I guess all our remaining matches are must win ones if we were to harbor any hope of winning the premiership title this year. The match against Liverpool at the Emirates this Sunday will begin a sequence of 7 matches which I believe will be critical to our championship hopes. If we do not lose or draw in any of these matches, I can safely say that we will be champions come the end of May. After Liverpool, we will visit White Hart Lane and The Reebok in subsequent matches before the big game against Manchester United. After the May 1st encounter, we travel to the Britannia to take on Stoke before our last home match against Villa, followed by Fulham away on the last day of the season. All these matches are winnable but it will be tough. The question is do the Gunners have the passion and heart to make a last gasp drive to the title.
From the evidence in the last four matches, sadly the answer is a resounding no. The points we dropped against Sunderland, West Bromwich and Blackburn were the result of the lack of heart from the players. If we fail in our quest for the title this year, we will have to look back at our performances in these three games. I seldom criticize our players but it pains me to see some of the lads not putting their heart into the game.
So what can we expect this Sunday? In the first game of the season, we were really lucky to escape with a point from Anfield. We were outplayed by the Reds even though they were down to 10 men. This time around, I hope it will be different. They will not have Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres is gone but I am pretty impressed with Suarez and Carroll. I fear our defense will have a hard time containing these two. The good news for our defense is the possible return of Wojciech Szcsesny to the line-up. I feel much better with him between the sticks than either Lehman or Almunia.
That is why I am quite bullish about our chances in this game. No doubt they have a good offence but I think our midfielders will have control of the space and provide more chances to the forwards. The possible return of Song will be timely while Walcott will surely add something different when he takes his place in the starting line-up.
No matter how we do it, all that matters on Sunday is the three points. Come on, Gunners!
Submitted by The Arsenal Kid
