This week, Arsenal gifted Tottenham Hotspur an opportunity to maintain their hold of the fourth spot in the Premier League standings. The Gunners fell to Crystal Palace; meanwhile, Spurs took care of business against Newcastle United.
Ahead of the weekend fixture against Aston Villa, manager Antonio Conte spoke with the media at his news conference. He discussed the upcoming North London Derby and if it would be for all the marbles.
Conte stated that the goal for the next handful of matches would be to secure three points to put pressure on the other clubs vying for that fourth place.
“But every game, if you win, you get three points. At the moment, we need to win to get three points because if you do, it means your table improves,” Conte said. “You start to pressure on your opponents, the other teams that are in the same position as you, who are in the same race for the fourth place.”
Furthermore, the Italian tactician added that they plan to take each game at a time and worry about what they can control, which is their upcoming matchup against Aston Villa.
“In this moment until the end, there’s Arsenal, United, West Ham, and also Wolverhampton, who are in a good position. I think it’s important to win derbies, important to win specific games, but I think that it’s important to win every time, especially in the last part of the season,” Conte said.
“There are eight games to play, and every game is vital for us. It has to be a final. The next game against Aston Villa we know very well to play away against them is not easy, for the great, the fantastic atmosphere around the stadium, but we want to confirm that we’re in good form and we want to try to continue to keep a good result.”
As Spurs travel to Villa Park this weekend, Arsenal will welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to the Emirates Stadium. Meanwhile, Manchester United faces off against Everton, and West Ham United goes up versus Brentford.
If [ not that big an if ] Spurs can “maintain” 4th place after this Saturdays results , the pressure builds ………….Spurs of course , but on Arsenal immensely . They carry the weight of the extra game in hand , but can they take it to the Chelsea game and then make it count ?
Villa , in any circumstance , would be “one of those ” games , one we should win but being Spurs , fear .
However that was then this is now , WE WILL BEAT THEM and Brighton will take a point at the Emirates . Fanciful ? No !!! Just think they may get a little bit ‘Arsenally’ in the next couple of weeks !!!!! C O Y S !!
‘Maintain’ hold? We haven’t been in the top four for about three years…
CB either need leading or can lead. Dier is the former. Always good when next to someone who knows what they are doing. Aren’t we all?
He set a very low bar. I doubt there is anyone, other than Doherty’s Mum, who sees him as a viable option for the next 2 seasons. I’m glad he’s in a better place, but he isn’t good enough.
Plus Dier has been more reliable playing alongside Romero and not having to cover for Sanchez all the time.
To be fair to Doherty… he’s stepped up to the plate recently.
In recent years 4th has gone to clubs achieving between 66-76 pts. With 8 games left I can imagine a minimum of 5 wins is needed with a couple of draws thrown in, so 71pts is required.
On paper we have 6 very winnable games, but footy is played on grass and Spurs could easily lose each of them because that’s what we have done this season, been totally inconsistent. Gerrard’s honeymoon period is over now but this will be a difficult game so a draw would not disappoint me. Liverpool away is probably the game we might not expect anything from. If we got beat we wouldn’t be frustrated, unless Kane and Bergwijn missed absolute sitters again!
As for Arsenal, I’m still haunted by the tripe we served up earlier in the season under the ‘management’ of he who must not be named. Arsenal will be feeling the pressure more than us because I don’t think we actually expect 4th place, it would just be a Brucie Bonus after the turmoil we have gone through. I’ll be keeping a close eye on their fixtures v Chelsea, Utd and West Ham. If we can get ahead we might not need to care about this fixture!
If the Arsenal game was sooner it would be season defining, but we have 5 season defining games before Arsenal. The EPL would love the fight for 4th to go to the final day, but I could do with it being wrapped up far sooner, hopefully in our favour (but can a team with Emerson, Doherty and Dier in defence actually finish 4th? That would be amazing).