The weekend preview: Tots, Chelsea, Newcastle, Manchester… « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Arun
The Untold Preview: Week 34
We had a very good Easter unlike our noisy neighbours. Both Tottenham and Chelsea added to our joy by dropping points at their rivals.
Newcastle also find themselves level on 4th with the Totts trailing only on the goal difference and are 2 clear of Chelsea who find themselves in 6th. Indeed Chelsea face quite a battle with Tottenham, Barcelona, Arsenal and then Barcelona again in next 4 matches.
Newcastle face Chelsea, Man C and end the season with a trip to Everton. It looks like a more difficult fixture list than Tottenham but they have got the momentum on their side and it can be very crucial in their remaining fixtures.
Tottenham are suffering at the moment but now meet another team which is also in a bad state, in the cup tie at Wembley. None of these three will be in league action at this weekend giving us a chance for opening the gap to 8 points by taking the initiative and putting the pressure back on the chasing pack.
Elsewhere, Liverpool won through a Carroll stoppage-time header but also lost their backup keeper for their cup derby with Everton at Wembley. As a result they have had to recall their on loan goalie as backup Just in case their 3rd goalkeeper sees the antics of the top two keepers as a blueprint, rather than a warning.
Man U lost to Wigan and despite having a goal for Wigan disallowed, their coach blamed it on Dowd for missing a penalty appeal. Where did everything evens out stories vanish to? It would be interesting to hear the views of Giggs on this. [No it wouldn’t – Tony]
The FA yet again showed what a bunch of idiots they are after admitting that they ‘apparently’ couldn’t take action against Ballotelli as one of the officials had actually seen the incident during the game and retrospective action can be taken only when the officials didn’t see it.
Which official saw the challenge and thought it was perfectly ok has not been revealed, nor has it been said if he will be punished for this error. Fifa meanwhile said that it is the FA that makes these rules, not Fifa.
Another comical decision preceded this one where they refused to turn down the red card of Derry, because there was a foul and Young did NOT dive. They must have been living in a parallel universe where officials don’t give fouls for career threatening tackles and Man U players don’t dive.
It seemed to me that our game against Wolves ran for 11 minutes and after that we took the foot off the throttle and nearly paid for it until Szczęsny produced a memorable save from 3 yards. After that Arsenal scored another to remind Wolves that we were also there.
According to Toro, Wolverhampton are the most harshly treated team in the league on relevant important decisions. It’s a very good measure as it only includes game changing decisions. So the not given Ramsey penalty won’t go in favour of Wolverhampton as they were already losing the match 3-0 and a penalty would not have changed the outcome.
Unsurprisingly, the ‘Manchester manipulators’ are on top and Fulham are 2nd (and they still complain about the referees, seems like they believe in fair play and deserve praise for this effort). Arsenal is just above the drop zone in 16th.
This weekend will only witness 6 league matches as 4 matches will be played later due to the cup semifinals but let’s see what we have got :
1) Norwich v Manchester City (Saturday – 12:45)
Despite the results of last week, it is still a big possibility for Man C to lose the title at home. To keep avoiding this nightmare scenario, they visit Norwich whose home record is very good for a team at the bottom of the top half. Only 4 teams have walked out of the Carrow Road with all the 3 points so far this season. That’s also quite an achievement for a team which is having its first season in the top flight after promotion.
Both teams are going through a bad phase in terms of results with each having a result sheet of 2W-2D-2L in their last 6 games. Norwich has lost only 1 of their last 7 home games in the league. But 3 of their 4 home defeats have come against the teams in top 4 at the moment, and this is a fact which Man C can look forward to while visiting this town.
Man C hammered Norwich 5-1 in the reverse fixture but that was Man C at its prime. Confidence in the Norwich camp will be high after beating Tottenham last Monday despite being denied 2 clear penalties. Those 2 penalties would have given the score line an emphatic look of 4-1 victory at the WHL.
It’s going to be a highly exposed fixture to the Asian betting markets due to the early kickoff time. With Foy in charge of the game, Man U losing at Wigan and decisions going against Norwich at Tottenham may be needed to even out; if all these factors start to dominate Man C is going to have a hard time at Norwich.
2) Manchester United v Aston Villa (Sunday – 16:00)
A clear good disallowed goal for Wigan was a 50-50 call but their penalty was 100% a penalty, in the ‘great mind’ of the Lord of the Football. It was yet another poor performance by Man U and despite getting reasonable help from Dowd, they couldn’t avoid a defeat.
As always, he was too eager to point out the mistakes of Dowd. But now revenge will be on his mind and it seems like Villa are going to pay the prize of that defeat.
The winning streak of Man U came to halt at Wigan but it’s very likely that they are going to beat Villa at home. Villa have lost 4 of their last 5 visits to Man U. Villa are the king of draws in the league so far with their 14 games ended in draw, which is 4 more than the 4 second placed teams in the race for the most draws.
I think there should be an award for the team which plays most draws in the league as it will give teams like Villa etc. to compete for something in the last phases of the season. Due to this large no. of draws, Villa’s away record consists of only 4 defeats compared with 7 home defeats. Villa also badly needs some points as they might not want to get involved in a dogfight for survival at the end of the season. Lose this one and they may find themselves only 3 clear of the drop zone.
However, their much better goal difference than the teams which are below them might come to their rescue if they continue to drop points like they are doing at the moment by winning only 1 of their last 6 games. Still, Man U looks too difficult a task for them.
Halsey will take the whistle with Probert on the side lines. If Man C wins their early kickoff on Saturday, you can safely bet on Man U winning this one.
3) Arsenal v Wigan (Monday – 20:00)
Wigan has somehow mastered the art of surviving in the league and their last 2 performances showed their Midas touch which they seem to find when they are in the drop zone and games are running out for them. They should have won both of their last 2 games but won only 1 and are just outside of the drop zone. In fact, their defeat at Chelsea is their only defeat in last 6 games which include victories against Stoke, Liverpool and now Man U.
As I have said in my previous article that it’s not a good idea to face relegation threatened teams in the run up to the season finale, and I have a feeling that this is going to be a tricky tie for us until we get an early goal.
But history favours us in this tie with us winning all 5 league meetings at home conceding only 1 goal. Yet their victory against Man U was also their first ever against Man U.
Confidence will be sky-high in both camps after recent performances. I had really expected a Blackburn like drubbing of Wolves after 11 minutes and thought that RVP will score a hat-trick to confirm the golden boot. However, he should still win it comfortably.
This type of ‘relaxation’ can’t be done against a battling Wigan side although I think our easing up against Wolverhampton was much down to our game against Man C. as anything else.
Wigan have lost 9 games on the road and this season and I will enjoy watching that number go into double figures.
We have won 9 games out of last 10; the only defeat had Dean written all over it. We will have Marriner for this game and despite whatever the referee is up to, we should win it comfortably. Our quota of penalties for the season is definitely over when the 3rd penalty of the season was awarded to us at Wolves. Only QPR, Norwich and Sunderland have a lower number of penalties than us.
If the penalties were to be based on the possession, then we should have had the most penalties but I would be pretty much interested in the number of penalties that have not been given to us so far. Definitely, the ref reviewers are surely going to point it out at the end of the season.
With none of the chasing pack playing this week, it’s a great chance for us to cement the third place with a win over Wigan. Let’s beat Wigan and then Chelsea next weekend, so that the Totts will find themselves trailing by 11 (though they will have 2 games in hand) the next time they play in the league. Mind the gap.
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