Sorry but I’m struggling to get my head into football mode for you this morning. Don’t panic, I haven’t gone all Jose Mourinho, I don’t regard the final fixtures of a season as any less interesting or important than the first, it isn’t that. I’m just buried in another project and it’s demanding all of my time. I’ve missed watching the last three matches live and may well be working while watching this one so it’s becoming something of a habit as we hurtle towards a football free summer.
Luckily enough there is a website which allows me to watch the games without having to wait for the club to put them up and of course without knowing the result – something the official site seems to delight in sharing. I’ve had my suspicions after each game that we had won because one of the young men I support from time to time is an Arsenal fan and he can’t resist texting me a simple ‘Up the Arsenal’ message at around the time of the final whistle, something I suspect wouldn’t happen had we lost.
I shall at least be working from home this evening and so ought to be able to keep one eye on the action. It’ll be interesting to see if the game follows the pattern of our recent outings. Seems to me Arsène has bemused opponents by being less direct, less gung ho from the kick off playing a little deeper and gradually winding up the tempo as the game goes on. Teams who set out to park the bus must be confused to find their opponents content to slide the ball around among themselves as they peer from over the barricades wondering if the attack will ever come and if so, how it will transpire.
When your entire strategy is based upon tempting nine red and white shirts forward then instigating a long ball counter attack designed to drag the remaining central defender wide thus leaving a hole for others to romp through, it must be at least a little disconcerting to suddenly find three centre backs facing you and two wing backs pelting home to help them. It certainly seems to be working.
It needs to work twice more and we need City and Liverpool to screw up for our league ambitions to be realised. We all know the history, it’s happened before and who’s to say it won’t happen again? Of course it’s unlikely but if we don’t allow our dreams to draw us forward then our fears will surely drag us down. I would love another nail biting last day like last year, it rounds off a season rather wonderfully to confound one’s critics at the death. It would certainly provide the perfect aperitif to the cup final feast.
Standing in our way this evening is a Sunderland side who have had the kind of season they’d want to forget. It is in fact the kind of season that the small minority of so called fans, that gibbering, Wenger hating flock of self aggrandising, self important, attention seeking, septic sores on the beautiful face of our great club, seem to think Arsenal has endured. Having said that even if we were rooted at the foot of the table they’d still be over the top in their criticisms, so far from reality have they strayed.
Poor Sunderland are actually in the mire for real and not just in the imaginations of a few escaped lunatics. They cannot save themselves, their future is in the Championship but then so was that of Newcastle at a similar stage of last season and look how they performed against a certain Middlesex team who had it all still to play for. It’s a curious time of any campaign and weird results can and do happen. I just hope they don’t happen to us.
My real concern is the fitness of the players after a gruelling run of matches. There must be tiredness in some of the legs and with the cup final looming it would be such a shame for any of them to miss out. It would be especially galling for Alexis as he has just returned to form. Much like Aaron Ramsey the Chilean has that tenacious quality to keep trying to play his best possible football even when out of form and out of touch. Neither player likes to look for the simple option and both keep their heads up and keep plugging away until their natural game returns. Both have shown signs of getting back to their energetic, creative best and I will be keeping everything crossed that we see them at Wembley.
Sorry there I go again getting ahead of myself. It is difficult to maintain focus with an FA Cup final just around the corner. Even though Arsène keeps on getting us to Wembley I never tire of the occasion. However, Champion’s League qualification is, in some ways, as big a target and one we cannot give up until all hope is gone. Three points tonight keeps the flame alight and a favour from that most unlikely source – a certain Mr Pulis – will make the last day anything but boring.
If you’re at the match have a wonderful evening, if like me you’re watching online I hope the God of the dodgy internet stream smiles upon you and keeps you virus free. For the penultimate time in this league campaign I shall bid you farewell. Up the Arsenal!
Positively Arsenal 
Ramsey down injured
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Ramsey off, Welbeck on,
Gibbs off, Iwobi on
looks like Wenger told danny its two up front
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Shame to see Rambo go off. Come on Danny give some goals!
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COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!
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pickford saves from welbeck
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There she blows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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And there we are
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Alexisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss 1-0 to the arsenal
ozil to xhaka, to ozil, to alexis six yards out, wengerball
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what is East thinking, he has actually booked cattermole, flies in the face of everything he has done so far.
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Sweatmaster Cattermole! In the book at last.
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“When the going gets tough, Arsenal gets going” said some I know.
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The boy Iwobi still excites me. In a purely aesthetic manner.
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Miracle save.
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Carmon Arsenal. Carmon!
Click, Click, Click.
(Frank I loved you, I truly did.)
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Sunderland goal must have a spell on it
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the spell was put on the goal by the wicked which? of the East!
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alexissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss 2-0
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It just got broken
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good old Algy!
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Agys wearing the ruby slippers
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East didnt want to give that one!
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83 attempts
56 on target
27 fingertip saves from Pickford
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Chambers needs to get Boro to help us. Going to be another end of season showdown with the scousers!
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ft;2-0
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Another win.Strange old game, system change did it for us. Viva Las Wenger!
COYG!
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a fully deserved win for Arsenal, the 11 beat the 12 in the end.
its a worry that ramsey went off injured
arsenal really could have scored six or seven today, yet cech had a couple of good saves to make too,
arsenal are reported to be interested in pickford, if so, the lad did his chances of impressing no harm at all, he had a fine game, despite looking like he is a bit of a shortarse for a keeper
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so so happy for the lads… wish there were 3 more games… we would have taken 2nd for sure
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we won, so can say Roger East is an awful ref, its gone beyond a joke how differently our players are treated by the refs in the bpl
by the way we have michael oliver for the everton game, we have a terrible record with him in charge. some gooners have a misconception of him due to him sending off di maria in the cup game v utd, forgetting that it was not for any foul on an arsenal player, it was for grabbing his sleeve.
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 1h1 hour ago
Empty at MCFC, are they having a protest as well?
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Boys made us proud. Typical Arsene Wenger Arsenal. Never give up, never give in. That is for the philistines and cowards in social media. Games are not won in the first half. Wear them down and go for the kill in the 2nd half.
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this is the sort of numpthy we have as supporters – the guy later admits he did not see the game
Louis
🤙🏻 @LucxsPxrez
2-0 is embarrassing, 35 shots and only 2 goals I cba
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I expect it will go to Alexis because of the goals, but Mesut Ozil was spectacular today, MOTM all the way
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To all The Godfather afficionados at PA:
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Squawka FootballVerified account @Squawka 30m30 minutes ago
Mesut Ozil game by numbers vs. Sunderland:
100% take-ons completed
90% pass acc
81 passes
15 crosses
12 chances created
3 take-ons
1 assist
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Alexis now one goal behind lukaku in the top scorers table
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Alexis Sanchez in 35 + 2 league games has 23 goals and 10 assists, and in 45 + 4 games in total for Arsenal this season he has 28 goals and 16 assists
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afcstuff @afcstuff 11m11 minutes ago
Alexis Sanchez has contributed to 112 goals (70 goals, 42 assists) in 143 appearances since joining Arsenal from Barcelona. #afc
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afcstuff @afcstuff 22m22 minutes ago
Wenger on links to Sunderland’s Pickford: “If there’s one thing we don’t need to buy it’s a goalkeeper.”
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afcstuff @afcstuff 36m36 minutes ago
Mesut Özil created 12 chances vs. Sunderland – the most a player has created in a single PL game since records began. [@Squawka] #afc
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Arsenal News @ArsenalFC_fl 1h1 hour ago
The results which would force a Champions League playoff between Arsenal and Liverpool:
Arsenal 1-1 Everton
Liverpool 0-2 Middlesbrough
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Reading 1-0 Fulham
Reading are into the championship play off final
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Kos FC @Jan__Afc17 22m22 minutes ago
Özil has 12 goals and 13 assists. Not bad for a guy that is having a ‘Shocking’ season according to some virgins on twitter and stupid journos
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afcstuff @afcstuff 20m20 minutes ago
Young #afc fan Charlie, who has been undergoing brain tumour treatment, was invited tonight by Mesut Özil & will also attend the cup final.
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https://twitter.com/Blackburngeorge/status/864598837998088192
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this is a direct quote from Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE, on their match reports of our game tonight – no media bias at all
“A lot of the home fans who stayed away from this clash did so in protest against Wenger remaining in charge – those who opted to attend were left short-changed”
35 shots, 13 on target, the sunderland keeper making the most saves of any keeper this season in a single game. a 2-0 win, some beautiful football, massively hindered by a one eyed ref, but we are being told Arsenal fans were short changed by that performance, good god, what should we call what other clubs fans are on the receiving end of, if that is being short changed. what the fuck should we call what man utd fans have been served up all season. But you won’t see anyone on RTE highlight it.
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as for a fans boycott, do me a favor, a tuesday night game, v a relegated team, after a run of six or seven games in about a four week period, and I’m sure we still had more in attendance than the 38,000 we used to get at Highbury on a good day.
I really hope that anyone who actually did boycott the game, has the courage of their convictions and do not seek to attend the FA Cup final, otherwise they are nothing more than hypocrites
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so will the media give Ozil’s gesture to that ill little boy get the same wall to wall coverage that Defoe got for his to Bradley Lowery
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‘On the pitch, Alexis becomes a devil’
Another game, another brace for Alexis, another three points for us.
The Chilean international’s stellar season continued on Tuesday as he scored two second-half goals as we beat Sunderland at Emirates Stadium.
Alexis’ involvement in the game was in doubt before the game with a knock, but Arsène Wenger told the media after the game of his delight with his display:
on when he made the decision to start Alexis…
At four o’clock [today].
on Alexis…
With him, I feel he had something still left, but once he’s on the pitch and gets the ball, he always becomes a devil and forgets his pain.
on Alexis being a late inclusion and what the performance says about him…
Nobody questions his desire and his quality. It shows as well that if you look at his numbers, he has developed here as a player and has become a top-class player and has not wasted his time here. Hopefully that will last for a long time.
on Ramsey…
He’s alright.
on if Arsenal have signed Sead Kolasinac…
No, we have nothing to say about transfers at the moment.
on if Wenger is looking forward to working with him…
I’m looking forward to working with myself!
on Jordan Pickford’s performance…
He had an exceptional night. I think we had 36 shots at goal, the highest in the Premier League. The keeper saved 11 of them, so he has done extremely well.
on Arsenal being linked with Pickford…
We have plenty of goalkeepers. We have Petr Cech, Ospina, we have Wojciech who is only on loan at Roma and has had an exceptional season. We have Emi Martinez. If there’s one thing we don’t need to buy, it’s a goalkeeper.
Copyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
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Iwobi was impressive. He made a huge difference. I love it.
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