The football are coming thick and fast with Arsenal going again, this time hosting Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium in a Premier League clash.
The Gunners come into this match on the back of an impressive 2-0 victory at Wolves to continue their recent good run, whereas the Foxes made light work of Crystal Palace to finally get their first win in five games since the restart.
Good day one and all.
With the season now in the home stretch Arsenal have had a timely upturn in form, winning three straight league games without conceding a goal. Mikel Arteta is clearly happy with the defensive improvement, yet cautious:
“The more we improve here, the more solid we are, the more chances we are going to have to win football games.”
Also at the Emirates our form have always been exemplary. In our last six outings at home we kept four clean sheets to go with our still unbeaten league run since the turn of the year – taking 16 points from a possible 18.
Conversely, Leicester are without a win on their travels since New Year’s Day. It’s been a five-match winless run which saw them taking only two points from a possible 15.
The 3-0 win over the Eagles was a vital one for the Foxes as it gives them bit of a bounce as they now start a very tricky run-in; following tonight their final four league fixtures are against Bournemouth, Sheffield United, Spurs and Manutd. Brendan Rogers will be well aware that there is little room for error if they are to maintain their current top-four standing.
The Gunners also have a sticky run-in… but if they are able to extend their winning run here tonight it can only boost their own continental cause even further.
Team News
Mikel Arteta could make very few changes from the team that took the field at Wolves, as he would like to build on that performance.
Two players that could come in are Alexandre Lacazette, he will be hopeful of handed a start after he came off the bench to score, having again missed out to Eddie Nketiah. Nicolas Pépé will be another, who missed out last time due to his wife giving birth, but whether that comes at the expense of Bukayo Saka is a decision the coach has to make.
Mesut Özil could make the matchday squad, subject to a late fitness test due to recurring back problems.
Prediction
Both teams are looking to finish the season strong because they still have much to play for. But also the Gunners are good at home, whilst the Foxes have been out of sorts on the road.
Meaning Arsenal should go into this encounter in good shape to give Leicester’s top-four hopes a mighty dent. COYG!
— LaboGoon
**
Positively Arsenal 
Not seen Eddie’s challenge still but have watched Vardy’s a few times. Oh boy did he mean it. There’s nothing natural about it whatsoever. You can clearly see him generating the power and direction on it when the leg wouldn’t naturally kick back like that at all.
Football, especially in Britain, has that inherent strangeness of about half of sendings off being for low aggression zero danger offences, tiny shirt pulls etc, while lots of aggressive or dangerous stuff, including elbows, head on head etc is viewed as accidental, unprovable without knowing intent, with assumption there is almost never intent.
You take that universal truth of game, then crank it up to grotesque levels where we are concerned. End result, lots of sendings off for us despite almost never putting in challenges which endanger opponents; very rarely reds for opponents despite us getting dangerous hits in every imaginable manner.
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From UA
“ For Arsenal have also received more red cards than Liverpool, Leicester, Chelsea, Wolverhampton, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Manchester United and West Ham all put together! In fact, Arsenal have more red cards and more yellow cards than any other team in the league.”
“ But Arsenal’s problem is not just that they don’t get awarded many penalties. It is that they have on their own received more yellow cards (72) than Liverpool (31) and Leicester City (36) put together.”
The article adds LCFC have received twice as many pens as Arsenal, Utd four times our pen count this season”
Just puts Wengers abilities into true context winning or even competing against this. But have faith in Arteta, he seems a fast learner
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i do have faith in Arteta – and I also have faith in his willingness to make a fuss about refereeing inconsistencies and injustices. We looked a good side in the first half (didn’t see the second half) and as plenty have observed, could and probably should have put the game out of reach then.
I think we will just about sneak into the Europa spots and I feel sure that next season will be a much more interesting and exciting one for a team that seems so rich in promise.
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I’m on it.
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We are up
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