Arsenal overcome Watford yesterday in a five-goal thriller, but the reality is that the performance was rather poor, and Chelsea will be relishing the opportunity to play against us next week.
We will go into the FA Cup final on Saturday knowing that we will have to win the tie to stand any chance of playing in Europe next term, but our level of performance has dropped off lately.
More specifically, we haven’t played a solid match since we lost Shkodran Mustafi to injury, after Raheem Sterling clattered into him late into the FA Cup semi-final, with the German now-not expected to return before the start of the new campaign.
We may have won yesterday, but we failed to retain possession, failed to keep organised defensively, and in reality, could have easily conceded another two or three goals against the now-relegated side.
One could argue that we had little to play for going into the last two matches, but before the Aston Villa match we could still mathematically reach the top seven of the Premier League table, a spot which given our FA Cup opposition would have guaranteed ourselves Europa League football one way or another.
We now face the prospect of going up against Chelsea next week with limited form, and while the Blues have hardly been the best side this season, their attack has proved to be deadly on a number of occasions, and on yesterday’s performance, Frank Lampard will be rubbing his hands together imagining the hatful of goals that his side will amass.
Will the FA Cup final turn into another goalfest?
Patrick
