Mirror Football

Sky Sports | Football

Arsenal News

Football Results

Barclays Premier League News

Arsenal News-Wire

Arseblog - "It"s fuckin" excellent"...an Arsenal blog.

Thierry Henry - Arsenal's Legend

Arsenal FC Blog

Arsenal Times News

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The home straight

An awful lot has been said about why Arsenal is not at the top of the league and why nothing but a miracle will now see us take the title. Many games have been played and analysed but for me, now emphasizes more then ever how desperately close we have come.

If had come away from Old Trafford last week with the result our performance deserved we would be sitting here just one point behind Utd and level with Chelsea with this weekend's match between the two still to come.

With three games to go the Gunners would well and truly be in with a great chance of taking the title. A situation like this makes me realise that much of the analysis we make, be it us fans or the media, is often total and utter rubbish!

Of course there are lots of 'ifs' and 'buts' with every match of every week of every season but with the Man Utd away game still being fresh in the mind we could argue if Rio Ferdinand's wild mis-kick had flown into the net instead of straight at his own goalkeeper to put us two-nil up the very situation I have described above could be reality.
So much for analysis for our so called 'failures'!

After recent weeks Reading at home was always going to be a bit flat. With our visitors however desperate for points, it could also have been one of those games that saw us drop further behind in the race for second spot.

A comfortable two goal victory could quite easily have been five or six without appearing to get out of third gear but it was definitely really pleasing to get three points under our belt after a period where this feels like a bit of a rarity!
Talking of things that don't seem to happen very often, we are now in late April and find ourselves with a free weekend. A chance maybe to do those weekend things that non football followers get up to, whatever they are, before heading up the M1 on Monday to take on Derby County.

Once again it is a game that we know we should win if we play to our ability and strengths. Paul Jewell however, is already building for next season and he will relish the chance of seeing his team competing with one of the country's top sides.
If Chelsea are to slip up this weekend we must take every advantage of the chance to keep fighting for that second spot. If they don't then it keeps that little 'miracle' alive for at least one more week!

Come on you reds!