Will Arsenal pop the champagne or bottle it? | Extra Time Ep 21

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Extra Time onmanorama's football podcast. This is Kanan and this is Arun George.

[00:00:13] Okay, I'm literally sitting on the edge of my seat here. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, that's because of

[00:00:19] the topic that we have chosen today. It's the Premier League title race and being the Arsenal

[00:00:24] fan in the room. I'm a bit nervous after that 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Anfield.

[00:00:30] Yeah, but you honestly don't think Arsenal are going to bottle this one now?

[00:00:34] Yeah, that phrase again. We've been listening to that since the day Liverpool came back to draw the

[00:00:39] match. Okay, let me say it this way. I prefer to look at the silver lining but it's football and

[00:00:46] we never know because there is still over a month of action remaining in this season and

[00:00:51] that is a long time for anything to happen. Yeah, that's right. So as we speak, Arsenal are

[00:00:57] sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League table. After 30 matches, Arsenal have 73 points

[00:01:02] and most importantly there is a six-point lead over the reigning champions Manchester City.

[00:01:07] That means City have a game in hand. I mean there are 38 matches in a season. So Arsenal

[00:01:13] played 30 and City have played only 29. Now as Arun said Arsenal have 73 points from 30

[00:01:20] matches and City have 67 points from 29 matches. That's right. If the world was so ideal, if the

[00:01:27] world was so simple as it is, Arsenal would have played all the eight matches, won all the eight

[00:01:32] matches and collected 24 points and City would have collected 27 points from their nine matches.

[00:01:39] But the glorious uncertainty of the fixtures of everything related to football is that one

[00:01:45] of the matches is between Arsenal and Manchester City. That's right. And that too for Arsenal, it's

[00:01:50] an evergreen. Now if Arsenal were to win all the matches and collect all the 24 points that is

[00:01:57] beating City in an evergreen match would end up with 97 points and City would end up at 91.

[00:02:05] So comfort would be in front. Yeah, comfort would be in front. Now that's the other thing.

[00:02:09] Now if City win all the matches and collect 27 points that means Arsenal would collect only 21

[00:02:15] points because one of the matches between Arsenal and City. So what? Then both the teams would end

[00:02:21] up at 94. So who's the difference? There is a humongous goal difference between Arsenal and City.

[00:02:29] Yeah, just five but still. It is five but that is... It could increase. It could go down.

[00:02:34] The point is that if City were to win all the matches, definitely it is going to increase.

[00:02:39] That's right. Even if it is not a clean sheet, it definitely is going to increase.

[00:02:44] That means that City would end up winning the title despite being number two almost until

[00:02:51] one month to the end of this. I can understand that. But by the way, the match between City and

[00:02:58] Arsenal at the ETH is on April 27th. So it's not so far from now and I'm sure football fans,

[00:03:06] even the neutral ones like me wouldn't want to miss that. It should be a cracker of a contest.

[00:03:11] Now you may not like this comment but Arsenal have not beaten City at the ETH in eight years.

[00:03:18] Yes, yes. I get that and Arsenal win against since Pep took over City was only in that

[00:03:26] a fake up. Yeah, absolutely. That's right. Nothing else. So yeah, I know the statistics.

[00:03:31] I'm too full with statistics actually. I know. In fact, now I was just checking the line-ups from

[00:03:35] the 2015 game which Arsenal won at 2-0. It's funny that most of the players on both the sides have

[00:03:42] retired from football. Now that includes Per Mertzaker who was the captain of Arsenal.

[00:03:48] There was Koshy and Ney. There was Nacho Montialo recently retired. So yeah,

[00:03:52] game has moved on. Yeah, that was a different era. I mean 2015. So again, completely different

[00:03:58] football, completely different set of players for Arsenal and Mikhail Artertav actually transformed

[00:04:04] this Arsenal. Yes, we lost to City in February at Emirates but I think Artertav managed to get

[00:04:12] a positive result against City. We live in this eternal hope so I hope that this time

[00:04:20] comes through. Yeah, and it will be a vital point too if Arsenal managed to get a draw,

[00:04:25] at least a draw in City. But in fact, there are the two ways of looking at that game against

[00:04:31] Liverpool that Arsenal led 2-0 and then Liverpool came back and drew 2-2. There are people saying

[00:04:36] that whether is it three points lost or one point gained because Liverpool were on the

[00:04:42] ascendancy in the end. So they could have even taken away all three points but Arsenal

[00:04:45] managed to get one point out of it. You could also look at it that way. Yeah,

[00:04:49] specifically when after when Mohamed Salah missed that penalty. Now they could have just won it. I

[00:04:58] mean the possibilities were endless. Martinelli gave an absolutely piece of a cross to Saka. Saka

[00:05:05] for a fraction of a second overrun because he was expecting it a bit ahead. He missed that.

[00:05:11] That would have been a clear go. But Konati also had a chance at the other end.

[00:05:14] Exactly. Gabriel's header hadn't been a niche this way or the other way of

[00:05:21] Alisson probably we would have won that moment. I mean endless a possibility, we could have. We

[00:05:27] were just dreaming had a very bad sleep that day almost all Arsenal fans.

[00:05:34] And so coming back to the City game, so if Arsenal do manage to get a point at least

[00:05:38] from the Atheist game, that's going to be a very vital one. But that's not

[00:05:42] all. I mean we are looking at Arsenal's remaining matches in the Premier League and

[00:05:47] there are also some of the other big ones in there. Now one in particular is

[00:05:51] Arsenal versus Chelsea on May 3rd. Yeah, and be a good summer, isn't it? Help us gain three points

[00:05:58] from it because in the calculation I said I just reduce three points only for City.

[00:06:04] I mean I'm ready to consider only three points for City. One more thing actually before or rather

[00:06:11] along with Chelsea there is also one of the away matches against Newcastle. That too is a huge match

[00:06:17] because Newcastle is on the ascendancy, it is now on the third position in Gold difference with

[00:06:23] Manchester United. So that is a tough team to beat. Absolutely, they've been remarkable this

[00:06:29] season and I understand the Chelsea thing. But Chelsea season has been pathetic,

[00:06:34] there's no sugarcoating there. I'm a Chelsea fan but I have admitted. But

[00:06:39] I think it won't be easy for Arsenal against Chelsea. I mean even though it's at the Emirates,

[00:06:43] it's not going to be easy. Again you said about Newcastle that's not going to be an easy one too.

[00:06:48] Yeah, these title raises are so nerve-wracking, isn't it? I mean as I said, World would have been

[00:06:54] in a completely different place. The grass would have been greener on the other side and

[00:06:59] a City were not playing against Arsenal with eight matches and nine matches for the season. Absolutely.

[00:07:05] But then Arsenal fan, I mean that is the thing we live in eternal hopes and

[00:07:12] be here almost forgotten that what it means to be involved in a title raise because

[00:07:17] it's been such a long time. So one of the Arsenal fans told Arsenal TV that is that

[00:07:23] Arsenal fan TV that Arsenal is a club that gave him more heartbreaks than his exes and now

[00:07:30] he's been loyal to it so he is reaping the benefit. Are we going to end up still the eternal

[00:07:38] bridesmaid? Absolutely hope we don't. Yeah, I know because as you said, it's been a long time because

[00:07:45] I think Arsenal won in 2003-04 season which was of course a long time. It's kind of a different

[00:07:51] era altogether but I must tell you that I'm super impressed with Mikhail Arteida. I know

[00:07:55] the way he has managed the season in a terrific game management. Of course, man management skills

[00:08:01] is also exceptional with the way he gave Martino to get the captain's arm back when no one expected

[00:08:07] least expected. But City yes we understand because they have been in these positions before

[00:08:12] and the Guardiola is the master of these title raises and he has won it several times. Of course

[00:08:18] most of the City plays they are reigning champions and even otherwise the most of the City players

[00:08:23] have been involved in title raises so it's not new to them but I think Arsenal were only once not on

[00:08:29] top of the points table. I mean this is the whole season. Yeah, there was only one time. Yeah, I think

[00:08:35] it was the 23rd game week or something. Arsenal and City were level in points but City had a

[00:08:41] better goal difference as it always had. By the way Arsenal had a game in hand at that

[00:08:47] stage actually. Exactly, it's truly incredible but there's something else that needs to be

[00:08:51] factored in here. We have been looking at this title raise from an Arsenal perspective until now

[00:08:56] but what about City? When we look at it from City's perspective there's a different dynamics to it

[00:09:02] because Arsenal have just the premier league to focus on but that's not the case with City.

[00:09:06] City are still in raise for a treble this season of course they are in the FA Cup and then

[00:09:11] in the Champions League too and so that increases their workload which is a good thing for Arsenal.

[00:09:17] It is a good thing for Arsenal. Yeah, definitely it's a good thing for Arsenal but we also know

[00:09:22] the depth of that team which just beat Bayern 30 in the Champions League. So yeah, it's true.

[00:09:28] After City thrashed Bayern Munich 30 in the Champions League quarter-final

[00:09:33] first leg they are more or less guaranteed a place in the semifinals unless something again

[00:09:40] strange happens. But if they advance that means Guardiola will have to worry about

[00:09:46] the game time of these players and fatigue will be a factor. But when I said City have also this

[00:09:54] incredible bench and Pep can also rotate his players and keep them fresh. Yeah, I know that's one thing.

[00:10:01] I play this fantasy football Premier League and that's one thing we always worry about this

[00:10:05] is the Pep rule it we call it because Pep has this penchant for rotating his players

[00:10:10] when we least expect him to drop a key player he does that because he can afford that in the

[00:10:15] place on the bench are equally good. So yeah, that's a good point actually. In fact City's next

[00:10:20] Champions League match is on April 19th or that is four days after they play Leicester in the Premier

[00:10:26] League but after that and on April 22nd they have the FA Cup semifinal against Sheffield United

[00:10:33] which by the way is just five days before the big game against Arsenal. So City have what very

[00:10:39] congested fixtures coming up you know of course they have four matches in 12 days and

[00:10:43] that period is going to be very vital for them and of course if it means vital for City

[00:10:48] it's vital for Arsenal too. Yeah, so the plan for Arsenal and Arterta is very simple win all the matches

[00:10:55] there is no other way win all the matches beat City beat Newcastle beat Chelsea everybody

[00:11:02] all the home matches all the every matches just win all the eight matches eight damages

[00:11:06] Since you're very straightforward plan it should be easy right? Yeah absolutely yeah

[00:11:11] I wish that was so simple. Let's wait and see what happens as I said whether we will have the glory

[00:11:20] days or we will end up second. The problem with Arsenal is that we have the self-doubt

[00:11:27] always there is a self-doubt so that probably has kept in I don't know whether that has

[00:11:32] crept into the team but definitely that has crept into the fan base yes that's why I have a whole

[00:11:39] sheet of calculations in front of me. Anyway okay on that note we come to the end of this episode

[00:11:45] I hope you like it the way we like making it extra time is produced by me Kandan and Arun

[00:11:52] with technical assistance from Idea Brew Studios listen to us wherever you get your

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