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Premier League Top-4 Race Is Hotting Up, and It Bodes Well for Next Season
- Updated: April 21, 2016
There is a strange habit in football, perhaps born of the newsperson’s demand to “throw it forward,” of proclaiming anything good that happens as a precursor of a greater future.
A victory is never a victory; it is a platform. The truth is that, just as often, a success is just a success, perhaps bringing down the curtain on an era rather than heralding the future. So there must always be caution when trying to extrapolate the present into the future. Still, as this extraordinary Premier League season draws to a conclusion, it’s hard not to think of next season with a sense of profound anticipation.
The stars, you suspect, will not align in quite the same way for Leicester City—although there’s no reason why a tight-knit core augmented by the investment UEFA Champions League football will bring couldn’t worry the top six again. But the battle to finish in the top four shows the competitiveness of the fight.
Wednesday’s win over Crystal Palace moves us to within a point of fourth-placed Arsenal, who play tonight. #mufc pic.twitter.com/aY5dxwYBpK
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 21, 2016
Tottenham Hotspur might not quite be mathematically certain of Champions League qualification, but realistically they are, which leaves five teams grappling for two spots. Most intriguingly, of them, the one in the worst form, most doubting of itself, is Arsenal, who have not finished outside the top four since 1996.
A win over West Bromwich Albion at home on Thursday would lift Arsenal above Manchester City into third, four points clear of Manchester United in fifth. A positive result at Sunderland on Sunday would leave them just about safe with home games against Norwich City and Aston Villa to come, although their other away game is at Manchester City.
That, though, wouldn’t alter the fact Arsenal have won only four of their last 12 league games, that they went out of the FA Cup to Watford and that their Champions League adventure was once again ended as soon as they met a top-class side—something that must be even more frustrating given hindsight suggests Barcelona were not as formidable as they appeared.
Even the nature of the recent draws against West Ham United and Crystal Palace has been an irritant for Arsenal fans—the familiar pattern of leads lost and of …
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