It is now Monday and I am still exhausted from Saturday. Even with the train problems (which lead me needing 5 trains and a replacement bus to get home), it was a cracking day.
What an important win that was against Brighton. And I know that will be said for every game we win between now and the end of the season, but for me the trip to Brighton and Wolves are huge.
Mikel Arteta’s 90 points is looking spot on. Liverpool will not get 15 from 15 from away trips to Fulham, Everton, West Ham Aston Villa, with a home game against Tottenham the single slice of home meat in the sandwich. I would also expect Manchester City to drop points in at least one game of the remaining 7.
That leaves us being “allowed” to lose one game. And what we need to do is make sure that defeat does not come in one of our “easier” games.
Those games I would consider easier are all the home games, and the away trips to Brighton and Wolves. We need to win every single one which would allow us to then have the defeat away to Manchester United or Tottenham.
If we dropped points against Brighton or Wolves, we would then need to go to both Manchester and Middlesex needing a win.
This season we have dropped some silly points – Fulham at home and away, West Ham at home. We can not afford to repeat any of these results.
6 wins from the last 7 games will leave us with 89 points, one short of Arteta’s magic 90. That will rely on others around us dropping points, but I just can not see either Man City or Liverpool winning 7 from 7. And fi they do, fair play. They will be worth champions.
As for the Brighton victory, I do not think we played particularly well. We were solid in defence and clinical in attack, winning 3-0 without really getting out of 2nd gear. And I guess that is the sign of a top team? Comfortably beating a decent team away without really trying. Let’s not forget Brighton had not lost at home since August!
We were also the net winners of the weekend when it came to goal difference. Another 3 in the bag extends our lead on Manchester City by one, leaving us with 11 better.
That goal difference means that we only need Manchester City to draw one of the last 7 games, and not lose one, for us to win the league (if we lose once). Now whilst an 11 difference can be quickly closed down (3 big wins), it is still a sizeable gap. Likewise the 9 on Liverpool means that if we both lose once, we will finish above them.
Tomorrow it is Munich. They have been poor in the Bundesliga but I feel that will only focus them more on the Champions League.
We just need to keep going, keep winning, and see where we end up at the end of the season.
UTA.
Keenos
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Arsenal (2) 2 Luton Town (0) 0 Premier League Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU Wednesday, 3rd April 2024. Kick-off time: 7.30pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe; Reiss Nelson, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard. Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Declan Rice
Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (24 mins), Daiki Hashioka (o.g., 43 mins) Yellow Cards: Kai Havertz Arsenal Possession Percentage: 59%
Referee: Craig Pawson Assistant Referees: Marc Perry, Steve Meredith Fourth Official: Simon Hooper VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Tim Robinson; AVAR Dan Robathan
Attendance: 60,262
Following last Sunday’s draw at the Etihad, it is of course imperative that we secure a victory against the Hatters tonight. Of course, our title rivals Manchester City are plying their trade against Aston Villa this evening, so we need to keep them at bay, and only a win will do!
A firm, yet casual start by the chaps tonight, and within a couple of minutes we were immediately on the attack as Kai Havertz surged through the middle of the park. Leandro Trossard made a good run into the penalty area but the pass from Kai Havertz was way too heavy and the opportunity disappeared into the ether.
Not deterred, we started to play well, both on and off the ball, finding our men easily and moving forward towards the visitors’ goal. Oleksandr Zinchenko received the ball on the edge of the penalty area and took a strong shot at goal, but Alfie Doughty blocked it, and foolishly, the visitors attempted to play out from the back, but they lost the ball quickly and a Kai Havertz shot was also blocked by a rather panicky Hatters defence.
We were pressurising the Luton defence, and attempting to find a way through somehow, and you could see a good pattern of play here tonight by our team. However, Ross Barkley played a great ball to send Jordan Clark away down the left wing. He raced towards our penalty area and then fired in a low ball looking for Andros Townsend, but Oleksandr Zinchenko read the danger well and cleared the ball.
After twenty-four minutes, we took a well-deserved lead when Emile Smith-Rowe capitalised on a mistake by Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu before neatly slotting a ball to Martin Ødegaard, who performed a clever one-two with Kai Havertz, before firing the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
The visitors appeared to spring back into life after our goal, with Andros Townsend causing one or two problems at the back for our defence. Thomas Kaminski made a really good save to keep out Emile Smith-Rowe’s curled effort inside the penalty area, but then the match was stopped briefly after a couple of Luton Town defenders went down to the ground injured, but after treatment, they continued on with the game.
Ben White did some clever work on the ball before passing it to Kai Havertz, whose left-footed shot was again saved by Thomas Kaminski, who correctly dived to his left in order to save the shot.
A couple of minutes before the half-time break, we grabbed a second goal when Emile Smith-Rowe took the ball to the by-line, slotted the ball across the face of the goal and the ball then appeared to come off a beleaguered Daiki Hashioka and into the net. Although there was four minutes injury time, nothing much happened and we went into the break two goals to the good.
We kicked off the second half and it was fairly obvious to everyone that we continued in the same vein as at the end of the first half; in control, looking for spaces and chinks in the Hatters’ armour.
Leandro Trossard tried to get himself to another good Emile Smith-Rowe ball into the penalty area, but Fred Onyedinma defended well and won the free-kick. Tahith Chong cynically brought down Reiss Nelson deep into the Luton Town half, but referee Craig Pawson waved play to carry on, amazingly.
Our captain fouled Jordan Clark twenty-five yards from our goal, but the corresponding free-kick came to nothing, fortunately.
The visitors were trying to constantly find a way through our defence, and on one occasion Leandro Trossard tracked back to stop Andros Townsend taking a shot at David Raya’s goal, and then Kai Havertz was booked as referee Craig Pawson deemed that he went down to the ground too easily in an attempt to win a free-kick.
Shortly afterwards, Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz were replaced by Declan Rice and Eddie Nketiah with about twenty minutes of the match remaining. Oleksandr Zinchenko neutralised a Luton Town cross from the left wing when he chested the ball down to David Raya perfectly.
With eighteen minutes of the game remaining, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Reiss Nelson were replaced by Gabriel Martinelli and Takehiro Tomiyasu in order to try and grab some more goals here tonight, and within minutes, Takehiro Tomiyasu took a good shot that curled just wide of the mark.
Jorginho replaced Emile Smith-Rowe with six minutes left on the clock to try and put more spark into the game.
After a Daiki Hashioka shot which was blocked by our defence, at the other end just minutes later, Thomas Kaminski managed to get down to his right hand side in order to turn a ball around the post from Jorginho, and as the match entered the four minutes injury time period, game management became the order of the day, and we simply coasted to a fairly pedestrian two-nil win here tonight, which more importantly means that we are top of the Premiership by one point over our nearest rivals Liverpool.
All in all, it was a very comfortable win for the boys, with very little pressure from the visitors, who surely have their own problems as the season ebbs away.
Everyone played well, everybody looked comfortable both on and off the ball, and in many ways the score was a bit flattering as we should really have got a couple more, but in the end of the day, we earned our three points which has taken us to the top of the Premiership tonight.
Although we never really got out of second gear, Mikel Arteta managed to rotate the squad well, and everyone got a run out before preparing for the Brighton and Hove Albion match on Saturday. Let’s hope that Bukayo Saka is fit and raring to go for that one. Well done, chaps!
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: Brighton and Hove Albion at the American Express Stadium on Saturday, 6th April at 5.30pm (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
Arsenal fans – heading out to Munich for the Champions League? Grab yourself a new bottle opener.
Our retro kit bottle openers can be added to your keys, put in your wallet/phone case. No issues getting through airport security. Perfect for Euro aways!https://t.co/lBkFuWS5xapic.twitter.com/H39nZoUvzf
That is the distractions out the way. Now to focus on the Arsenal.
We have 12 games left this season. Maybe 15. We are the in-form team in Europe. Players are returning to injury. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves and see where we end up.
Yes, we have some fixture congestion. But you can not be in the fight for multiple trophies at the business end of the season without it. If you do not want fixture congestion, then you are better off supporting someone like Spurs who are never in the race for trophies.
I will be delighted if we end up playing all 15 potential games we have left this season. That will mean we have got to the Champions League final at Wembley.
Teams these days have big squads, with 20 international players. It is down to the manager how he rests and rotates to keep players fresh.
Liverpool also potentially have 15 games left, and we are at the stage of the Europa League that Klopp will begin to take it more seriously – it is the only trophy Klopp has not won with Liverpool and he would not want his final season to end with just a League Cup.
Manchester City potentially have 17 games still play, with them still in the FA Cup. So fixture congestion really is not an excuse for any team (although I imagine Klopp will use it as an excuse).
Up first is Manchester City. Probably the hardest fixture to have after the international break. The positive from our point of view is that all of our players got through international duty without injury, even Declan Rice who played 180 minutes (was this Southgate’s revenge for Saka pulling out / Ben White situation?).
Meanwhile, they saw Kyle Walker limp off against Brazil and John Stones pull up injured in the opening minutes of Belgium. It is unclear the status of both but their worst case scenarios is their season could be over.
Walker went off with a hamstring injury. If it is just a twinge, it could be a couple of days (although if his muscles are on the brink, it is only a matter until his hamstring goes properly). If he has pulled it, that is 6-8 weeks out. Season pretty much over.
The way John Stones knee collapsed could mean it is a serious injury. The worst are always those that happen when an opponent is nowhere near. I would not be surprised if is a ligament injury and his season is over. It should not harm City as they have about a dozen centre backs that they paid £50m+ for…
I have enjoyed the conspiracy theories that both players hobbled off within 10 minutes as some sort of ploy to get out of international duty. Like England do not have their own physios and doctors who would have been able to assess straight away if they were “faking”.
Back to Arsenal. Arteta has had around a dozen or so senior players to work with this last week (they did get a few days off based on Ben White playing Uno on the beach!).
Of the 11 who have been away, 10 were in teams who played yesterday so today. With most of those playing at home, they probably got a flight back to England straight after their games and will report to training this morning following the same rehabilitation schedule as a Tuesday night Champions League game.
It will be massages, stretches and analysis work ahead of Man City today, so nothing to strenuous. And then Arteta will have 3 full days of proper training to prepare ahead of Sunday.
Of those 10 who were still on international duty yesterday, 7 started for their countries, and 3 did not play any minutes. That takes us to 19 players who either stayed at home during the international break or have not played this week.
As above, international duty will not be an excuse for whatever happens Sunday. Just 6 of Arteta’s first team were in action yesterday so everyone should be well rested!
Sunday is huge. It reminds me of Liverpool last season.
I said in 2022/23 that I will not start to believe that we could win the title unless we win at Anfield. We drew 2-2 and then fell away. It is the same this season.
It is so tight at the top. 90 points is what is needed to win it. That means 8 wins and a draw from the last 10 games.
With trips to Manchester United and Tottenham, and home games against Chelsea and Aston Villa still to come, we do not want to drop points too early in this run in. Beat Man City and I will start to believe we can do it. Lose and I fear we might fall away and finish 3rd.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 