the title is there for arsenal's chasing
kojodinho - talkingOfArsenal.com
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The long haul that is the Premiership has thrown up a lifeline for the two-horse chasing pack in this seasons title race.
Barely a day passed between Wenger confidently predicting at his Friday news conference that Manchester Utd would drop points before the seasons end, than United duly obliged with a draw at The Riverside.
Yesterday, the seemingly impregnable Manchester Utd defence showed frailties in places we'd all forgotten existed.
Middlesborough were rampant, and had their finishing been better, or, putting it another way, had Alves joined the premiership club just two weeks earlier, United would have probably come away with, in the best French accent Le Boss can conjure up, nil point.
As far as I'm concerned, these points dropped by United at 'Boro, represent one last throw of the dice for both Arsenal and Chelsea. I've taken yet another look at the remaining fixtures for the season for all three clubs, and the results below are a very distinct possibility.
Manchester Utd's remaining fixtures
Arsenal - (Man Utd) Loss
Blackburn - Win
Chelsea - Draw
West Ham - Draw
Wigan - Win
Chelsea remaining fixtures
Wigan - Win
Everton - Draw
Man Utd - Draw
Newcastle - Win
Bolton - Win
Arsenal remaining fixtures
Man Utd - (Arsenal) Win
Reading - Win
Derby - Win
Everton - Win
Sunderland - Win
With the two strongest squads (in terms of depth), both Chelsea and United could very possibly cancel each other out in a draw. With their potentially growing list of injuries, I wouldn't put another draw beyond the current league leaders, and I've picked West Ham for that (they always give the Mancs a good game).
Onto Chelsea, I see them winning all their remaining games except the games against Manchester Utd, and possibly one other, that being Everton, who also always give Chelsea a game. Newcastle are on a roll at the moment, and could give Chelsea a game, however to be on the safe side I'm calling that game for Chelsea.
Which leaves the Arsenal.
Unbelievably, after all the ups and downs of our season so far, a last ditch opportunity has been placed within our grasp again, and the challenge is to beat United at Old Trafford (a slim margin will do), and go on to win the remaining four games.
With Vidic and Ferdinand possibly out for some weeks, United do not look as unbeatable as they were just days ago. With Sagna coming back to shore up the defence, with Van Persie also returning to lead alongside Adebayor, with Walcott beginning to look like the player we all know he can become, anything can happen. A good result at Old Trafford could see our young squad garner up one last title push.
This could leave the league table looking like this come the end of Sunday May 11th 2008:
- Arsenal, 86 points
- Manchester Utd, 85 points
- Chelsea, 85 points
with goal difference separating second and third positions.
So yes, this season really is going to go down to the wire - it is tight on all fronts, very tight, and the chances of the points panning out as outlined above is unlikely, given the nature of our league, however it is still possible.
Stranger things have happened in football.
This fact will not be lost on the boys travelling to Old Trafford this weekend. Before today, it would have been hard to see this, and harder still to say it, but make no mistake, we're not out of the title race just yet.
First, though, there is just the small matter of the Champions League second leg at Anfield tomorrow evening.
Come on the Arsenal!
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