We really need to make the gap below us bigger in the next two weeks. Three of our last six league fixtures are against the top three, and it would be beneficial to the squad to have a bit of breathing room

Real football is nearly back. We all hoped Villa would mess up at some point, but I doubt anyone thought they would screw up quite as spectacularly as they have. From moments away from being eight points clear, they’re now three points behind us having managed one point from their last five games, with eleven goals conceded in their last four and three losses in a row. There’s no relief for them just yet, they have to face United at Old Trafford, off the back of two defeats and ready to annihilate someone. If we beat City and Villa fail to win, then we’ve got at least a five point gap and that will be important at the start of a very difficult month. The next three weeks will decide what we achieve this season. We could either be six or more points clear of Villa in the league and in the semi final of the Champions League and the final of the FA Cup, or be out of both competitions and struggling in the league.

We really need to make the gap below us bigger in the next two weeks. Three of our last six league fixtures are against the top three, and it would be beneficial to the squad to have a bit of breathing room in the league while battling in potentially the semi finals of two competitions. You would expect Manchester United to beat Villa (although they were expected to beat Fulham and Liverpool too) meaning we could open a six point gap, and then next weekend Everton travel to Villa Park, perhaps sniffing Villa’s blood, and if that were to end in a draw and we manage to beat Wigan away (not an easy task by any means) then the gap could become eight points. Obviously this would involve some semblance of consistency on our part, which has hardly been our forte this season, but winning these next two games could pretty much secure our league position if results go our way.

Hell, maybe we should even be looking above us. After Spurs managed to do us another favour a week and a half ago by beating Chelsea (why couldn’t they have beaten United on the last day in 99?), we’re now only six points off of third place. Winning the league is out of the question even with United’s recent losses, but why shouldn’t we aim to finish as high as possible? Obviously our priorities should be the FA Cup and the Champions League if we can get into a secure enough position in the top four, but Chelsea still have to come to Le Grove for the third to last game of the season, and it would only take them slipping up once or twice before that for us to be able to take them at the finish line. They have to play Everton, travel to West Ham, face Bolton in the midst of a relegation battle and Newcastle with the Ex-Pro Pundit Taskforce in charge. Stranger things have happened and we should try and be in a position to take advantage.

Obviously it all needs to start off by getting some serious revenge on Manchester City, at the hands of whom we suffered our last league defeat, over four months ago. Since then we’ve gone sixteen league games unbeaten and forced our way back into the top four. City’s last away win in the league was over seven months ago. They’ve lost nine away games, the fourth worst record in the league, and currently sit tenth in the league. We’re looking for our ninth win in the last twelve home games in all competitions. Manchester City have perhaps been our favourite team to play under Arsene, up until this season. In fifteen meetings in all competitions since he’s been our manager, we’ve won thirteen, drawn one and lost two. We won this fixture last season 1-0, with a late goal from Cesc giving us the victory. Could he have as important an impact this season on his return to the team?

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