Gunnerism VII: Before You Write Off Arsenal...

Before we begin, let me just say this—I am a sore loser. Now that you’ve read the disclaimer…

It seems as though the recent string of events has everyone jumping on the United-will-win-because-Arsenal-isn’t-good-enough bandwagon.

Hold on a second there, guys. You can’t just kick us out of the race like that and I’ll tell you why.

Does anyone seriously think that the Gunners are just going to go down like that?

Alright, we drew to Aston Villa—so what? They’re a good team, supposedly England’s future (that may not be saying too much about England’s future, but let’s not go there).

And I am blaming this on the injuries. Yeah, yeah, they’re a part of football, and Wenger should have built a bigger squad, and blah, blah, blah.

But it was Phillipe “Mr. Inconsistent” Senderos who unsurprisingly managed to score an own goal. He is too much of a hit-or-miss player to be trusted in the center of defense.

So the only goal scored against Arsenal would never have happened had Toure been there. That’s it. End of story.

In my last Gunnerism, I’d said that RVP would be back for this game, but I was wrong.

It seems as though Wenger is being overly cautious with this one. But he should definitely return, along with Rosicky and Toure, for our outing against Wigan next week.

With the squad almost back to full strength, we should have enough depth to challenge for the Champions League, and win the Premier League.

Apparently, Arsenal has played the most games of any team in Europe this season. I think it currently stands at a staggering 43 games as of March 3^rd, 2008 (I read this somewhere, but cannot remember where, and am unable to direct you to the source).

This could explain why the team seems a bit out of sorts of late. More games means more fatigue, greater risk of injury to players, more playing time for the remaining players means which leads to more tiredness and so on.

But that is about to change. United has a packed few weeks coming up.

Arsenal are out of the FA Cup while United are not, which means more games for United. This could potentially stretch Ferguson’s resources thin, although they have a huge squad.

Let’s now look at remaining the Premier League fixtures and predict how many points each of the two teams will get away with from the fixtures.

First, United:

Bolton (Home)                3

Derby (Away)                 3

Liverpool (Home)            3             

Aston Villa (Home)          1              

Middlesbrough (Away)     3

Arsenal (Home)              1       THE match of the season—could possibly be the decider

Blackburn (Away)            3              

Chelsea (Away)               1      You simply cannot beat them at Stamford Bridge

West Ham (Home)           0      United's Bogus team for the season

Wigan (Away)                 3

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Total Points                   21

Grand Total                   85

Now, the Gunners:

 Wigan (Away)                 3

Middlesbrough (Home)      3

Chelsea (Away)                1     Same as above

Bolton (Away)                  3

Liverpool (Home)              1     

Man. United (Away)           1     Same as above

Reading (Home)                3

Derby (Away)                   3

Everton (Home)                0     For argument’s sake

Sunderland (Away)            3

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Total Points                    21

Grand Total                    86

Although they have one more home game and one less away game than Arsenal, United still face a slightly difficult set of fixtures.

If you cross off all the common fixtures (home and away game issues aside) United will have to face Villa, Rovers, and West Ham, while Arsenal will have to face Reading, Everton, and Sunderland.

I know that there is a huge generalization in my argument, but I decided that it was justifiable based on the fixtures. In any case, such generalizations had to be made for the sake of comparison.

This week’s crucial draw against Villa could have given us the slightest of margins. Else, it would be a sad day to see two teams end the season with the same number of points, and one lift the trophy based on goal difference.

So there you have it: The season unfurled, the champions crowned.

I said it when the season started, and I still stick by it. Arsenal will win the Premier League, and I’ll be celebrating when the season ends.