From Tim : If Arsenal are top at the end of March, they will be champions
Hi Myles,
Maybe you need to look at that fixture list again.
Arsenal have 4 huge games in March.
Bayern Munich vs Arsenal on the 11th March
Spurs vs Arsenal on the 15th March
Chelsea vs Arsenal on the 22nd March
Arsenal vs Man City on the 29th March
If they are still top by then, they will be champions.
February, March is a horrendous fixture list for Arsenal.
I’ve been going through the 2007/2008 season today and it was a lot tighter than I remembered.
Eduardo was really on fire! His finishing was absolutely out of this world before that horror tackle. I’d forgotten how different the team was then. Fabregas, Clichy, Eboue, Senderos, Toure, Gallas, Hleb, Eduardo, Almunia with yellow hair!, Mad Jens’s shocker at Blackburn. And man didn’t Adebayor have a great season. It truly brought back memories.
Things can change very quickly and we now have a lot more contenders in the picture.
I’m holding my breath only till after that City game at the Emirates.
Only then can we truly know for sure. We both know Wenger won’t forget Europe to focus on the Premier League. Not going to happen.
So let’s just wait and see what kind of effect the Bayern Munich game will have on the Spurs game. It will be a domino effect, good or bad I have no clue at the moment.
For now, lets enjoy the summit.
Let’s enjoy the run of upcoming winnable games that will feed the team’s confidence before crunch time in Feb and March.
Happy 2014!
Here’s to a trophy this season.
From Mark Hamilton: end of March, not February!
Myles,
You might want to adjust your prediction!
February is a walk in the park compared with March. Stoke (a) Swansea (h) Bayern (a) Tottenham (a) Chelsea (a) Man City (h)
Starting with Bayern, that’s 4 massive games in 19 days and there might also be an F.A Cup fixture thrown in the middle of that. If we can survive March, then the title will be ours to lose.
More likely is that we’ll be behind 5-8 points behind City at the end of the above fixtures
From Max : top in February
Hi Myles,
Not sure I agree with the statement that if Arsenal are top at the end of February they will win the league.
There’s a nasty run looming from mid-March to the beginning of April that I believe will define our season.
Saturday March 15 Tottenham v Arsenal Saturday March 22 Chelsea v Arsenal Saturday March 29 Arsenal v Manchester City Saturday April 5 Everton v Arsenal
Eight points from those games and we can really start to feel confident.
All the best – and happy new year!
From Nick Daniel :Keane-Vieira documentary
Hi Myles,
Hope all is well.
I too liked the show, I had a few observations:
1) Did YOU spot Keane’s jaw tightening every time Ferguson’s name was mentioned?
2) I would have liked Keane to expand on why Clough was the greatest manager he played for
3) Keane keeping a straight face when he said he was disgusted by the Arsenal players reaction to Ruud and getting in his face, in the match at Old Trafford where Viera was sent off, hilarious!
He must have been taking the piss. Please see his own incidents with Haaland, Shearer and in the Highbury tunnel for citation.
A bit more insight into them would have been nice. But it was better than most football documentaries.
Though I recently watched Hugh McIlvanney’s Arena documentary on Busby, Stein and Shankly which I thoroughly recommend if you have a spare few hours.
It’s a fascinating into the trio and through it you get a perspective on what Ferguson was thinking when choosing Moyes as his successor.
Here is a link to the the first part of the first episode. http://youtu.be/53TaTp5N4sw Busby, Stein & Shankly: The Football Men – Part One 1/4
Myles says:
On Arsenal, I really don’t know why I started looking months ahead.
More and more, I just take each match as it comes and each day as it comes.
You can’t be scared of your fixture list, you can only prepare for your next game.
Yes, I have a new diary and a calendar with some commitments and deadlines already but my main aim in this new year is to slow down.
Two or three times in late 2013 I was in danger of burn-out, so I’ve decided to slow down by 20%.
Of course, I’m interested in Arsenal v Spurs and what Tim Sherwood’s boys can do at 5.30 on Saturday night on ITV.
My Gooner pal Tim Cooper, a journalist, once said, “A football match is like a newspaper -it’s only meant to last one day.”
After 15 years of blogging, I’ve gradually come to appreciate the wisdom of that remark.
Right now I’m just pottering along into the weekend.
Jan’s had a good day because Caroline sent her some flowers from Japan this morning.
And this afternoon I bought Mrs Palmer a new laptop. Although I wasn’t there at the time and we don’t have it yet and I won’t pay for it till next month.
Last night she said, as girls often do, “I like it when you take me out.”
We saw American Hustle and Amy Adams is now my favourite actress.
Miran says that Amy was a child star in a sitcom.
American Hustle is a caper movie set in the Seventies and has a nice fluid style.
For me, it’s a film about behaviour, a bit like Cassavetes.
I like the way the action sometimes seems to flow out of the songs on the soundtrack and there’s something very natural/ improvised about the way the camera gets in affectionately close and captures the crazy behaviour of the main characters.