Thursday 17 March 2016

Don't be fooled Spurs fans - Arsenal ain't done yet

IT may be tempting to revel in Arsenal's Champions League exit but don't be fooled into thinking their season is over. 

Arsene Wenger's band of gaffe-prone Gooners may well be out of Europe and have already surrendered their FA Cup crown.

They may be six points behind us and a whopping 11 off leaders Leicester in the league.

And all the pundits may be saying it's now just Spurs and Leicester in the title race. 

But don't take the bait - not for a few more weeks at least. Arsenal have a nasty habit of pulling irons out of fires, rabbits out of hats and points out of nowhere in the run-in.

In 2013-14 they recovered from a 6-0 thrashing at Chelsea and a 3-0 defeat at Everton to win their last five on the bounce and tear away from us and the Toffees in the race for fourth.

The season before, we beat them 2-1 at White Hart Lane at the start of March. It stretched our lead over them to seven points and should have been a crushing blow.

That was it, everyone said, the balance of power had shifted. North London was ours.

But from March 16, Wenger's side went ten games unbeaten, winning eight, to pip us at the post - dumping us out of the top four in the process.

Arsenal are well so used to what is required they seem capable of rescuing from the brink on a regular basis.

That may well go some way towards explaining why they have found it tough to raise their game this season.

With "only" Spurs and Leicester above them - and 18 straight years of Champions League qualification behind them - Olivier Giroud and co could be forgiven for thinking the season and the title might fall into their lap.

But push has now come to shove and with the wealth of attacking players they have you would not put it past them pulling something out of the bag - especially as the Premier League really is now their last chance saloon.

Anything but a title looks like it may well be Wenger's swan song. 

So, far as it being too late for them, just do not go there - not yet anyway.

If in two weeks' time they have two more bad results under their belt then yes, maybe we can all start photoshopping the Mind the Gap posters. 

But if they do get it together then - with names like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez - they are well capable of winning every game. And if they do that, I fear it is even enough to nick the title.

Firstly, our six-point cushion is a red herring. They have a game in hand to pull it back to three and we have some very tough games coming up.

Liverpool away, Manchester United at home, Chelsea away. Even battling Bournemouth next up at White Hart Lane are no pushover. They have won their last three on the bounce and need just one more win to surely secure safety.

Then there is Leicester, well, with that game in hand an 11-point gap becomes 8 and anyone who saw the back end of Leicester's 1-0 win over Newcastle will know that come the last 15 minutes, the Foxes had the shakes.

The King Power stadium roared the arrival of the final whistle as if that was that. A big statement. 

But if those nerves are now an ever-present for Claudio Ranieri's leaders, then they are going to struggle to close out games. 

That's if they can even get the lead at all. They only had one shot on target against the Toon - and their last three wins have all been by 1-0. Hardly resounding victories against Norwich, Watford and Newcastle.

Tottenham, of course, could also benefit from their downfall. And I'm not saying I don't have faith in us giving this title thing a right good go. 


But as far as mocking the old enemy and rubbing salt in their wounds, let's at least make sure it's not going to come back and bite us on the Arsenal yet again.

No comments:

Post a Comment