By Bulldog Drummond
The very early indications on injuries that we have for the game tomorrow is that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was not seriously injured in the cup semi-final and that Lucas Perez has now recovered from his injury that kept him out of the weekend game and is back in full training.
Whether the Ox plays or not might give a clue as to Mr Wenger’s thinking about the chances of climbing the table to take a top four finish. Here’s the table
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 32 | 24 | 3 | 5 | 65 | 27 | +38 | 75 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 32 | 21 | 8 | 3 | 68 | 22 | +46 | 71 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 34 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 70 | 42 | +28 | 66 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 32 | 19 | 7 | 6 | 63 | 35 | +28 | 64 |
| 5 | Manchester United | 32 | 17 | 12 | 3 | 50 | 24 | +26 | 63 |
| 6 | Everton | 34 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 60 | 37 | +23 | 58 |
| 7 | Arsenal | 31 | 17 | 6 | 8 | 63 | 40 | +23 | 57 |
There’s a seven point gap to Manchester City with just one game in hand and a nine point gap to Liverpool with three in hand. It is of course possible to catch Liverpool by winning the three in hand, while catching up the goal difference, but we’ll still have to keep going with the other matches as well. Tough – given that minds will also be on the FA Cup Final, but nonetheless possible.
But that fourth spot depends not only on catching Liverpool, but also one of Manchester United and Manchester City slipping to make way for us.
However all we can do is “take each game as it comes” as they used to say. And first it is Leicester…
After a run of five successive league defeats in January and February in which they didn’t score a single goal Leicester then went on a run of five successive league victories which took them from 17th to 10th in the league. A defeat and a draw in the last two dropped them down a couple of places.
But, in that run of five successive wins, only one was away – that was a 3-2 win over West Ham. All the rest were at home.
Indeed their away form looks pretty horrible throughout the season. Here are the last six away games
| Game | Date | Opposition | Venue | Result | Pos |
| 22 | 22.01.2017 | Southampton | away | L0-3 | 15 |
| 23 | 31.01.2017 | Burnley | away | L0-1 | 16 |
| 25 | 12.02.2017 | Swansea City | away | L0-2 | 17 |
| 29 | 18.03.2017 | West Ham United | away | W3-2 | 15 |
| 32 | 09.04.2017 | Everton | away | L2-4 | 11 |
| 33 | 15.04.2017 | Crystal Palace | away | D2-2 | 12 |
In those six games Leicester have scored seven and let in 14. They have their one win, one draw and four defeats.
Our home record over the last six reads
| Game | Date | Opposition | Venue | Result | Pos |
| 19 | 01.01.2017 | Crystal Palace | home | W2-0 | 3 |
| 22 | 22.01.2017 | Burnley | home | W2-1 | 2 |
| 23 | 31.01.2017 | Watford | home | L1-2 | 3 |
| 25 | 11.02.2017 | Hull City | home | W2-0 | 3 |
| 30 | 02.04.2017 | Manchester City | home | D2-2 | 6 |
| 31 | 05.04.2017 | West Ham United | home | W3-0 | 5 |
So four wins for us, one draw and that one defeat to Watford. 12 goals for us, and five conceded.
Indeed if we look at the tables the contrast is one of the most extraordinary we have seen all season
| W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Arsenal Home | 10 | 3 | 2 | 31 | 15 | +16 | 33 | ||
| 15 | Leicester City Away | 1 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 35 | -20 | 7 |
But we are now distracted by the FA Cup so nothing is certain.
Meanwhile the physioroom league table of injuries shows Arsenal and Leicester one injury apart
| # | TEAM | TOTAL INJURIES | LATEST PLAYER INJURED | INJURY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 8 | A Herrera | Ankle Injury |
| 2 | Liverpool | 8 | D Sturridge | hip flexor strain |
| 3 | Manchester City | 7 | Fernandinho | Muscle Injury |
| 4 | West Ham United | 7 | S Feghouli | Knock |
| 5 | Everton | 6 | M Besic | Fitness |
| 6 | Swansea City | 6 | L Fer | Dead Leg |
| 7 | Southampton | 5 | S McQueen | Groin Strain |
| 8 | Hull City | 5 | D Meyler | MCL Knee Ligament Injury |
| 9 | Arsenal | 5 | A Oxlade-Chamberlain | Ankle Injury |
| 10 | Sunderland | 5 | B Jones | Concussion |
| 11 | Watford | 5 | C Cathcart | Knee Injury |
| 12 | Bournemouth | 5 | D Gosling | Calf Injury |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 4 | J Tomkins | Ankle Injury |
| 14 | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | M Vorm | Knee Injury |
| 15 | Burnley | 4 | S Arfield | Knee Injury |
| 16 | Leicester City | 4 | W Morgan | Hamstring Injury |
Manchester United are top of the league, but I have not heard any ravings on Talk Sport about how inept their training regime is, for some reason. Can’t understand why.
Our injured players are…
| PLAYER | CONDITION | EXPECTED RETURN | AVAILABLE? |
| A Oxlade-Chamberlain | Ankle Injury | April 25, 2017 | |
| S Mustafi | Thigh | April 30, 2017 | Major Doubt |
| D Ospina | Back Injury | April 25, 2017 | Major Doubt |
| L Perez | Thigh Strain | April 25, 2017 | |
| S Cazorla | Plantaris Injury | July 1, 2017 | Major Doubt |
This table confirms that not only Lucas and the Ox will be ready to play but so might be Ospina – although obviously as the backup keeper. But I wonder if Ospina might come back and claim his place for the Cup Final.
The Physioroom logic often escapes me – as here we have Ospina recovered by simultaneously a major doubt. Hard to see how he can be both, but I suspect he will not be beached tomorrow, but instead sitting in the comfy chair.
More thoughts tomorrow.
An anniversary highlight
25 April 1979: Nine days after beating Chelsea 5-2 Arsenal lost 1-5 to Villa. In between we lost 0-2 to Derby. In total Arsenal played nine games in 33 days ahead of the Manchester United cup final.
All the anniversaries appear on the home page each day. Except when they don’t.
As ever hope springs eternal. Can we beat the PGMO?I hope so.
If it is depressing for us to watch the PGMO at work, think what it must be like for the players. But hope springs eternal as it did on Sunday even though we feared the worst.
I think they’ll(PIGMOB) be taking a break for now. We may not be able to distort their intended plans for the top finishes. Maybe they’ll have to spring back to action when things go awry later on .
After all,even considering that, ‘All the well laid plans of man and mice …’ , they still have to contend with the Spuds ‘ propensity to f*uck things up spectacularly !
We need to do our job today, remember the refereeing in this fixture last season and try to give no chance to be scre*ed, if we do our part we can then sit back and enjoy the Manchester derby tomorrow…
And without getting ahead of ourselves finish off Spurs season at the weekend…
Small mercies and all that…
Really need a win in both the Spurs and Man U (and don’t forget Chelsea FA cup final), so we’ve got a very tough run of games coming up. Let’s just hope that the players can get some kind of momentum going and, of course, a lot depends on how hard “the powers that be” will be pushing to get Man U that coveted Champions League spot.
But Jammy J that 4th place is not a trophy!! Man U only play for trophies.
United need that trophy fourt or Europa, it’s money not football!