Arsenal will beat West Ham on Saturday.
I’m sure of that.
I never, never bet on Arsenal but I WILL be betting on that one.
Overall, Arsenal’s upcoming opponents contain a host of ghosts, a ton of trauma, a dumptruck load of demons.
Mention of West Ham, Sam Allardyce, Birmingham and Bobby Zamora bring back a lot of bad, bad memories.
West Ham were the last team to win at Highbury and the first to win at the Emirates.
Game 2 is Birmingham and St Andrews is where Eduardo got a horror injury and where Gallas cried on the halfway line.
Game 7 is Blackburn, who are managed by the brutal Allardyce, whose Bolton teams kicked Arsenal black and blue.
Game 8 is on Sunday May 9 is Fulham with Bobby Zamora, the striker who left Sol Campbell on his arse on the night that West Ham won 3-2 and Sol came off at half-time.
That was Sol Campbell’s Elvis moment: Sol has left the building!
That was on a Wednesday night in February, 2006. Four long years ago.
If Arsenal were to win these 8 games and grab the league title they would be exorcising a decade of demons all at once. And permanently.
What a rite of passage that would be for the squad that Wenger has believed in so fervently.
Could it happen? Will it happen?
I don’t know. Nobody knows.
But it’s not really about winning those eight matches anyway.
It’s a league. It’s not about how many games you win. It’s about how many points you get compared to the teams round you.
So this nail-biting run-in is about what Arsenal do, what Man United do, and what Chelsea do.
It’s about the goals, the luck, the injuries, the mistakes, the refs in the next 24 games. And since Chelsea have a game in hand, it’s 25 games.
A lot can happen in 25 games.
Let’s see what happens this weekend.
Blackburn play Chelsea and Man United are at home to Liverpool, who beat Lille 3-0 last night. Vidic will have noted that Torres scored two goals.