Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

Arsenal 2 Everton 1    Premier League    Sunday 19th May 2024  4.30pm     It was not to be. Manchester City’s incredible run of winning Premier League matches continued, meaning that despite Arsenal winning three points in their final match, they finished two short of Pep Guardiola’s side in second place.    That City’s victory over West Ham was so expected meant there was less tension in the Emirates air than there might have been, especially when Arsenal looked like they might fail to win the game as the second half wore on. It all felt a bit academic by that time with the league leaders two goals ahead, and coasting to victory. It was as much as Gooners could realistically hope for when West Ham did score, but they were never going to get three.   Bukayo Saka was neither in the starting line-up nor on the bench, as a ‘muscle injury’ was given as the reason for his absence. It meant Martinelli starting on the right side ...

Manchester United 0 Arsenal 1    Premier League    Sunday 12th May 2024  4.30pm     The points were the main thing for Arsenal, and given that they historically struggle to win at Old Trafford, nothing could be taken for granted in the Gunners’ penultimate game of the season. On paper, given the relative strength of the two teams, you’d have liked to see a scoreline akin to Manchester City’s at Fulham on Saturday lunchtime. If only football was that simple.  An unchanged Arsenal line-up did enough to win, in that they produced better efforts that Manchester United, whose finishing was woeful, but they didn’t play that well. As one friend commented,  “ That match was painful. We played like a team on the Wednesday before a cup final. Too cautious but a win is a win. Agonising as it was!”   That they kept a clean sheet was partially due to defensive resilience and organisation, but also the woeful quality of U...

Arsenal 3 Bournemouth 0    Premier League    Saturday 4th May 2024  12.30pm     After the disappointment of the home defeat to Villa, sandwiched by the Champions League quarter final legs v Bayern, all Arsenal were left with to finish their season were six Premier League matches. With Manchester City’s record of closing out campaigns from a winning position, the prevailing wisdom was that Arteta’s players would need to win every game for the remainder of the season, and this was the fourth out of the the six.    The manager stuck with the same eleven that had delivered wins against Chelsea and Spurs, and people were conscious of how good a run of results Bournemouth have had in 2024, so were not to be taken lightly. Last season it took the last minute wonder goal by Reiss Nelson to secure three points in the corresponding fixture (and keep Arsenal’s title hopes very much alive back then). Same consequence of the win yesterday, ...