The beautiful game of football has once again shown how quickly things can change. After being knocked out of the FA cup by a non Premier League side (Blackburn Rovers) and being humbled at the hands of European giants Bayern Munich, Arsenal's average showing continued with a loss to their North London Rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. After this latest setback, even manager Arsene Wenger was quick to acknowledge the harsh reality facing the club “It will be a massive challenge, massive. I said before the game we couldn't drop these points today and I maintain that after the game. Especially the way the game went, it is difficult to understand how we can lose games like that.”
The importance of the next ten games for Arsenal cannot be understated. The Gunners have only two of the top seven teams yet to be played (against Everton & Manchester United) both of which are at the Emirates. A similar run like last season (7 games unbeaten) would be required for Arsenal to have any chance of qualification, especially considering no points can be directly gained from either Chelsea or Tottenham having already played both teams.
One, does not need to venture too far to remember how Manchester City clawed their way back to win the EPL title or Tottenham's downhill slide which saw them shipping 10 points, eventually finishing behind Arsenal. The title race maybe all but over, but the fight for a top four finish is very much alive. While Tottenham currently sit third and, with current form seem favorites to grab either of the two remaining Champions League spots, there is no certainty with 30 points up for grabs. There are bound to be a few more twists till 19 May, 2013 as each of the top seven sides have to play each other at-least twice.
The battle for a top four finish is certainly not over and, any team (from Tottenham to Liverpool) stand a chance of nailing a Champions League spot. However its going to be down to consistency and nothing else.
| Face-off Between The Top 7 Teams In The Final 10 Games Of The 2012-13 EPL Season | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEAMS | Manchester United | Manchester City | Tottenham Hotspur | Chelsea | Arsenal | Everton | Liverpool |
| Manchester United | x | x | x | ||||
| Manchester City | x | x | x | ||||
| Tottenham Hotspur | x | x | x | x | |||
| Chelsea | x | x | x | x | |||
| Arsenal | x | x | |||||
| Everton | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Liverpool | x | x | x | ||||
Can Spurs really stay ahead of Arsenal?
I know that it is difficult to be positive about Arsenal at the minute, and we are all fearing the worst about Tottenham finishing above us in the Premier League, but there is still over a quarter of the league matches still to be played, and the Gunners came back from a bigger margin last season so we know it can be done.
Arsenal now have a break from playing for nine days before travelling to Munich in the Champions League and Swansea in the Premier. Hopefully, the players and coaching staff can use that time to re-focus and get us heading in the right direction again. Nobody really expects us to overturn the 3-1 deficit against Bayern, so Arsenal can go into the game more relaxed, which should produce a better performance against the Germans. You never know, if that happens and we get off to a good start we could surprise people.
Then Wenger has 10 games to catch Spurs or Chelsea, or both, to qualify for top European competition again. We have Everton and Manchester United at home in April, and the last game of the season is away at Newcastle. Apart from those, nothing stands out as too tough, although we know that a bad performance could see us lose to anyone.
Tottenham have a tough run in, and they do not have a large squad strong enough to cope with the extra games in the Europa League. Within 10 days this month they play Inter Milan, Liverpool away, Inter away and Fulham. That is pretty tough, and AVB has been playing full strength sides in Europe.
In April, they play Everton, Chelsea, Man City and Wigan in the league. They could also have Europa League ties, one before the Everton game and one before Chelsea. There has been a lot of talk about Tottenham as a team too reliant on Bale, which they are. This is not too much of a problem when he is on fire, but when he goes off the ball they will struggle. I think he showed signs of it yesterday. Apart from our defence gifting him a goal, he did not influence the game much. The fixtures will not help him to stay sharp, and once we start to close the gap, the pressure will increase.
The Gunners just have to do their part.
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