With three games coming up in the next eight days, today may be the most crucial of the lot. Losing to Villa can be catastrophic, detrimental to the hard work and confidence Arsenal has built up of the last few months.
Arsenal have become undone by exactly this type of game in the last campaign, where when expected to turn over “lesser” teams (this is in no way a sleight on Villa) end up falling behind and struggling to salvage a point. Now, by no means am I expecting it to be a walk in the park this evening, but no team expecting to be league champions in May should lose this game, I don’t care what kind of run Villa is on, or how confident they are , or that they’re playing at home, if we want to call ourselves title contenders this is exactly the kind of game to show our credentials.
I may sound a bit worried, but the fact is I’m not. I just know that by winning this game we will set down a huge marker, let’s face it Villa is not far of the pace (6 points behind). It will send a statement, we are not going to drop silly points, so if anyone wants the title they have to go through us. This is a difference between being a good team and being a title winning team.
What will happen today? Villa 1 – Arsenal 3
