Expect a hatful of goals in Arsenal’s final match by FD
Not long to wait now. This season’s closing day might not promise the kind of impossible drama that last year’s title decider served up, but Arsenal and Spuds fans are in for a potentially tense afternoon while waiting for the final whistle of the Premier League season to blow.
The myth of the decline of Wenger. By CI
Unlike many fans on the Just Arsenal website I am very pro Wenger. He has stuck with this club through thick and thin. When his best players, which he created, were leaving, when (and even now) we were having strong financial constraints. Would you really expect Wenger to willingly sell his best players and not replace them adequately? This is wholly down to the board, while Wenger has openly taken flak for something which I don’t believe is his fault. And I’m not surprised he hasn’t quit because of this pressure from the anti Wenger brigade. Seeing fans even fighting over his future, quite literally as seen in the game against Brighton.
If you could bottle what it is that makes Arsenal put in a storming run at the end of the season, you would be a rich man. While Tottenham generally choke at the end to leave them disappointed and out of the Champions League, the Gunners come good and get the results we need, despite a mountain of pressure.
Arsene Wenger has been under severe strain at times this season, and it has shown. Now, however, he is positively relishing the situation and maybe that has transferred on to the players. Either side of the break on Tuesday, Wigan were looking good and the nerves were creeping in to the Arsenal team, but they responded brilliantly and now have to do it just one more time.
Arsenal head up north tomorrow needing a win to secure a top four finish, while Newcastle have nothing much to play for, although this and other results could see them finish anywhere from 10th to 17th. Alan Pardew will try to upset Arsene Wenger and Arsenal and give the home fans something to cheer about.
Having said that, Newcastle have been as leaky as a Welshman’s allotment this season. Only the three relegated teams have let in more than the 67 Premier League goals the Magpies have conceded so far. The players also have the painful recent memory of our 7-3 victory against them at the Emirates. With Giroud back from suspension, Arsenal could have four players on the pitch who are all in double figures in the Premier League. Newcastle will have just one, Papiss Cisse.
Could Arsenal make a shock move for 33 year old Wigan defender Emerson Boyce? by SS
Arsene Wenger would hope to get Boyce cheap and use him as cover in a variety of defensive positions and to act as an experienced leader within the defence. Bacary Sagna looks set to leave the club this summer with Russian giants Anzhi and newly crowned French champions PSG interested.
Wenger is expected to bring in Sebastian Corchia or Lukasz Piszczeck to work with Carl Jenkinson to fill the right back position in the team. Despite Boyce being 33 years old, Wenger has always been very impressed with his stamina that he displays for Wigan by bombing up and down the side of the field week in, week out.
It has been very impressive the way Arsenal have handled the pressure on them this season. From a morale sapping defeat to the hated spuds, Arsenal were left seven points adrift and it seemed like this would be the year Tottenham finally finished above us.
Maybe we should thank AVB, because the spuds’ croaky voiced manager’s gloating claims of a downward spiral for Arsenal had the opposite effect and we are now back in the driving seat. Arsenal have one game left to secure the Champions League place and there seems to be excitement and eagerness to get on with the job, rather than pressure and concern.
There is a growing buzz and expectation among the Arsenal players and fans that next season could be the start of a new period for the club. All the timings seem to be going our way, after eight years without a trophy. Arsene Wenger has worked miracles to keep the Gunners within the top four while having to sell the best players and pay off the debt from building the Emirates stadium.
It seems fortuitous, then, that Manchester City and United will be heading into next season with a new man at the helm. If City do appoint Pellegrini from Malaga, then neither of the Manchester clubs will have a manager with major trophy winning experience and it is safe to say they will both take time to settle.
Olivier Giroud is almost certain to be back in the Arsenal starting line up tomorrow and he will want to end the season on a high. At times this season he has struggled, especially in the first half, but the French international is now a key part of the team and one of the first men on the team sheet when he is available.
Arsene Wenger has had to treat him cautiously at times, leaving him out of a few games before the new year because his confidence was at a low ebb and the manager did not want the pressure to be too much. Part of the problem for Giroud was the weight of expectation and responsibility that came with replacing the departed captain Robin van Persie.
Arsene Wenger has been talking about who will replace the injured Mikel Arteta in Arsenal’s crucial match against Newcastle tomorrow, and although he says that Jack Wilshere is the obvious replacement, he will leave it up to the player himself to decide if he can handle the pain.
Wenger said: “That is one of the things I have to evaluate before Sunday and talk to him as well,”
“He will have the final say in that because you cannot force a player, they have to be comfortable. I will only do that if he feels completely comfortable with the idea.
Wenger drops hint about bringing in top, top, top, players
The war of words has been raging ahead of this Sunday’s make or break, last-day round of Premiership matches. We’ve had to endure reading and listening to an endless stream of pundits with their various predictions about which north London team will hold their nerve and claim the coveted fourth Champions League spot.
In the battle of words between managers, the Arsenal boss is coming across the better, not least because AVB’s forecasting credentials have yet to recover after he suggested, following the derby match, that Arsenal were in a negative spiral. Yeah. Given our form since then, I think we’d take a season-long negative spiral like that!
From the sounds of things, Per Mertesacker may have thought his Arsenal career would not last too long. The German international defender did not have the greatest of first seasons at the club, appearing in just 27 games in all competitions and winning few admirers among the Arsenal fans and the British press.
Arsene Wenger has spoken plenty of times about how hard it is sometimes to adapt to the English Premier League. He must have given the centre back plenty of reassurance and faith, because Per has been a whole lot better this season. It is now a case of who plays alongside him, although plenty of people still criticise him for his speed. I think he actually looks slower than he his because of his height, but football is not all about pace, especially for a defender.
It certainly gives the Arsenal players something to think about as we approach one of the most important final days of the Premier League in years, at least as far as the three teams involved are concerned. After City snatching the title from United in the most dramatic fashion last year, this year will be all about the battle for third and fourth place.
The season could even be extended if Arsenal win by one goal and Chelsea draw, scoring two less than us. So a 2-1 win for Arsenal and a 0-0 draw for them would mean we are tied on points, goal difference and goals scored. Instead of going on head-to-head record, the Premier League rules state thatb there would be a play-off to determine who finished third. Tottenham, as usual, do not get a look-in, a bit like the Champions League.
