spurs are not only putting us under pressure, but they are actively hunting for more goals taking advantage of the extra man in their favour. However, Gabriel Martinelli carried the ball down the left and teed up Bukayo Saka; his shot was blocked by Ben Davies and deflected into the path of Eddie Nketiah but bounced away from goal, but the resulting corner went nowhere, sadly. We then had a period of trying to keep the ball patiently but Gabriel Martinelli’s cross eventually curled straight out and into nowhere for a goal kick. Aaron Ramsdale made a superb save from Emerson Royal to prevent a fourth goal, and the match started to drift somewhat with lots of passing in the midfield area, but not a great deal of anything else. Again, our goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale made a superb save from Harry Kane’s twenty-five yard shot, and then Gabriel Martinelli was replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe after sixty-three minutes. This could be a very long remaining twenty-seven minutes for us here tonight. At times, all of our players are behind the ball, and the mindset appears to be not to let them score anymore goals; damage limitation, basically. Eddie Nketiah carried it up to the other end and did well to win a foul off Dejan Kulusevski; the free-kick delivery was comfortably headed away and Martin Ødegaard sent one into the top tier from long range. Alexandre Lacazette replaced Eddie Nketiah with twenty minutes left of the match, and after Gabriel went down to the ground with what seemed to be a hamstring injury, Nuno Tavares replaced him. Granit Xhaka whipped it in teasingly from the left but it was well headed away by Ben Davies; Bukayo Saka came back at them but Eric Dier was there again, before Cédric Soares’ cross ends up in the hands of the Spurs’ goalkeeper. We then had a decent chance to score when Nuno Tavares got in behind on the left and pulled it back for Martin Ødegaard, who hit the ball first time and made a good connection with it but it went straight at Hugo Lloris, who saved it easily. Emile Smith-Rowe was booked for a silly tackle on Lucas Moura, as was Martin Ødegaard a couple of minutes later on the same player; and then Granit Xhaka in injury time. Ridiculous. The full-time whistle could not come soon enough, and when it did, it was a relief.

What a terrible, terrible night. A nightmare, quite frankly. The red card for Rob Holding wa a disappointment, as was the injury to Gabriel late in the game. But it is what it is, and we must get maximum points from our final two matches, against Newcastle United and Everton, as our destiny is in our own hands, now. All eyes on St. James’ Park on Monday evening.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Monday, 16th May at 8.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon