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Photo from Freepik.
Morning all.
April the 3rd and the league challenge is over for Arsenal, just as it is for the other eighteen clubs in the Premier League of course but it seems only Arsenal come under constant scrutiny each week. Probably because going into the seventh transfer window since Mikel Arteta became manager, the club has signed just one striker and even he is not what I’d call an out an out striker and of course, we’ve not won anything since the FA Cub at the end of the first season he arrived. Ironically, with a bunch of players he soon moved on.
Last season was close, very close and but for a couple of sloppy performances at The Emirates, those in the media would have been forced to take a very different approach to the way they reported about Arsenal. Instead, they gushed over more Man City success despite knowing it might be proved they reaped their successes by not playing by the rules.
When Liverpool lift the Premier League trophy in May, will any of the media darlings look at how they got there? How many red cards they might have picked up if the officials officiated their fixtures in the same way they did ours? Of course not. They won’t worry about that, after all, decisions level themselves over a season don’t they? Actually, no they don’t!
Arsenal have had a season riddled with injuries and poor officiating. Red cards have been shown to Arsenal players for incidents which in another game have gone unpunished or dealt with differently but I know, we’ve been over that before.
Do you think Liverpool’s goal would have stood last night had it been scored by us? No, never in a million years. Admittedly, James Tarkowski was fortunate to escape a red card for his challenge on Mac Allister but hey, perhaps the officials decided to make up for their error later in the game. I’m guessing of course but there’s also a part of me that wonders if they didn’t want to weaken Everton’s team before we play them on Saturday lunchtime.
Whilst the top four spots in the league are yet to be decided, the relegation places are already pretty much sorted with Leicester City, Southampton and probably Ipswich on the way into the Championship. The only doubt is Wolves who are not quite out of the woods yet. I’m not sure what’s more unlikely, Wolves going on a run of defeats or Ipswich winning all their remaining matches. Not that I care really.
It’s been a bit of a strange old season for Arsenal and Lady Luck had certainly deserted us from day one. As said yesterday, I’ve never known a season like this one for injuries and most of them have been big, usually with the player needing surgery and months of recovery. Merino, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz, Jesus, White, Tomiyasu, Tierney and then we’ve had Calafiori out more often than he’s been available and now, both Timber and Gabriel look set to miss the majority of our run in if not all of it.
Thank goodness we have an 11 point gap between us and Newcastle in 5th place because we need to secure Champions League football next season. Newcastle do have a game in hand though.
I didn’t watch much of the Merseyside derby but Everton did well to restrict Liverpool to just the one goal. An offside goal mind you.
Catch up in the comments.