Race For Third: And Then There Was Three...

So the finish line is well and truly in sight for the 2011/2012 Premier League season. After last night’s matches, the League table evened itself out in terms of games played with all 20 clubs now having endured 36 of the 38 games.

The results yesterday didn’t go in our favour at all, with Sp*rs cruising to a 4-1 win away at struggling Bolton, and Newcastle coming out on top with a hard fought victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge thanks to two goals of the highest quality from Papiss Cisse.

This now means that there is only one point separating us in third place and Newcastle in fifth, with Sp*rs currently occupying the final Champions League spot on goal difference ahead of the Toon Army. And realistically, it’ll now be two out of the three of us that provisionally make it into the competition next year, as Chelsea are probably too far back being four points behind Newcastle in sixth.

It doesn’t really change much from the Arsenal point of view though. Even if Sp*rs and Newcastle dropped points last night, the objective for us will have remained the same: win our last two games, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop us from finishing third.

Sure, we can hope that others do us a favour. And it’s very easy to look at the fixture list and think that there’s a chance Sp*rs might come up stuck away at an admittedly poor yet fighting for their lives Aston Villa on Sunday. At the same time, you’d be forgiven for placing a small amount of faith in title chasing Manchester City taking some points away from their trip to the Sports Direct Arena/St James’ Park/whoever Ashley has now sold stadium rights to. But we can’t expect it. Nor base our preparation around the idea.

Both sides play 24 hours after our final home match of the season, in which I’m extremely hopeful we will take three points against a dipping Norwich side who have little left to play for this season. Yet no doubt they’ll be up for their first ever trip to the Emirates Stadium, however there is absolutely no reason to believe that we shouldn’t be better prepared or more focused for their arrival.

Anything less than three points against Norwich, and then surely the tails of Sp*rs and Newcastle will be wagging, and they’ll have something extra to fight for in their games on Sunday. Plus it would leave us with the daunting task of needing a win at all costs against West Brom on the final day of the season – Roy Hodgson’s last hurrah before he leaves the Midlands for the gloomy skies of the English football HQ.

I’m confident about Norwich, but I’m bricking it about West Brom. The neutrals/romantics/Baggies will all believe that the game is meant to be for West Brom. That Hodgson will cap off his tenure in style with a victory over one of the big guns, and that the players will be giving it their all to make sure this happens.

However, with nine defeats at The Hawthorns this term already, they are definitely beatable. Hell, we’re Arsenal. Everyone is beatable. And again I go back to my previous point, that if our players can’t get themselves mentally ready and apply themselves fully for these final two games, then quite simply we probably don’t deserve to play Champions League football next season.

And maybe, just maybe, the romantic football tale doesn’t always have to follow the script. It can’t always come to fruition. Last night Fabrice Muamba returned to the Reebok Stadium to watch his team mates play for the first time since the cardiac arrest he suffered at White Hart Lane as we all know about. Something extra for the players to fight for. Something else for the fans to get excited about. But Sp*rs ensured there was no happy return for Muamba, and no celebration for Bolton. I hate them, but they were professional and clinical, and very good value for their big win at the business end of the season. That’s the attitude and application we need to take in to our remaining games.

I will not be happy if those fuckers finish above us….

Momentum is the key to the final stages of the season, and currently it’s Newcastle who top the entire League form charts right now with 15 points from their last 18 available. Sp*rs have 10 from 18, and we have only eight points from our last six matches. I don’t think this is detrimental to our chances, but it’s significant as it shows that Newcastle are the team with the momentum, and after beating Chelsea last night their confidence will be sky high. But all we need is two wins, and all their current momentum will count for nothing.

Whilst I remain confident about our chances of taking the maximum six points necessary to finish third, it’s worth being realistic and balanced and mentioning the consequences of what would happen IF we were to finish fourth. Because that nasty little bunch that play in Fulham and wear blue currently hold a pretty important Joker card that has the potential to absolutely ruin whoever takes the final "provisional" Champions League spot.

Should Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final on 19^th May, the place in next years competition would be theirs. The thought of them winning the competition is sickening enough, but add that fact into it and it becomes so utterly repulsive it adds a whole new level of support directed towards Bayern Munich. The last time I supported them in a European final, they screwed us all over by allowing Man United to win it in 1999. If they do it again this year, and I’ll be tempted to personally fly over there and slap every single person who has anything to do with their club. England always lose to the Germans. No doubt it’ll happen in Euro 2012, so get the bloody job done Munich or else… yeah….

But that scenario is totally avoidable. As I’ve said all piece, and everyone is saying all the time now, all we need to do is focus on ourselves, firstly ensure we’re 110% prepared for Norwich on Saturday, and take six points from the remaining six.

If you ask any of the other clubs whose position they’d rather be in, they’d 100% say Arsenal’s as we have the extra point on the board. Let’s get the job done and make sure that the same thing is being said at 5pm on the 13^th May.