Top 3 opportunity goes to the last day (if we beat Brighton)

by .

Via @Arsenal Instagram

Hello top 4 my old friend.

I’ve come to try with you again.

Here we are AGAIN people. Spurs shit the bed against Bournemouth losing two players to red cards. Chelsea has a London derby against Watford tomorrow morning. We have to face off against the MIGHTY Brighton at home in a later kick-off.

This goes down to the last day if we can pull off a win. It’ll be a classic top 4 face off where any of 4 teams could sneak it on the last day. Who really needs a title race when you have a battle like this going on?

United are taking 6 points, no doubt.  FIXTURE FRAUD RIFE AS USUAL.

Last game for Spurs is Everton, which won’t be easy.

Last game for Chelsea is apparently one of the most underrated midtable teams in the world… Leicester.

We have to go away to Burnley, which is never easy… because 1) we are Arsenal 2) it is away from home.

All we can do is win both our games and pray for an upset. Incredible that we’ve lost 4 of our last 5 games. A travesty.

Still, worth remembering we have two chances at the promised land. Europa League is looking good for us. Mulling over whether I’d prefer Chelsea or Frankfurt… at least we know we’ll turn up if it’s Chelsea.

Alex Iwobi, had something to say on his record this season.

“I try to dwell on the positive and not dwell on the negative as much as I can. If I make a mistake I try to use it as a lesson and try to improve on it. We have a lot of good fans as well.”

“They are entitled to their own opinion and I am happy with the progress I have made this season. I have been able to get more goals than I had in the previous season and I have”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of himself here. 4 assists and 5 goals across 48 games is a pitiful record in his third season. That’s the sort of return you’d expect from a decent full back. Not someone who in an attacking role for a team trying to be protaganists. If you’re brutally honest, it’s not good enough and it’s hard to see when it comes good. He lacks physicality, offers up little pace and the decision making hasn’t gotten any sharper.

As we rebuild this summer, the focus really has to be on players that aren’t happy with ‘a few assists’, we need to bring in electric pace, and a brutal winner takes all mentality. We’ve really struggled out wide this year and it’s the excuses are running out because he’s been given a huge amount of game time.

What would Saka have done with that many games? Maybe we should find out… or just pony up the money and bring in Pepe, Sarr, or Zaha?

Alex Lacazette took the player of the season. There’s been some fierce debates in my chat groups. No one really stood out majorly this season. There was a lot of ok or good form in spits and spats. Dare I say if Ramsey hadn’t have been benched for the first half of the year, he’d be taking that? Him or Leno for me. But hey, I love the Frenchman. He works hards, he makes so much out of nothing and he’s popped up with important goals all year. He and Auba have had a far beyond average impact on our conversion rate in front of goal and we are very lucky to have the both of them.

Emery was asked by a paid-up journo whether winning the remaining two games was important. Imagine that being the extent of your questioning when you’re handed the mic?

Good afternoon. We need to win the next match and if we win against Brighton we are going to the last match against Burnley with the possibility to be in the top four. It’s not in our hands, but we need to win our matches and the first is Sunday. It’s not easy to win each match – for us and for other teams – but the focus for us is to win against Brighton for different situations. We are going to play the last match at home. We are going the play the last match with Petr Cech, with Aaron Ramsey and also I think we want to finish at the Emirates with a victory. The first objective is to finish in the top four and it will give us the chance.

The ‘good afternoon’ is a lovely touch. Interesting that we might start Cech. He had a good game against Valenica, but this game isn’t a dead rubber.

The manager was asked if he thought we’d progressed.

Yes I am. Our progress I think – when we started the season we lost against Man City and Chelsea  and we worked for this process, little by little and at the end of the season now we are with this possibility. I think when we started we would have been happy to have today these two opportunities in the Premier League and Europa League to reach our target.

I think he’s trying to say that we are competing for top 4 this season, which hasn’t been the case. He’s right. If we make top 4, it’s hard to argue about his success. It’s like the FA Cup final in 2005, it was grubby, but we did it. However, if you are into reality, he’s not progressed the club like most of us would have hoped. But, he’ll get the next season to stamp his authority… I’m sure there will still be those that can’t tolerate any critique until he’s purged every last binman that was under Wenger’s control, but there we go.

One step at a time… Emery HAS to put on a show tomorrow. Send the fans home with a smile and make sure they’re hanging back for that lap of honour!

Right, see you in the comments x

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Dissenter

Pedro
There are at least 4 players in the United squad that will each fetch at least £60-75 million
Pogba
De Gea
Rashford
Martial

Lukaku will fetch at least £50mmillion

…………………
Yes, United Squad is better than ours
I remember when you were using OGS as epitome of “special sauce”

Bamford10

Benny

Keep the faith. I agree that those things are unlikely, but one can still hold out hope, no?

Nelson

Good point. Alhough Loftus-Cheek has looked pretty good in Kante’s place.

Samesong

Who’s worse

Phil Jones or Mustafi?

Champagne Charlie

Pedro

That’s precisely why, price tag.

Name a defender they have we’re envious of in our state of defensive hilarity?

Victorious

Yea,Top4 is absolutely gone now, hard to take because we had it in our grasp a couple of weeks ago and utterly soiled our pants coz Emery is painfully out of his depth

Chavs have being shits all season but now has CL footie at our expense

Saw it from a mile off the moment that idiotic ref did a daylight robbery on Cardiff and somehow handed them 3 points.

Now we have to absolutely win the EL now or Emery has to go,simple as

Dissenter

Nelson
The EL final is on many 29th, enough time for Kante to recover from his hamstring strain, depending on the severity.

Pierre

4-2-3-1

Xhaka and Torreira holding in midfield.

Lacazette up top

Mhkitaryan Ozil and Aubamayang.supporting.

It won’t happens I know but if it did it would only be the 2nd time the season that those 4 offensive players had started together ( Liverpool home was the only other time).

Will probably be iwobi, Guendouzi and Elneny.

Marko

Leicester likely to lose tomorrow at City so they’ll want to go out on their final game at home on a high. That’s the hope anyway but it’s irrelevant if we don’t win our games

Goonah

Nothing has changed. We will still pip Chelsea if they draw @Leicester and we match their score today.

Will we beat Burnley away? The big “IF”. On the plus side is we can take it on as a cupfinal. Emery loves those.

Marko

It’s hilarious that people think our defenders are better than others.

Dissenter

Chelsea are favorites for the EL final too

They will be playing without pressure….we will, and that will be the difference.

Micheal

Lichstein starts. Monreal in

Bamford10

Well, that’s that. 3-0. Higuain has not been good enough for them, but he showed a little bit of his quality there.

Freddie Ljungberg

You got your wish Pierre, now stop whining.

The Licht and Mustafi are starting though so calamity is on the menu tonight

Micheal

Leno, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal, Xhaka, Torreira, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette, Aubameyang.

Subs: Cech, Elneny, Koscielny, Iwobi, Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Nketiah.

Nelson

Arsenal: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Mustafi, Monreal, Xhaka, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette

Subs: Cech, Koscielny, Kolasinac, Elneny, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Nkeitah

Dissenter

OGS showing that is only good enough for Molde FK.

Victorious

At least we get to laugh out our ass at how bad united are..worse than us

Can’t even beat an already relegated side

And we had a self acclaimed student of the game for 30 years here labelling OGS an excellent manager..hahahahaha

Valentin

Chelsea and ManUtd fans would also tell you that they need 6 new first team starters. In fact even with DeGea having a bad season, I would say that without him they would not have made this far.
We have Mustafi who is stinking the defense, but take DeGea out of their team and their defense is collectively worse than yours.
Garry Neville keep repeating that bar Luke Shaw they need a brand new defense. Straight away that is 3 new players.
Gibon ManUtd board and you will see most arguing that In midfield, Matic, Mata, McTominay need upgrading.

Nelson

Licht plays RB. Is he still alive?

Dissenter

At this point, the EL has to be the priority

gonsterous

4-2-2-2 ?? is that seriously the formation ??

Dissenter

Have a glance at out bench
“Cech, Elneny, Koscielny, Iwobi, Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Nketiah.”

…and our squad is good enough?

Joe

Now we have to absolutely win the EL now or Emery has to go,simple as

Bring back wenger!!!

Bamford10

Yikes. I don’t know about that back four, Unai.

Dissenter

The calamity will be if one our strikers gets hurt playing in these dead-rubber league games.

Pierre

Yes….at long last …4 quality offensive players on the pitch at the same time …..expecting a nice 4-1 win at least .

Freddie Ljungberg

Just to be clear, Licht is only starting because we have no other options, and no, Corporal Jenkinson is not a valid option.

Mustafi is only starting because Kos limped off against Valencia. We don’t have enough functional CBs to play a back 5 so Monreal starts on the left.

Don’t try to twist it later that it was some strange selection policy from Emery or that he doesn’t care about the league.

You know who you are…

PessimisticPat

Charlie “The turmoil upstairs is an issue, we’re seemingly unsettled at the club whichever level you analyse us. ” Totally agree. Thought we were going full Dortmund model with Sven and I was fine with that, now he’s gone. And now the fact monchi rejected us made me start to worry that we will have fuck all money to spend, an ageing squad, huge wage bill and probably no CL football either. Plus the unconvincing 2nd half of the season. Worrying times ahead. Think if we don’t win Europa league well have 2 more years of this till we can… Read more »

Nelson

Emery still plays a strong team. If we lose any player through injury, the season would be over. Oh well.

Bergkamp63

Goal Difference will be our undoing if we don’t win big today.

Bamford10

Time will tell, gents. Time will tell.

Micheal

The combined ages of our back four today is almost 120 years ! The youngest is Mustafi who plays like a old agedpensioner.

Dissenter

Joe
Go grab a mega tub of Ben and Jerrys
Stop having a. tantrum here.

Up 4 grabs now

Half that team should be gone next season and they can take the bench with them.
But our squad is good enough to get top four.
Pedro have you been drinking?

Bamford10

Freddie

Yes, that’s probably right. So Lichtsteiner plays todaybecause AMN played Thursday night and will need to play this coming Thursday night? Yes, I think that’s right.

Dissenter

Emery should have had a text sent to all the season ticker holders before selection

‘Pick your poison; Jenkinson berry vs Lichsteiner blast, either way you’re going to choke.’

Victorious

Joe

Don’t do a flip flop now

Anything short of a EL win now for your erstwhile hero will be utterly unacceptable and he’s got to go

We should be home and dry already for CL footie if he didn’t lose 3 on the spin to midtable teams conceding 10 goals

Bergkamp63

AMN is suspended for being sent off ?

bennydevito

Chelsea 3 now so a better goal difference unless we thrash Brighton. We will then need Spurs to draw at home to Everton whilst we beat Burnley which would see Chelsea take 3rd if they beat Leicester which I think they will, Spurs drop down to 5th with us 4th and utd 6th. More than likely though is we lose to Burnley, Spuds beat Everton, Utd beat Cardiff and we end up 6th. So if we do end up 6th then that will mean we are the 6th best team by some people’s logic because the table doesn’t lie and… Read more »

Dissenter

AMN is out due to the red card
He’s left with Lichsteiner or Jenks – pick your poison

Guns of sf

If we meet Chelsea it’s one game
A lot more nerve wracking

Kanté will be back

Fuck Chelsea and Watford

Champagne Charlie

Pat

Yea it does seem we need things to very much fall in our favour for a sustained period. That’s unsettling. Really hard to get behind the idea our current lot know what they’re doing as far as being the architects of a new successful Arsenal chapter.

Bamford10

Victorious

“Anything short of a EL win now for your erstwhile hero will be utterly unacceptable and he’s got to go.”

Unless Chelsea are simply a better team than we are, and this is why they finish above us and win the EL.

In that case, the reasonable conclusion will be that Emery needs better players.

Marko

Time will tell, gents. Time will tell.

This in reference to Ole? Man you could let one go you know. Admitting that you got that one at least embarrassingly wrong you won’t go down in people’s estimation

Nelson

This formation has no width at all unless Auba plays left wing. Didn’t we try that before and failed miserably.

Radio Raheem

Gary Cahill preparing for his next career I see: protein shake model

Champagne Charlie

“Unless Chelsea are simply a better team than we are, and this is why they finish above us and win the EL.“

Or it could also be spun that, despite teething issues, Sarriball (aka having a vision, style, and principle approach to teach the players) eventually reaps it’s benefits over the course of the season versus having little to no identity as a team.

Matter of perspective.

Marko

I would say Hazardball is what reaps benefits

Nelson

@benny
“More than likely though is we lose to Burnley, Spuds beat Everton, Utd beat Cardiff and we end up 6th.”

If we win today, Muaure can’t catch us… We have much better GD.

HighburyLegend

lol Bamford, spot on mate!!

@Vicuntious, please fuck off to Untold.

ddkingz

Hmmm, am I the only one thinking Chelsea have sealed the top for spot and would also steal the Europa league trophy as well?

the Europa league final in Baku, is arsenal at home or away?

Dissenter

Spuds need a point against Everton at home
Chelsea need a pint against Leicester away

We have to beat Brighton heavily and then beat Burnley…and HOPE

Emery has to do the most unappealing thing and start saving the few better players for the season decider in Baku.

HighburyLegend

@benny de Niro : Manure to finish ABOVE us ??
This is fucking hilarious.

gambon

Need a minimum 3 goal win today.

No way we are beating Burnley by more than 1 goal.

Bergkamp63

Let’s hope Brighton are on their holidays now that they are safe !

Guns of sf

Manure out

Nelson

It is FT at Hud. Let’s at least win today and get a 5th spot. That’s a step in the right direction.

Mark

Hahaha, United out of the top 4 race.! Couldn’t bear already relegated Huddersfield !!!

Guns of sf

Watford let us down those bastards

Marko

I agree if Emery can’t work miracles on an abject squad then he has to go. Much the same way Wenger had to go when he showed he wasn’t up to the task. Oh he was doing a poor job for a number of years? Ah that doesn’t count mate. It’s only now if you’re seen to be poor that you get the sack

jwl

And it’s Arsenal,
Arsenal FC!
We’re by far the greatest team
The world has ever seen!

Marko

I don’t know why people are throwing in the towel. Of the two games Chelsea had left their home game was always the easiest on paper.

ddkingz

Emery should take the blame if arsenal finally misses champions league football.

why rest players against everton after beating napoli 2 nil at home, and I’m sure spurds also lost that same week… like I said a few weeks ago, that loss against Everton might come back to bite emery in his ass… though I’m not a prophet.. lol

Victorious

Unless Chelsea are simply a better team than we are, and this is why they finish above us and win the EL.” Nah Bam, this is a lazy take, losing 3 on the spin to mistable plodders has nothing to do with Chas having better players The manager has a much larger share of blame there, he was odds on to finish 3rd/4th and somehow managed to bottle it so hard in a matter of 1 week that we’re almost out of reckoning Chavs haven’t been mustard either,sarri was touted a failure and his team has played shocking football all… Read more »

bennydevito

So because we had that great run, beat utd, Chelsea, Tottenham which proves beyond any shadow of a doubt we are a top 4 side, does man utd drawing with relegated Huddersfield mean man utd are a championship side? Because that’s what Pierre and CC have been saying.

Up 4 grabs now

Should be third and unreachable now. Ifs and buts, but if papa hadn’t of got suspended he would have played against palace and mustafi wouldn’t have been on the pitch for his melt down.

Leftsidesanch

Can we fire Vicuntious this early?

Guns of Brixton

Hard to see us getting top 4.

Danny

So OGS joined them they were 6th…..

Bamford10

Charlie Yeah, identity, philosophy and vision are important; this is one of the reasons I like Sarri. However, it also helps to have better players, which he does. There’s also the argument that some teams have such a mishmash of different kinds of players — some fit for this approach, some fit for that approach, some inadequate regardless — that a manager can’t simply adopt one style or approach, that he must instead adopt different approaches against different teams, get whatever results he can and get through the season as best he can. Then begin building a better squad in… Read more »

ddkingz

Pedro… I’ve you seen OGS, because I’ve checked the wheel and he wasn’t there.

bennydevito

Victorious,

We lost to Palace because of forced changes due to injury, illness and suspension.

Palace beat Man City who have a vastly better squad than us at the Etihad 3 – 2 also.

Context and perspective

PessimisticPat

Same, trust is earned. Think once we kick off in august one look at our squad list will tell me everything I need to know about Raul.

Obviously CL football or Europa league football will help adjust my expectations. Praying Emerys got his lucky EL pants on till June.

Up 4 grabs now

Pedro,

They can’t get rid of him, pay off another long contract, when Sanchez is already costing half a million a week, and still paying Maureen.

Pierre

Including today …only one Arsenal player has started 30 league games for Arsenal this season……….Mustafi .

Rambo Ramsey

You just know Spuds will be losing their collective heads and bottling the final game after exiting the CL.

The real q is whether Arsenal can win both their games. Would anyone be surprised if we fail to beat Brighton today

Dream10

Not getting one point from Palace, Everton, Wolves, Leicester hurt us.

Scoring only three goals in two matches against Huddersfield, when Liverpool, City, Spurs and Chelsea all scored at least six. We were outshot by Huddersfield in the away match.

Leftsidesanch

Nobody thought Bournemouth would be playing against 2 Spurs players and still almost cock up a win. Nobody thought that United would drop points against relegated Huddersfield.

We play each game as it comes hopefully achieve the best result and then see where we land next Sunday.

We aren’t good enough to throw games thinking we’re in the EL final, we’re not and even if we get there we still have to get past a superior (if inconsistent) Chelsea side to us.

Behave man.

HighburyLegend

“Can we fire Vicuntious this early?”

Ah ah ah @left, spot on.

Bergkamp63

Need an early goal today.

Up 4 grabs now

Pierre that’s 30 games too many

Marko

Can United fire OGS this early?

They won’t but they should. If he was anyone other than a popular former player you’d have fuck all talking about giving him time.

Champagne Charlie

“Because that’s what Pierre and CC have been saying.“ You’ll have to point to where I’ve said anything of the sort. We have a top 4 capable squad because of the calibre of player in the squad relative to our direct rivals. We’ve also underperformed by any metric and are still competing for top 4, so there’s another marker that the squad we have is capable. Same way you can argue the Liverpool squad is a title challenger by virtue of challenging for the title. You make some odd points sometimes, read what’s said instead of hashing a rubbish half… Read more »

bennydevito

Pedro, We’re near to the top 4 but that doesn’t make us top 4 quality, we’re not far away I agree on that and had we not had the injuries we’ve had we might well have made it and we may well still do yet. I really hope we do. How many game weeks have we actually been in the top 4? 5 or 6? I might look it up. But you can’t deny that surely to make us a certain top 4 side for next season we need to upgrade on several players especially at the back? I know… Read more »

gambon

Marko thinks Ole should be sacked after half a season.

But worships Emery who had a preseason and spent £70m, and has delivered no improvement.

Funny.

Champagne Charlie

United a championship side….with a better squad than us. Because, logic.

Dream10

Marko

They won’t fire Solskjaer right now. Seems like the Glazers want Woodward to run the show. Easier to do it that with a manager who has little influence. I think Chelsea will fire Sarri even if he finishes 3rd and wins the Europa

bennydevito

CC,

Oh I see; it’s a top 4 “capable” squad now as opposed to a certain top 4 side now?

Of course.

I see.

Spin, spin sugar.

gambon

Benny

4-0 does nothing for us.

Either 3-0 or 7-0 are the only scores that matter.

Dissenter

OGS will be gone by November
All he has is the sentimental card, always reminding the players of the glory days.
I knew he was done when he took them to the training ground they haven’t used in 17 years because it wasn’t private enough.

All the folks who used him as a battering ram to poke at Emery…we know you.

Pierre

Bamford “Yeah, identity, philosophy and vision are important; this is one of the reasons I like Sarri. However, it also helps to have better players, which he does.” Could you imagine Emery having a team with kosavic, jorginho, hazard ,Pedro , Hudson Odi. I would take Sarri over Emery all day long as He appreciates talented players ..He has his faults but he sticks to his principles unlike Emery who started with the pressing game and playing out from the keeper etc etc etc. He wouldn’t know who to leave out …Hazard would probably be the first to go ,… Read more »

bennydevito

CC,

“You make some odd points sometimes, read what’s said instead of hashing a rubbish half baked version.”

Why don’t you read what you’ve said instead of putting your usual backtracking spin on things

Marko

Brighton are 17th in the league. We should be able to play our reserves against them and smash then 3-0 This kind of nonsense thinking around here continues to be laughable. There’s no easy games in the premier league and you don’t get teams playing their reserves in must win games. Liverpool played a full strength team early in the season against Brighton no reserves and won 1-0. Man City again earlier in the season at home against Brighton 2-0 and played a full strength team unless you think that Zinchenko and Sane are reserves. But yeah we should play… Read more »