Two of the weekend matches that had significant importance were the games Arsenal versus Chelsea and Burnley versus Leicester. The former, a top of the table clash, and the latter, a relegation battle.
The mathematics is simple. Win for Arsenal and they will reel in the Blues' ten point lead. Burnley and Leicester need as much points as they can gather to escape the dreaded drop. As for Chelsea, they can lose yet retain their healthy lead.
As expected, Chelsea parked their bus at the Emirates Stadium, or in Mourinho's word, played a game that belongs to the 19th century. They got a draw and retain their ten points lead over Arsenal and Manchester City.
Two more victories is what they need to bring the league title back to the bridge.
Over at Turf Moor, Leicester won their game and moved out of the relegation zone. As for Burnley's fate, it is out of their hands. They can only win as many games as they can and hope the others will falter.
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Wembley, here we come. Arsenal FC
After a nine years wait, Arsenal finally broke their run without a trophy when they won the English FA Cup in 2014. Many have predicted that this could be the start of a golden era but that was put in place after quite a disastrous start to their new season.
Out of the Champions League, Capital One Cup and out of the league title chase (thou they could still mathematically win it), FA Cup is their last hope of a silverware, if one exclude the “top 4 trophy” that manager Wenger so craved.
Like last year, they had a tough semi-final against supposingly lower quality opposition. But unlike last year, they settled the issue in extra-time without having to go through the lottery of a penalty shootout. They took the lead in the 40th minute only for Reading to equalise within nine minutes of the second half. Try as they might, Arsenal could not find a winning goal. It took a mistake by Reading’s goalkeeper, letting Sanchez shot slipped through his legs, to eventually settle the issue.
Aston Villa now stand in the way of Wenger of equaling the most FA Cup won by a manager. Many clubs would love to be in this situation of winning the oldest cup trophy, but for Arsenal fans, I suspect they would rather trade it for either the League title or the Champions League.
Without doubt, Arsenal will be favourites to retain the trophy, but this is Arsenal that we are talking about. A club that has the tendency to either screw things up at the big stage or make things difficult for themselves. Not to forget, the “strange” tactics of Wenger. In the semi final, he replaced both full backs, Debuchy and Gibbs coming in for Bellerin and Monreal. Both are able replacements, in fact, the first choices but they have not seen much actions lately. Also, he decided to start with Welbeck instead of the in-form Giroud. Puzzling indeed.
In any case, I am looking forward to a great final at the Wembley Stadium. While I am quietly confident, something tells me that the result might not be as what I have hoped for.
Out of the Champions League, Capital One Cup and out of the league title chase (thou they could still mathematically win it), FA Cup is their last hope of a silverware, if one exclude the “top 4 trophy” that manager Wenger so craved.
Like last year, they had a tough semi-final against supposingly lower quality opposition. But unlike last year, they settled the issue in extra-time without having to go through the lottery of a penalty shootout. They took the lead in the 40th minute only for Reading to equalise within nine minutes of the second half. Try as they might, Arsenal could not find a winning goal. It took a mistake by Reading’s goalkeeper, letting Sanchez shot slipped through his legs, to eventually settle the issue.
Aston Villa now stand in the way of Wenger of equaling the most FA Cup won by a manager. Many clubs would love to be in this situation of winning the oldest cup trophy, but for Arsenal fans, I suspect they would rather trade it for either the League title or the Champions League.
Without doubt, Arsenal will be favourites to retain the trophy, but this is Arsenal that we are talking about. A club that has the tendency to either screw things up at the big stage or make things difficult for themselves. Not to forget, the “strange” tactics of Wenger. In the semi final, he replaced both full backs, Debuchy and Gibbs coming in for Bellerin and Monreal. Both are able replacements, in fact, the first choices but they have not seen much actions lately. Also, he decided to start with Welbeck instead of the in-form Giroud. Puzzling indeed.
In any case, I am looking forward to a great final at the Wembley Stadium. While I am quietly confident, something tells me that the result might not be as what I have hoped for.
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