How tough are our away games socrates? Palace, Newcastle and Southampton aren’t really in the relegation dogfight so will hopefully not be fighting to avoid the drop or to get into Europe. Chelsea aren’t fighting for the title and look safe for a top four place. So what will they have to play for? West Ham are fighting to get into Europe but I believe we’re comfortably better than them.

I can think of a worse set of away games we could have to finish the season. I just don’t think table positions are a reliable guide to how easy or difficult games are towards the end of the season. Take each game as it comes and hopefully it’ll work out in the end. Worrying about how difficult forthcoming games will be isn’t the best way to look at things at this point in the season. That’s for, in my view at least, the management, players and even fans.

was Aubameyang holding back on Arteta in his last months here?

Gerrard on Saka: He’s a good player, he’s an outstanding talent, I love him, but he can’t complain about that [physical] side... I’m sitting here now with screws in my hips, I’ve had about 16 operations,.., and that’s all off the back of earning a living in English football.

It is attitudes like this from a person highly and widely respected in English football as the reason why bad tackles will never properly be punished. I had to suffer 20 years ago so there can’t be any change and everyone else should suffer as well. What an idiotic take.

Of course Gerrard as Rangers manager called for greater protection for his players before a game v Livingstone following the previous rough encounter Rangers had with them!

Without doubt. It was like playing with 10 men.

His quotes make him seem like a dinosaur:

Tyrone Mings was booked for catching Saka late with his studs, while the England man also earned numerous free-kicks before being substituted with 20 minutes to go.
Villa boss Gerrard had little sympathy, though, saying: “It’s part of the game. The last time I checked it’s not a no-contact sport. I think tackles are allowed, physicality’s allowed.
“He’s a good player, he’s an outstanding talent and I love him. But he can’t complain about that side. That’s football.
“I’m sitting here now with screws in my hips, I’ve had about 16 operations, I’m struggling to go to the gym at the moment. That’s all on the back of earning a living in English football. He’ll learn and he’ll learn quick.”


What an awful advert.

Obviously he got a few head knocks as well. If he had played in the time of the 70’s and 80’s he would have really known what it was to be targeted. But he had a few people kick lumps off him & that is acceptable. Actually I thought he was a bit of a protected species to be honest. I hope when he eventually manages Liverpool he sticks with this philosophy.

Ashley Young is an Arsenal fan - at least he was as a kid….. actually he still was a couple of years ago when his son was at the academy

Yes, you are right Bernard, there will be plenty of thrills and spills and dropped points by all teams.

I do think, though, that a rejuvenated Newcastle under Eddie Howe, Palace under Vieira and Southampton are tough games irrespective of where they are in the table.

We've got United, Chelsea and Spurs still to play. If we come out of those games relatively unscathed I will start to believe.

I just hope that if there is a team that goes on a run of wins its us because no matter how shite Tottenham play you just know that with Son and Kane they can score against anyone at any time.

Also, let's not forget we still have Tottenham and Man Utd left to play. We can afford to drop some points against lesser teams if we get results against our rivals, and I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to. As things stand currently with regards to injuries, I'd make us favorites against Man Utd at home and West Ham away, and I'm tempted to throw Tottenham away in there too. They're not that good. If we can neutralize the threat from Kane and Son their entire gameplan is gone.

There's really no reason we should lose any of those three fixtures - in fact, I think we should win at least two of them. We have a good team, they've earned high expectations.

I still can’t see us doing it. Palace and saints away won’t be easy it never is. 2 London derbies and a resurgent Newcastle.


I can’t help thinking we will run out of gas at some point as we have such a lack of competent back up it’s ridiculous. Lacazette and saka are going to have to play every game, Nketiah and Pépé played like idiots when they came on Saturday. No wonder mikel doesn’t like changing the side.

I suppose with the West Ham result yesterday it pretty much guarantees finishing higher than last season.

Its just way too early to even think about 4th with United, Chelsea and Spurs still to navigate.

Our small squad might be good for morale but it means playing the same team in almost every game and with no real centre forward then we are a couple of injuries away from not being able to score.

Is it any different for Tottenham or Man Utd though? Take away Kane or Son for Spurs, or Ronaldo or Fernandes for Man Utd, and their respective top 4 hopes are gone. I think starting elevens are much more likely to determine who gets 4th place, and we have the best one of the three in my opinion.

It’s is I’m afraid. United take out ronaldo and can put in Cavani or rashford. We would have to put in Nketiah

After we make our subs aside from Emile Smith Rowe they rarely add much value to the performance therefore Arteta waits until there’s less than 20 minutes left or if a players legs have literally gone.

Cavani has done absolutely nothing this season, and Rashford isn't a central striker. They're toast without Ronaldo, just like we are without Lacazette.

Talking about potential injuries just seem a bit pointless to me - it's all hypothetical, and we all have players who would be extremely hard to replace if they went down. What isn't hypothetical is that our starting eleven is better defensively, better structured, and better equipped to dictate the play in any given game, compared to Spurs and Man Utd.

Injuries and lady luck may well dictate how things pan out from here. We've got United, Spurs and Chelsea still to play and are probably more likely to get zero points out of those games than nine with two away from home, so that's at least some dropped points. I think 5 points out of those 3 games would be a very good outcome, especially if the win is against Spurs.

its just way too early to call, with too many tough hurdles to overcome and a squad lacking the depth to cope with injuries.

To early to call with certainty, sure. But it's not too early to say we're favorites. I just don't see any reason to assume we'll get a bunch of injuries while Spurs and Man Utd don't.

Having superior squad depth is a bit overrated anyway. Look at Liverpool and Man City - the squad depth of Man City means they'll win more than Liverpool over an extended period of time, but the strength of Liverpool's starting eleven has seen them challenge in 3 of the last 4 years now, without being close to having the same level of replacements.

It is true what you have said about Cavani and Rashford but you'd still think the chances of them scoring some goals in the run in is higher than Nketiah, who doesn't yet have the confidence inspiring experience of regularly scoring PL goals. Ditto Moura at Spurs if Kane or Son get injured. I suppose we could play Martinelli at CF which isn't a bad option but a bit of a gamble.

We have the better structured and balanced team apart from having no CF and we have to accept that in tight games it might just boil down to who takes their chances and theres no doubt others have better striking options in terms of converting chances. Ronaldo and Kane are clinical in front of goal, Son is a very pacy and pretty good finisher.

That said, all the teams have scored a similar number of goals so far so who knows what will happen.

I'm a bit less confident about that. Even if the first teams remain intact, Tottenham with Kane in the midst of a purple patch are a big worry. I don't feel as worried about United but they have players who could drag them to fourth.

The six point lead (if we win our game in hand) looks handy but very far from unassailable. I'd put us as slight favourites, but the not the odds-on favourites the bookies are making us.

It’s almost impossible to anticipate results towards the end of the season. That’s typically the time when freak results abound.

Unfortunately we don’t have a six point lead.

Indeed!

They have the more clinical goalscorers for sure. Given the same amount of chances, Kane, Son and Ronaldo will score more goals than any of our players, I'm certainly not disputing that!

However, that's just one part of football. We could also ask ourselves what team is more likely to hang on to a one goal lead for the last 20 minutes of a game. What team is more likely to dominate the midfield? What team is more likely to effectively press their opponents and make it difficult for the opponent to build their attack? All of these things can make a difference in the run-in, it won't just be about taking chances.

It’s not really about potential injuries because even if you don’t get any we will still need to use our squad to rest others via subs.

Our success is dependant on playing the same 11 players for every minute of every game until the end of the season. Feels like a deck of cards waiting to come down. Tiredness and fatigue is going to come into play massively over the next few weeks. I’m really surprised we managed to get through the last week without dropping more points.

I think keeping Thomas Partey fit is key, he is arguably our most important player given the way he has enabled us to dominate the midfield with some Vieira-like performances of late.

100 percent. Keeping him on the pitch is critical as is Saka and Lacazette.

Every time one of those guys arent on the pitch their replacement are nowhere near as capable and you have a massive problem. Pray they don’t get injuries

This is a gross exaggeration though. We just beat Aston Villa, who are a good side, away with three backup players (Leno, Cédric and Smith-Rowe) starting. Tavares and Lokonga have shown they're talented and can put in good performances. Pépé scored 10 goals last season and was instrumental in us turning a loss into a win against Wolves. We have players that can contribute.

Looking at Spurs, they don't rotate much. Their last ten games they've had pretty much the same starting eleven, with Regulion and Doherty sometimes switching with Sessegnon and Royale. Hardly see that as making a big difference for them. Man Utd rotate a fair bit more, but that's probably more down to the fact that they haven't found an effective starting eleven yet, rather than wanting to keep things fresh. That's a much worse problem to have than lacking depth.

Did you see Pepes contribution Saturday (surely it’s time to cut our losses, bloke can’t play in his own half)

Nketiah as well.

As soc just said take Partey out of this side and watch what happens.

https://twitter.com/HarrySymeou/status/ ... SUGIO53omg

Laura Woods with another clinical take down of a fellow presenter on Talksport. She's absolutely wasted on that show having to deal with morons like Jamie O'Hara and Gabby Agbonlahor.

Did you see Pepes contribution against Wolves?

Nobody is disputing Partey would be a massive loss. What happens to Tottenham if Kane gets injured? I don't see how the fact that Partey and Saka are massively important players are such a disadvantage to us. Every team has players they can't afford to lose over a longer period of time.

Back up players have played their part. Expecting players to come on for 20 minutes and be perfect each time is unrealistic. Pépé and Nketiah contributed massively to the Wolves win.

We were worried what we'd do without Ramsdale, leno stepped in.

We were terrified what would happen if Tomiyasu got injured, Cédric has stepped in and stepped up

Holding has a role to step in and secure wins for us now.

Our games are going to be knife edge games, as a lot are towards the end of the season. I think you'll even see City and Liverpool have a few 1 goal victories in the run-in. So I don't expect us to score loads and blast teams away. The team have a set up where other players can step in and whilst they may not be as good as the player in the first 11 they know the shape and system. Yes it would be tough if we lost Partey or Saka or Gabriel but that is exactly the same if not more so for Kane and Son

I think our games are harder. I take the point Bernard made about teams at the bottom fighting against relegation playing sometimes being tougher than midtable sides with nothing to play for - but realistically the bottom clubs are just worse. The bottom 5 in the league have only collectively won 5 of their last 25 games. I would much rather be playing Norwich away than playing Palace away. Norwich and Leeds have conceded nearly 30 more goals than Palace. Palace have genuine individual talent that can hurt you. If you're dropping points to teams who have battled relegation all season it isn't because they've suddenly become good footballers it is purely down to their desire which should be the minimum you should match when our goals of top 4 are equally important as theirs not to be relegated.

The whole thing about celebrations is the weirdest discussion to come along in a long time. Why even bother watching if you're only allowed to celebrate something like three wins every season? Nobody can moan about Arsenal celebrating too much with any sort of consistency, as that clip clearly shows.

I watched the second half of Everton - Newcastle last week. It was obviously a hugely important win for Everton, but they're not clear of relegation yet, and even being in a relegation fight is way below any expectation they should have as a club. However, when Iwobi scored, it was a sight to behold watching the whole arena explode in a roar louder than anything I've heard in a long time. Surely that sort of thing is the whole point with football, and why so many of us all over the world spend so much time watching it.

Those comments from Gerrard on Saka was really bizarre stuff. Does he actually think the fact that he had 16 operations throughout his career is a good argument for why you can't complain about the level of refereeing in the PL?

I thought Gerrard was a more progressive modern young coach but answers like this plus his very chippy post match interview telling the interviewer he thought he'd have better questions for him than he did shows that he's far from it and will easily fall in to the 'good old british manager' mould, all we need is hard work, tough tackling and getting in their faces!

He's fallen in to the typical response of 'didn't arsenal commit any fouls today then', and 'last time I checked tackles were allowed' It is just tiresome now. Yes clean tackles are allowed, but fouls are not. If your relying on the foul count to determine who was and wasn't dirty in the game then you're too simple to reason with.

Gerrard will know better than most when players are targeting a skillful player on the opposition with rough tackling and rotational fouling. Also tackles like the one Mings did on Saka are cowards tackles in my view. Mings knows hes going to get the ball first and he is absolutely able to win the ball without following through as he did on Saka - he knows that as does everyone who has ever played football. In these situations always ask yourself would Mings have pulled out if that was his own teammate he was going to crash in to? Would he have left his studs there to connect with the ankle? Or would have have tried to minimise the impact as much as possible? Players hide behind getting the ball first as a way to leave something on an opponent and it was refreshingly and rightfully called a yellow card

Pleased for Aaron Ramsey who got his first goal for Rangers in their win against Dundee yesterday. He’s actually had a difficult time at Ibrox and hasn’t done well enough to be a regular starter in that many games. There was talk of him returning to Arsenal and I think we dodged a bullet when he didn’t.

But I’m pleased for him now he’s scored for Rangers

Why hasnt our game against Spurs been announced yet???
Surely they know what midweeks are free for the both of us seeing as we are not in any cups or europe.
i think this is sky/bt just waiting for the prime opportunity to maximise the coverage and have us as close in the table as possible so it can be dressed up as a top 4 decider.

https://twitter.com/TikiTakaConnor/stat ... w02pbunH-w

Ref expert Dermot Gallagher being asked why Xhaka was booked. his explanation is 'it was one he had coming, rather than him being picked on'

It is utterly laughable and needs to be questioned very vocally!

Based on the calendar I think this will be played on Wednesday May 11th.
This is after our weekend game v Leeds and after Spurs weekend game v Liverpool. Looking at those fixtures and the others that weekend the Liverpool v Spurs game would be prime for a TV slot, hopefully the late sunday game to give us the extra days rest. Of course we might get bumped to Sunday and Liverpool v Spurs takes the early saturday kick off.

But yes, TV is definitely scheduling the game as late as possible. It was postponed before our liverpool and chelsea games were postponed but both of those got rescheduled in earlier slots.

Hearing former refs talk like that really puzzles me, and makes me question what referees are taught. What does it even mean, 'he had one coming'? Are we to understand that a player is being deliberately judged on things that have happened in previous games? Because Xhaka didn't have a single foul before his yellow card, so it can hardly have been something that had happened in the Villa game.

I just don't understand how they can't see what they're saying is ludicrous, and makes for a completely arbitrary application of the rules. Just judge the situation - is the challenge worthy of a yellow card, then give it. If it's not, it doesn't matter if the player broke someone's leg three weeks prior.

Some good news about refs at least, Mike Dean is retiring at the end of the season.