Arsenal Stay Third As Leicester Close In On The Title

Things finally seemed to have taken a turn in Arsenal's favour on Saturday when they strolled to victory over Watford and Spurs could only draw away to Liverpool. It meant they moved to four points behind Spurs with a game in hand and eight points behind Leicester ahead of their game with Southampton on Sunday. Unfortunately for Arsenal that game ended in yet another 1-0 win for Leicester and they moved even closer to winning the title.

With six games to go Leicester will be champions if they win four of those games regardless of what any other team does. The chances of Arsenal winning all of their remaining seven games are pretty slim, but even if they do manage to do so it looks like it won't be enough. Leicester still have some tough games left to play, but Arsenal's remaining fixtures are far from easy too.

Arsenal travel to West Ham in the early game next Saturday while Spurs play at home to fifth placed United in the early game on Sunday. Leicester will play later on Sunday when they travel to struggling Sunderland and they will know exactly how their two chasers have fared before they play. All Arsenal can do is win their game and hope Leicester slip up, but that's looking less and less likely with each passing week.

If they can't catch Leicester they can most certainly catch Spurs and for that reason a win against West Ham is essential. It won't be easy away to a team who haven't lost at home since August, but West Ham do have an FA Cup quarter final replay coming their way a few days later and that could work in Arsenal's favour. Since Arsene Wenger took the reins at Arsenal in 1996 they have finished ahead of Spurs every single season and that's the bare requirement for any season.

Failure to win the league this season can only be judged as an abject failure for Arsenal and the only consolation their fans will have is if they can overtake Spurs. It won't be much of a consolation, but it will be infinitely better than finishing behind them. Spurs have their fair share of tough games to come and I'm sure they will drop points and Arsenal just need to make sure they drop less points than them.

Of course Arsenal's top four place is far from confirmed at this stage with City, United and even West Ham all harbouring hopes of overtaking them. Two of those teams would have to finish ahead of Arsenal if they were to miss out on the top four and it has to be possible considering how unpredictable this season and Arsenal themselves have been. It's not the time to look over their shoulders though as they need to put everything they have into catching the teams ahead of them.

There is a genuine hope of Arsenal finishing very strongly after their performances in their last two games and maybe overtaking Spurs even if catching Leicester is looking incredibly unlikely at this stage. It looks like the team finally has some real balance to it and a genuine threat in front of goal. It's such a shame that they finally resemble the team we hoped they might be this season when it's yet again probably too late.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.