Things seem to be looking bright for Arsenal…Finally!!!

Arsenal on the rise again?

Arsenal defeated Hull city 2-1 yesterday night to go through to the FA cup semi final. Before that they defeated Blackburn comprehensively to regain the coveted 4th place and qualification for the Champions League. Also just a few days earlier they defeated FC Roma on penalties in the knock out stages of the Champions league to qualify for the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Thus as of now all seems well placed for Arsenal. If only the EPL season ended today I would be glad. I don’t trust Aston Villa (they might topple us from the 4th place)  and more importantly I dont trust Arsenal (the inconsistent performances over the last 2 years are to blame). With EPL and the pressure to qualify for the Champions League out we could concentrate on the FA cup and Champions league and try and get some silverware at the club after a long time.

Things are bright as of now for sure but the road ahead is not as rosy. We face Chelsea in the FA cup Semi finals and some very tough teams are lined up in the Champions league quarter finals draw.

I strongly believe that Arsenal will reach the Semi-finals of the Champions League, more so if we get Porto or Villareal in the Quarters, Even Bayern we might handle. But if we face any other English club or Barcelona, then we are doomed for sure.

Even the Premier league fixtures are gonna get tougher as the season comes to a close.

Date	Team		Team	home/away
21st March 2009	Newcastle	vs	Arsenal	away
4th April 2009	Arsenal	vs	Man City	home
11th April 2009	Wigan	vs	Arsenal	away
26th April 2009	Arsenal	vs	Middlesbrough	home
2nd May 2009	Portsmouth	vs	Arsenal	away
9th May 2009	Arsenal	vs	Chelsea	home
16th May 2009	Manchester United	vs	Arsenal	away
24th May 2009	Arsenal	vs	Stoke City	home
to be scheduled	Liverpool	vs	Arsenal	away

As you can see, Arsenal has to face 3 of the top 4 teams in the last 9 fixtures pending. So each match is gonna be a tough ask on the Gunners. I think the Gunners can maximum take 4 points out of those 3 fixtures. Which leaves very little scope to drop any more points in the other 6 fixtures.  

 Stoke, Middlesborough, Wigan and Newcastle are the fixtures that i think we will get the maximum points from. The Portsmouth & Man City fixtures would be tricky ones and i see us struggling to win.

Lets hope Aston Villa’s champions league hopes are deflated when our rivals Liverpool and Manchester United take lead from one of our other rivals Tottenham and beat Aston Villa. That would not only deflate their hopes of the champions league place, but also the morale of the team-mates who already look jaded and drained out from a long hard season. Aston villa have a small squad and the results of not rotation are showing with a decline in form for players like Agbonlahor and Young who were at the peak of their forms at the begining of the season.

All in all I think the 4th place finish will go down to the wire and Arsenal will just nip fellow contendors Villa and Everton to qualify for Champions league 2009-10.