Guest Blogger : @brainysteppo
“To win the title, not only your result matters”
Good morning readers. Welcome to the murmurings of innumerable bees where the flowers are shown as laughing for the living men. Quite lost? I like it.
Gameweek 27 fixtures had not too many surprises in its store. The only top teams related tough fixture was the lunch time match between Everton and Chelsea at the Bridge of Stamford stadium (or Stamford Bridge,as they call it). Bar this fixture, other top 4 teams had a relative soft fixture (on paper) thereby meaning no major changes will affect affect the structure of the table.
We [Arsenal] hosted an inspired Sunderland team at the Emirates. Manchester City locked horns with Stoke City at the Ethiads, Chelsea was at home to Merseyside Blue (PES 2009 name for Everton, false? ) and lastly, Liverpool played Swansea City in a Sunday clash at Anfield. I ‘4-1’ think a record was set with these fixtures. First time top four teams played home games during a gameweek this season (No? )…
Jose Mourinho made few changes to the side that lost at the Ethiads [FA Cup], showing a trend of XI changes since the last EPL match at the Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion in which an equaliser meant Chelsea went home with a point. Terry, Lamps and Oscar were new faces to a Chelsea side that had an eye on their UCL tie against Galatasary on wednesday. With 3 minutes of stoppage time already played and score still at 0-0, Frank Lampard swung in a RamiDIVE caused free kick which an onside Terry stabbed home past Tim Howard. [FT: Chelsea 1-0 Everton; 3 points].
When the going gets tough, the tough gets diving – Ramires
Manchester City recovered from their European defeat as a Yaya Toure strike secured a 1-0 win over Stoke. City, who had their last EPL match (vs Sunderland) postponed because of weather conditions should have made it two shortly after Toure’s 70th minute strike but Dzeko did a Torres with the goal at his Mercy. Signs showed Kun Aguero is missed and the longer his return, the longer the nervy matches for City. [FT: City 1-0 Stoke; 3 points].
After mid week disappointment coupled with a draw against Manchester United at the Emirates, Arsenal cruised to an emphatic 4-1 win against Sunderland, who didn’t arrive precisely in that match . [FT: Arsenal 4-1 Sunderland; 3 points].
For purpose of purposefulness and without a doubt undoubtedly, Liverpool are also in the run-in as the original ‘Little horse’ (don’t ask Jose about this during his presser, please! ). They were winners of triple brace-inserted 7 goal thriller at the Anfield, sunday afternoon {GMT}. [FT: Liverpool 4-3 Swansea; 3 points].
Cant stand this dance when he scores, Imagine it if he wins the league.
THE EFFECT.
The weekend result do and do not look good for us (Arsenal). Had the Chelsea match ended in a stalemate and with us Wenger-balling [sorry WOBs, not an AKB either], the newest song in town would have been TOP OF THE LEAGUE. Chelsea cemented the place at the summit while City, with a game at hand maintained their third place. Liverpool also maintained their closeness to the top 3. Mathematically, it is expressed thus:
1. Chelsea 60 points
2. Arsenal 59 points
3. City 57 points (-1 game)
4. Liverp’l 56 points
Onwards, next weekend will see Chelsea coming back from a UCL win, draw or loss trade tackles with City rivals, Fulham in a West London Derby at Craven Cottage. With Fulham gradually sinking and rising, the match may go one sided. Arsenal will make a long trip to the Britannia where they will try Stoke for shoes. Not going to be relatively easy as Stoke are decent at home. Liverpool will travel to Southampton, hoping to be lucky their attack bails them out from a shaky defence. Manchester City won’t be in action as they face Sunderland in the Capital one Cup final. This means; two games and 6 potential points at hand. (potential? maybe a point in hand is worth more than 2 in the bush)
Going for Chelsea win, Arsenal draw and a Liverpool draw means I view the table (top 4) to have a major change with Chelsea stretching their gap. Diagrammatically:
{Predicted Gameweek 28 table}
1. Chelsea 63
2. Arsenal 60
3. City 57
4. Liverp’l 56
“Just as water retains no shape, so in warfare. No certain state” Sun Tzu
The league is a warfare and no one can estimate or categorically guess right what it has in its store. It can go anyway. We’ve seen that in our pursuit, not only our result matter.
“Continuity bade me welcome yet my fingers drew back. Guilty of shyness and speed”…..Till another time; stay brainy.
Follow @brainysteppo. Let’s tweet things out. We disagree to agree!
