Arsenal travel north to Sheffield this evening five points behind Manchester City, with this here fixture representing their game in hand. City are five points ahead and the way they toyed with and dispatched Man United will have put their rivals on notice that anything less than perfection from here on in might not be enough. With Liverpool hosting City this weekend, one or both of them obviously is going to drop points and Arsenal simply have to stay on the shoulder of the front two. A fixture against basement club Sheffield United, albeit away from home, should do the trick nicely.
Arsenal’s last three fixtures against Sheffield United have been wins, and by an aggregate score of 10-1. A few years ago, it’s the sort of trip to the unfashionable bits of the Premier League that might have seen the Gunners outfought and outmuscled but it would be a very optimistic Blade who predicted anything other than an away win tonight. They have let in 66 goals already this term, only Ipswich (1963-1964) had a leakier defence after 26 games. They have lost four of their last five league matches, Arsenal have won four on the road, and Bukayo Saka is on fire: he’s scored five in five.
It all adds up to a home defeat but football is not played on spreadsheets and you just never know. Chris Wilder, for one, is not letting pessimism eat a sandwich in his general direction and he has said:
“Even against Brighton we were really competitive. We just got done at the end, down to 10 men and with a bit of fatigue.
“Of course that’s got to be what underpins your football club and that has always been what underpins your football club; a fighting spirit and a little bit of a ‘them against us’ mentality.
“Any situation is always a level of pride and responsibility to the football club and the supporters, so we have to show that right the way through.
“And we will do for the integrity of the division as well – we’ll go right to the end.”
Good to hear. We will hear which 11 men he sends over the white line to stick it to Arteta’s boys soon enough. Teams at 7pm and then the kick off is at 8pm.