Hi Rich,

Very true. I know this team is potentially different, not mentally scarred like previous teams, but I still look at Chelsea away, West Ham away and Tottenham away as really difficult games, not to mention Man U at home which is always a big game no matter how good or bad United are.

I reckon if we could nick a draw at Chelsea, win at West Ham, draw at Tottenham and draw with United that wouldn't be a terrible outcome in the normal scheme of things but would it be enough?.

Morning Soc
i think we will beat utd at home. Very confident about that match.
i think a west ham probably focused on the Europa league especially if they get a positive result on thursday are beatable but would take a draw.
its Chelsea and spurs away that i'm worried about but at the moment chelsea are wobbling. I'm hoping all this abramovich takeover stuff has unsettled them and they have 2 massive games coming up against real madrid and in the fa cup that we can hopefully benefit from.
Win tonight and we are just 2 points behind which is just incredible.
Just this inevitability about spurs that kane and son continually dig them out of a hole and those two are motoring.
I'm praying we win tonight and beat brighton over the weekend and villa can even take a point off them then thats a 5 point gap over spurs.
it is in our hands but was never comfortable with people saying we are the favourites.
Still a lot of hard work to be done.
Really really hope zaha and olise are missing tonight. Sods law they both start the game.
i think we need 72 points to be sure.
win our 4 home games and that leaves us needing 6 points from 6 away games.....

Not sure if we can but I'd like to see us nick a win against either Chelsea, Man Utd or Tottenham and not lose to the other 2. This would also mean winning all the games of the sides below us who are not challenging for 4th. A very tall order, but sperz and Man Utd will also have to do well.

Soton away is very tricky. Draw or loss is what I'd guess most betting people would call this game for us. My worry is that if we win, it will take too much out of us for Chelsea. Also, playing Man Utd 3 days later seems unfair but it is what it is. This will be a week that would likely make or break our season.

We will need help like the one we got from Leicester. Tottenham has a tough April. Easier than ours but they will have to play very, very well.

17 years ...where the hell did that time go ; I liked Steve ; when he did post he was a full time moaner ; Wiltord was the greatest waste of space on the planet .
He created a brilliant Arsenal forum ... great colour scheme .

I exchanged a few nice e mails with Steve

He banned me from the forum for three months ...unbelievable ... just because I called him a great effeminate poofter ............. I mean where is the harm in that ....?
but I was working in Aussie at the time so after sulking for a week ; I logged on from Port Hedland , Blackwater , Rockhampton , Murrin Murrin , Brisbane . Mt Isa in the end he e mailed me ... said you can rejoin ....you f******* tosser

If Tottenham lose against Liverpool, the NLD is a draw and they win the rest they'll end up with 73 points. To get 74 we can lose two and draw two of our remaining 10 games. Not going to say it will be easy at all, but that's a very tall order for Tottenham and a very achievable string of results for us. We could theoretically lose against Chelsea and Man Utd, and draw against Tottenham and West Ham and still do it.

Very sad news to hear Louis van Gaal has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Reminds me (and I hope others) to get it checked regularly.

https://twitter.com/DaleJohnsonESPN/sta ... xR2pUy6-Vw
Scott McTominey avoiding his second red card of the season. Ex refs have said refs will have previous reputation on their mind. So does McTominey get away with this one because he got away with one earlier in the season? McTominey should have 2 red cards this season and now, according to ex refs, be a marked man in any future decision making on him. Using previous punishments to determine the incident in the here and now is totally flawed and gets more and more flawed the more times you do it. It is what keeps McTominey and Kane as saints and Xhaka as ill disciplined when in reality Xhaka has only made 1 bad tackle this season but has 2 reds, Kane has made at least 1 and MCtominey more than 2 and neither of those have a red to their name.

Been noting the nervousness of some here. Arsenal’s remaining fixtures and my predicted points from them are: Crystal Palace away (1), Brighton home (3), Southampton away (3), Chelsea away (0), Manchester United home (1), West Ham away (1), Leeds home (3), Newcastle away (3), Tottenham away (1), Everton home (3).

I’m deliberately being negative as I fancy us to win at Palace tonight (I’m writing this on the train to get there), Manchester United home and possibly West Ham away. My negative forecasts as above give us 19 points.

Tottenham’s remaining fixtures and my points forecasts for them are: Aston Villa away (1), Brighton home (3), Brentford away (1), Leicester home (3), Liverpool away (0), Burnley away (3), Arsenal home (1), Norwich home (3). That gives them 15 points.

Even if we lose at Tottenham, we’d still 18 points from the remaining fixtures. That would leave us with 72 points. Winning the North London derby would give Tottenham 17 points from their remaining fixtures. That would give them a total of 71 points. So I think we could even lose at White Hart Land and finish above them.

Of course, anyone can lose against anybody. But I think my above predictions (putting Arsenal with another 19 points) are not overly positive, and nor do I think the predictions for Tottenham’s remaining fixtures (so another 15 points) are particularly pessimistic for them. As such, I still think we’re firm favourites for a top four place.

Massive game for Tavares and Emile Smith Rowe.

We need Emile to prove to everyone he needs to start. This won’t be easy by any means

3 young players on the bench. Very unlikely we’ll see any of them unless we’re comfortably winning with 10 to go. Holding, Elneny, Lokonga, Martinelli and Nketiah would all come on before them and I suspect Srteta would rather put experienced players out of position before bringing in the young players

The way Arteta spoke about Tierney’s knee injury makes it sound like more than just a knock keeping him out for this game only. Could be a spell on the sidelines for him.
Edit: Seen more talk that there is genuine fear his season is over

Our game v Spurs is confirmed for Thursday 12th May. Our game v Newcastle away is moved to the monday night game of that week and our game v Leeds is moved to the Sunday 2pm slot that weekend.

It will be interesting to see how many weeks we play before or after Spurs. In the run in It is a big advantage to play first.
Edit: Also when we play Leeds on the sunday that is the game before the NLD, Spurs play on the saturday - theirs is away to Liverpool but still nearly a days extra rest before a potential season defining game

Need to up the tempo lads

Tough night just got tougher.

They look far more up for it.

I was about to post that Gab is not quite on point tonight. Don’t think you can blame him for that one though.

Neither Saka or Ode are in it so far.

It is a bit of a lucky goal considering how the header came back across goal, the palace guy knew nothing about it. Got to defend the set piece better though.

I have to say I do fear for us a little bit away from home when we go behind. Have we ever come back to get anything from a game when we've gone behind away from home?

This is all about second balls. Palace are playing very direct and are just picking up second balls and being very phsyical. We've got to get hold of those second balls - simple

Umm. Not going to plan is it?

A long way back now.

Not at the races sadly.

having no CF makes it incredibly difficult. No out ball to turn the defenders.

You can blame Gab for that one.

*%^@. Absolute mountain to climb now.

We are so poor today. Can hardly string any passes together.

We can’t string 2 passes together

Brentford away comes to mind. This is a rampant physical big crowd energy team. Did we have a plan to neutralise that? Tierney out hasn’t helped but we look unprepared.

Urgh, that is just atoal mess and mix up at the back. That through ball should never ever end up in the goal like that. Feels like writing the game off as a defat already.
The only way Palace were beating us today was the same way any mid table team beats us at home, high tempo, high press, get the crowd behind them, a few big tackles, winnign second balls, rattle us and pounce on the mistakes. There is nothing sophisticated about it

I say it all the time, I hate these late night away games when we're the only game on tv. The home crowds just get absolutely rampant for it. Give me this game at 3pm on a Saturday any day of the week.

Our Newcastle away game moving to the monday night makes me far less confident about that game than if it was a saturday 3pm game

Trouble all over the pitch. Can't deal with their press, defense looks stretched and not at the races, not winning any duels. Our attacking players have barely been in the game at all. Only way from here is up.

Very lucky to get a point here now.

Easy to say in hindsight but I’d have started Martinelli after tearing it up with Brazil, over SR with 20 minutes after an injury with England.

Winning duels is the key thing. Losing them all over the pitch

Sadly I’m not sure it is

Feels like we've got to get 1 before half time here. Currently no chance of getting one with the way we're playing

Tavares is all over the place. Might need to switch saka to left back

Well, if Lacazette wants to redeem himself, yada yada yada ....

Feels closer to 3-0 than 2-1, they look so much hungrier not to mention sharper.

Yet more duels lost. Gallagher just buzzing round winning every tackle and second ball, we're not matching the intensity or being careful enough with the ball.

They are ferocious in mf.

We ain’t.