The next five Arsenal league games will probably decide whether this is the season that the Gunners get back to winning the Premier League or whether the pressure will continue to mount on Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal’s next five league games are:
January
16 Bolton v Arsenal
27 Aston Villa v Arsenal
31 Man Utd v Arsenal
February
7 Chelsea v Arsenal
10 Arsenal v Liverpool
It is a brutal schedule. I cannot remember another Premier League team who had to face a run of games that included Aston Villa, Man Utd and Chelsea all away in a 14 day period and then follow that up with games against Liverpool and Porto in the Champions League.
Bolton has always been a tough place for Arsenal and with Owen Coyle making his debut as Bolton manager in this game, this match suddenly looks a little tougher than it did a couple of weeks ago. But it has to be 3 points for Arsenal. Anything less is a disaster considering the next set of matches.
After an FA Cup trip to Stoke (should be an Arsenal victory), we get the five games that should decide the season. Villa, United, Chelsea away and Liverpool at home. Win all four games and the Gunners will probably go to the top of the Premier League. Loss all five (the doomsday scenario) and Arsenal will be struggling to grab that all important fourth champions league place.
The actual results will fall somewhere in between these two extremes. Villa and Man United away are winnable games, the challenge is that Arsenal will play them both within a 4 day period. The optimist in me says Arsenal will pick up six points here, the realist in me says four with a draw at Villa Park and a win at Old Trafford.
Then we play Chelsea and Liverpool in similar circumstances back to back. Drogba and Chelsea manhandled Arsenal at the Emirates and I cannot see Arsenal going to Stamford Bridge and winning. A point would be fantastic, but I am not expecting that.
I will expect Arsenal to bounce back from the Chelsea game and beat Liverpool. Rafa’s team is not that good this year, and they do not travel well to the capital. So this should be three points.
So 10 points out of a possible 15. Enough to keep Arsenal in the top three and ahead of the chasing herd, but not enough to win the title this year.
How do you see the next five league games going?
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
are we(arsenal)not suppose to play man united at home?
Yes. My mistake. Man United is at home
man utd game is at home and we should beat villa and a draw at chelsea then beating liverpool will be more realistic than winning all the games but we must buy(someone other than sol campbell) do you belive it
Shocked at the Sol Campbell news.
hopefully another striker…im predicting 12 points for the last 5 games
An even more brutal schedule than you think..Home game against Bolton has been set for Wed 20th!!!!
The postponed Bolton match at the Emirates is now to be played on the 20th of January. So we should take the 6 points off Bolton (don’t think Owen Coyle will make Bolton any better), narrowly beating Aston Villa away, laying a defeat to Man U at home, getting a vital point at Stamford Bridge, and comfortably beating Liverpool at home, then taking care of business against Porto (draw away, then dismantling them at the Emirates). If we were to rotate for the FA Cup game against Stoke, I can’t see our youngsters overpowering the Potters (may lose or draw a replay preferably for the youngsters to bring the fight back home).
The Stoke game is a major banana skin for me as I can see Wenger rotating this squad and playing the kids while Stoke send out their first team and beat us a la Man City
They are all winnable games and would have love to see arsenal beat them all. The team that scares me most is liverpool having beaten them twice they would be up for it considering that they are out of the champions league. The fixture congestion would mean enough strain on our already depleted side. And getting 10pts out of 15 is very good omen. Hopefully wenger can pull his magic
Though i would love arsenal to get 13 pts from these games,but being more realistic we can beat bolton,villa,liverpool and probably man u,a point at bridge would be tough !but the real problem comes when any of the teams say bolton or villa cause an upset or two draws come from them then surely our title dreams would come to a stall !
I’d take 7 points from those games right now.
16 Bolton v Arsenal 1 – 2
27 Aston Villa v Arsenal 2- 2
31 Man Utd v Arsenal 1 – 1
February
7 Chelsea v Arsenal 0 – 1
10 Arsenal v Liverpool 1- 1
9 POINTS OUT OF POSSIBLE 15, BEST WE CAN GET
All would be winable if we had a striker like Torres,Rooney,Drogba,Anelka……….i just wonder if this run of games makes Arsene realise that without a world class striker and keeper we will forever be held back from true greatness.Or maybe he is about to sign one.
i am just afraid of consecutive draws as we had last season and the season before at the same duration in january and february.
i just that wont happen this season again.
i hope we can get atleast 8 points out of 15 and 6 points again boltan than we will be in a very good position.
Actually, if Arsenal was to come out of the five games with a deficit of say 5 points to the leader, I would then say that Arsenal would most definitely win the EPL. Why? Because, the leader wopuld still have two/three top- four material teams to contend with (Man City included) and we would still remain with one (Man City in April). Remember, in November we were a whooping 11 points behind Chealski, why do you lose your faith right now? If Sol is signed, it might turn out to be a blessing, not with the fixture pile-up and fatigue on the part of our defence. Should Clichy come back, that is a new signing, Cesc has rested enough with his injury, Bendtner comes back to give us presence in attack, suddenly Arsenal is very good. I still believe.
January
20 Bolton v Arsenal 1 – 2
27 Aston Villa v Arsenal 0 – 1
31 Man Utd v Arsenal 1 – 2
February
7 Chelsea v Arsenal 0 – 1
10 Arsenal v Liverpool 1- 1
13 points. We must beat man utd and chelsea!!!