Five teams, two Champ League places. Now what? (part 2) « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Tony Attwood

There were some very kind comments following my little article on the five clubs chasing the 3rd and 4th spot this season.

It was indeed true that I missed the fact that Liverpool are in the Europa courtesy of the league cup but they would still much prefer the Euro Champs League, not least for the money.  I am not sure that the budget at Liverpool is going to plan – they have spent their money but bought themselves centre forwards who are not that good at scoring, so they need a boost.

But this weekend’s defeats for Tottenham and Liverpool and a scratchy draw for Chelsea against a 10 man Stoke team suggests the ball is with us.

Which of course is exactly the moment that fate comes up and stabs you in the foot, either because of the referee, or because it is one of those goals where we do everything under the sun except score.

Yet we can hope, and in the interim cast our mind’s back to the question of Tottenham.

I suggested in the last piece that Tottenham were due one of those glitches that catches out all teams each season (except us in the Unbeaten season).  Tottenham, I said, could be in the early stages of having theirs.

And what a moment to have it.  Let us reflect (out of a need for historical accuracy not out of any gloating or suggesting that such things have never happened to us) on where they stand as of this monday morning…

Back in mid February the great almighty Tottenham having their best season since they won the league 51 years ago drew 0-0 at Stevenage.  The sort of result that if it happened  to Arsenal would draw headlines so big that they would have to enlarge the tabloids to double size.

That really was the start of it all, although I suspect many of us gathered at the Ems for the game against Stratford Rovers we too actually thought it was just one of those blips. Even more so when the very tiny totts went 0-2 up with a freak goal and a clear dive in the area.  (“I wasn’t diving, I was making sure my leg didn’t get broken” or words to that effect).

5-2 was jolly – the first time we scored five against them since 2004.  The previous time to that was the 23 December 1978 when I seem to recall Mr Brady scoring from about 2 miles out and then turning to the shelf with his arms out.  A brave man!  We won 5-0.

Mr Red claimed that was a one off – a “buckling” which he said happened rarely.   Except that on 4 March the Tots lost at home 3-1 to Man U.   Of course Man U are wannabe champions and a good side this season, so that is excusable, except that Tottenham are having their best year ever since winning the league 51 years ago (or did I mention that), so it is a shame that in their best year they lose 2-5 away and then 1-3 at home.

Through valiant effort Tottenham beat little Stevenage in the cup, and so moved on with raised expectations to play Everton, and lost.    Three league defeats in a row, and an 11 point lead before the game at the Ems is now down to 4.  When they lost three in a row in October 2008 they sacked Juande Ramos.

Hmmmmm.

Liverpool lost too, and that surely means that they must be out of being serious contenders for fourth, so that leaves Chelsea and Newcastle to think about.  Newcastle we will judge tonight, but Chelsea…

Their recent results in the League are won 2 drawn 3 lost 2.  Not so good.   The defeats were against WBA and Everton.  But they have a new manager.  So maybe that’s ok.

Newcastle have had 2 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats in the last seven which ain’t so clever, but perhaps we should exclude losing to Brighton as that was in the cup.  In the league their recent results are

• Lost 2-5 to Fulham
• Beat Blacburn 2-0
• Beat Villa 2-1
• Lost 0-5 to Tottenham
• Drew 2-2 with Wolverhampton
• Drew 1-1 with Sunderland

So things ought to be possible for us.  Let’s hope so.  We all knows what a victory, even by one goal, would mean.

Arsenal versus Newcastle:  The match preview

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