Arsenal Will Finish in Third Place This Season: Here's Why

One look at the schedule should provide enough evidence to reinforce the claim made in the title.

Despite two tricky away trips, to Stoke and West Brom respectively, with a home match against Norwich City sandwiched between, Arsenal can feel confident in their chances of claiming a coveted third-place finish as they close out the season.

The automatic passage to the Champions League group stages will come as a welcome respite as well, given the tricky nature of this season's playoff against Udinese, where Arsenal were mired in a 1-1 deadlock on aggregate just minutes into the second leg on a sweltering night in northeast Italy.

Their most direct competition for third place comes in the form of Newcastle United who, much like Tottenham two seasons ago, have surprised many this season with their fine form.

Three points behind Arsenal at the moment, but with a game in hand, Toon will not accede their right to third without a fight.

And fight they must. Arsenal's goal difference (plus-24) is far superior to that of Newcastle's (plus-11), meaning that the Magpies will need to finish with a greater point total than the Gunners should they wish to unseat them.

(They could also start scoring five goals a game without conceding, but who expects that?)

The most worrisome prospect from Newcastle's perspective is that, while Arsenal will finish their season playing teams currently ranked 14th (Stoke), 13th (Norwich), and 10th (West Bromwich Albion) in the Premier League table, Toon face the daunting proposition of matches against a resurgent Wigan Athletic (17th but with wins over Manchester United and Arsenal in April), Chelsea (sixth) and Manchester City (second).

With this weekend's Manchester derby looking like the match that will decide the title race (United currently hold a three point advantage in the standings, but City boast a superior goal differential of plus-6), Newcastle's final game of the season takes on added intrigue.

This weekend's result at the Etihad will have a huge influence on the strength of the City side that will trot out to face Newcastle on the final day of the season, but whatever the case, the vast talent reserves accrued over the past few seasons assure that there will be ample talent on the pitch for the Citizens.

Back to Arsenal. The Gunners, after enjoying a wonderful streak of nine wins in 10 league matches, have currently taken just one point from their last possible six.

The loss to Wigan at home (April 16) was particularly irksome, given that the Gunners were far from their best that night.

Recent injuries to first-team choices Mikel Arteta (against Wigan) and Theo Walcott (against Chelsea this past weekend) don't help, either.

But Arsenal fans can take confidence from the fact that Arsenal's last trip to a notoriously difficult setting—an away match to Wolves on April 11, resulted in a 3-0 victory that, while far from thorough, was still quite convincing.

Arteta and Walcott both played in that match, and they will be sorely missed in the run-in, but other key starters, such as a revitalized Yossi Benayoun, look sure to play a major role in these next three matches.

There's every reason to believe Arsenal will be able to win at least one of their two road matches, with the game against Norwich at the Emirates the absolute "must win" from the three.

Newcastle will in all likelihood drop points to either Chelsea or City—they lost to both teams by a combined 6-1 (3-0 and 3-1, respectively) aggregate in their first league meetings this season.

While Toon are on a hot streak of their own in the league—they've won their last six since losing 2-1 to Arsenal on March 12—the task looks a bit too much for them in terms of usurping the Gunners.

Third-place meltdowns have happened to Arsenal—see, er, last season—but there is a strength in the side this time around that would seem to make a recurrence of the 2010-11 meltdown look a rare likelihood indeed.

Given that Chelsea will have one eye on the May 5 FA Cup final when they take the pitch at Stamford Bridge three days earlier to face Newcastle, the visitors may fancy their chances against what will likely be a reduced Blues side.

But that doesn't take away from the extreme difficulty of winning at that stadium—particularly now that interim manager Roberto di Matteo has Chelsea playing at such a high level. That could well end in a loss for Newcastle.

Which would, of course, be in Arsenal's favor.