Wednesday 17 February 2016

It's Up To Arsenal To Stop Spurs

The weekend went well for Arsenal when a last gasp Danny Welbeck goal saw them beat Leicester and move within two points of them at the top of the table. With 12 league games they're in a perfect position to strike and win their first league title in 12 years. Leicester might be the leaders, and deservedly so, but second placed Spurs look like they could be the team most likely to win the title on current form.

Of course fourth placed City can't be discounted either, but there are questions to be asked about them at the moment. They have lost their last two games at home to fellow title contenders and haven't won back to back league games since mid October. Who knows what the effect of the imminent departure of Manuel Pellagrini might be, but they lost those two games after it was announced.

Leicester probably have the easiest run in of all the teams involved and they have no other distractions while Arsenal, City and Spurs all have European football on the horizon as well as being involved in the FA Cup and City have the added distraction of the Capital One Cup Final. Leicester have been magnificent so far this season, but there is pressure on them now to continue with that form. I'm not so sure how well they might do against some of the so called lesser teams when they're expected to make the running in those games. 

The team who are looking the most likely to succeed at the moment are Spurs and I don't find it easy to say that. I've supported Arsenal for almost 46 years of the 50 years I've been on this planet and I've never seen Spurs win the league. In fact as the Arsenal fans are fond of pointing out to their Spurs counterparts "they won the league in black and white".

I've been lucky enough to see Arsenal claim the league title six times in my my life to date and I want to see the seventh one this season. Not only do Arsenal have to win the league for themselves, but they have to win it to make sure Spurs can't. The thought of them winning the league is one I would prefer not to think of, but it's becoming more real with each passing game.

If Arsenal are going to stop them they will have to start playing a lot better than they are at the moment. They showed great heart and commitment to come from behind and beat Leicester, but they're still far from firing on all cylinders. Arsenal probably have the toughest run of games between now and the end of the league campaign and they will have to improve to live up to their favourites tag.

Maybe that win against Leicester was what was needed to relight their fire and push for what I think is their most important target this season. There is a chance to make FA Cup history and the upcoming tie with Barcelona in the Champions League, but it's all about the league for me. There's still 12 games to go, but I think the only way Arsenal can insure Spurs don't win it is by going out and winning it themselves.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. If Arsenal play a game with many passes similar to MC,believe me,they will lose.
    Too much passing give defenders time to mass and stop the attack.Spurs intercepted amd pass and went direct. In all I believe 3/4 passes were made before the Spuds scored their winner.Where was the MC defence?
    As for Arsenal they may enjoy greater possession with out the penetration.Its just like Everton against Albion who lost .If Arsenal cant beat the spuds,me thinks the epl will go to whl or ps.

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    1. We have to win away to them as well as United within a week of each other if we're going to keep pace at the top and it won't be easy. We have a lot of players back from injury and more to come and they might just make the difference and maybe enable us to vary our play like we did at times on Sunday.

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