Round up from a Red Perspective

Just to put our weekend in perspective, I’ve done a quick round-up of the weekend’s other results and what they mean for us:

Firstly, both Manchester clubs took three points against lower-table opposition. Steve Bruce duly obliged SurAlex on his anniversary, gifting him his usual win in what was a real nothing match. Wes Brown was even nice enough to score for his old team. Predictable really. City made hard work of QPR but came away with the win. In my opinion they will win the title this year, and I do think, unless they come against one of the two Spanish clubs early on, that they will take some stopping in the Champions League as well. What is perhaps most worrying is the strength of their squad. They possess probably the best starting eleven in the country, and I would argue that they could field a second eleven that would be in the country’s top ten teams at least. Scary.

Realistically, the wins of these two are meaningless to Arsenal at the moment. Wenger has said it himself- we will not be catching up with them this season. In my most blindly optimistic moments I can see United faltering, they certainly don’t look like a team capable of beating us 8-2 at the moment. Perhaps we could catch them if they slip up in a big way, but a title challenge is off the cards.

Newcastle’s win, though it maintains their lead in front of us, is not necessarily a bad thing. Think about it. This is a team run by Alan Pardew. A man sacked by footballing behemoths West Ham, Charlton and Southampton. To repeat for emphasis- Alan Pardew. Surely, surely, they can’t keep this up? Soon, their spiral towards mid-table mediocrity will begin, and this will suddenly remove one competitor for the third and fourth spots. The longer they carry on their charade, the more we can quietly wait behind them, hopefully staying in a position to take advantage when the luck of this clown inevitably runs out.

Abramovich FC nabbed a win against doomed Blackburn. Another nothing game. Chelsea return to winning ways after their van Persie-inspired nightmare, but still they failed to convince. Blackburn are a truly turgid side this year, and the Russian’s toys made hard work of the points. In my moments of confidence, I think we can catch Chelsea, maybe beating them into third place. Better yet, perhaps they can be pushed out of the top four altogether. Not that Roman would notice- he’s got bigger things on his plate at the moment.

The outrageous nature of the Spuds’ victory is annoying. I see them as our closest competitor for the fourth spot, unfortunately. I do think it will be between us and them, as Liverpool seem to have stalled slightly. Their last four Premier League games have included three draws. One was against Man United, but the other two were against Swansea and Norwich. We are now equal on points with them after our worst start to a season since time began, and that included losing to them at home.

All in all, then, results didn’t tend to favour us this weekend, and the inept refereeing at the end of the Tottenham-Fulham game saw them maintain their lead in front of us. Swansea did us a favour though, and, we did all that we could do- namely, wrap up our three points.

Finally, could I just give a brief mention to Stoke? Pulis’ team of genetically-enhanced giants managed to concede 5 against a Bolton team that had scored 11 in their 10 previous matches. Round of applause to the cap-wearing, football-hating cretin.

Until next time,

 
Joe
Follow me on Twitter @joeblogsarsenal