Saturday felt like such a monumental moment in the season.
The last few weeks have been so discouraging, peaking with the loss to Man City last Wednesday. Hope was beginning to dwindle. At half time on Saturday I think most people were begrudgingly accepting the new reality that we need to look down at other teams rather than up the rest of the season. But fast forward 2.5 hours and we were looking at a last-gasp win for Arsenal and a last-gasp equaliser from Forest and we were clear in the table again with a game in hand. Who saw that coming? And maybe that also tells you that we were never really out of it regardless of the result at Villa.
When you start to think you know how it’s gonna go, think again. This season has thrown up some unexpected things and I think there’s more to come. In a highly competetive league there’s no easy games and every round the potential for an upset is there.
Let’s look at Man Citys games where they have dropped points this season and what potential there is for more of those.
Home games:
City-Brentford 1-2
City-Everton 1-1
Dropped home points have a certain theme. They have come against defensive teams with big physical players. I’m looking at the home fixture against Newcastle on 4/3 as a possible future banana skin. And of course the games against a resurgent Liverpool on 1/4, a Arsenal team desperate not to at least lose on 26/4 and a Chelsea team in the 37th round with hopefully European places to play for.
Away games:
Newcastle-City 3-3
Villa-City 1-1
Liverpool-City 1-0
Man Utd-City 2-1
Spurs-City 1-0
Forest-City 1-1
Dropped away points also have a certain theme, a dual one. Three losses and a draw have come against ”Big 7” teams but yet again they have also had difficulty with midtable teams that set out to be defensive and frustrate. Man City don’t have any big teams left to play away but I am looking at the fixtures against Bournemouth on 25/2, Palace on 11/3, Southampton on 8/4, Brighton on 22/4, Fulham on 29/4, Everton on 13/5 and Brentford on the last day of the season as potentially frustrating games.
That’s a combined total of 11 potentially tricky ties for Man City that I simply don’t think they will just stroll past.
Now I know it will take close to perfection from our side to win the title, hey if you want to be champions then you have to play like champions, but as we have seen these last few weeks Arsenal could lose two and draw one on the bounce and still potentially end up being 5 points clear of Man City do to their own patchy form. Every dropped City point is a welcome bonus for our cause.
What the near future really needs to be about is momentum. We need to use this 2nd half resurgence as a kick-start for a new positive run. Its been clear to see how the confidence had been taking hits during this difficult run and you could see how the confidence just came back to normal again during that magnificent 2nd half performance. We need to believe again.
I feel I need to quote a way smarter guy than me to box this in:
“To live without hope is to cease to live.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
There you have it!
Hello! Im a 39 year old family man from Sweden, born in Gothenburg, living in Stockholm. Why Arsenal? I was 11 years old and didnt have a PL team yet, but was a big fan of the Dutch national team with Dennis Bergkamp up front. So when he joined us in 95’ it was a easy choice which team I wanted to support. It only felt better when success quickly followed and Freddie Ljungberg came in. My first and only live game was the Palace game at the Emirates when Giroud scored that scorpion kick goal. My biggest regret will forever be that I never got to visit Highbury. Most of my friends through life have been Man Utd or Liverpool fans but I have always been proud to be a Arsenal supporter. We are more than a club, with values I live by, and watching this Arteta revolution fills me with great joy. This beautiful club deserves to be at the top. Lets talk Arsenal!
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