Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The mood in the red half of North London is not quite as toxic as it was a few weeks ago, the fact that Arsenal have secured a third F.A. Cup Final berth in four seasons will go some way to lightening the mood and a win tonight would also boost their chances of a top four finish.
Arsenal may currently lie seventh in the Premier League table but that is somewhat of a false position due to the fact that they have so many games in hand over the teams above them. In some regards it is as many as three and it’s that which keeps their top four hopes very much alive.
If Arsenal’s position tells somewhat of a lie then Liverpool’s in third is not as concrete either, The Gunners currently have three games in hand over Jurgen Klopp’s men and they will look to close the gap to six points with still another two extra matches to play.
Tonight they play host to champions Leicester and will look to repeat the win of last Valentines Day when many felt at that point that Arsenal would go on to win the title. As we all know that was not to be the case as Claudio Ranieri masterminded the fairytale success for The Foxes.
But the fairytale turned into a horror story for Ranieri as he was sacked this season with the defending Premier League champions in the bottom three. With the departure of the Italian it meant the job to steady the Leicester ship was given to Craig Shakespeare.
He has pretty much achieved the objective he was set, that being avoiding the drop and with The Foxes being on 37 points they will need just one win to finally get themselves over the line. Can they pick up win at The Emirates this evening?
Well Arsenal are going to have their tails up after beating Manchester City on Sunday, that game once again saw Arsene Wenger adopt a three at the back formation and the likelihood is that he will stick with the formation that has treated him well over the past 10 days.
That switch formation has bought a brace of wins, Middlesbrough in the league and City in the F.A. Cup and both by the same 2-1 scoreline. If it shows anything it’s that Arsenal can still be got at but they do look a lot less shaky than in recent weeks.
They grew into the Semi Final on Sunday and were certainly the better team going into extra time, it was almost a case of Arsenal riding their luck early on and then from that point you had a feeling that it was going to be their day as they ended up edging out Pep Guardiola’s side.
Perhaps luck is an unfair word as they did finish the game stronger, as the scoreline would suggest. But they certainly were given a massive get out of jail free card when City saw a perfectly good goal ruled out after a dodgy call from the Assistant Referee,
But be that as it may, it is they that find themselves in next months final and they will look to build on that win and carry the momentum into this evening’s encounter with Leicester. With Leicester out of the Champions League they can now focus solely on the league once again.
If a win does not come for #Leicester this evening, I don’t think there is grounds for them to panic. They will have identified other games as the more winnable ones, therefore this is essence is something of a free hit for the East Midlands side.
That’s not to say that would not like to derail Arsenal’s top four tilt and they would certainly like to get some revenge for last years Valentine’s Day Massacre when they were edged out by a last minute goal. So there is certainly going to be a score to settle.
Can they settle that score though, to be honest I’m not too sure. I think once again we are seeing the well renown late Arsenal surge of good form. It happens so many times that it’s not even surprising and therefore it should come as not surprise if they earn all three points. A home win for me.
