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Where can we finish 2026? The final 8 Everton (H) Bournemouth (H) Man City (A) Newcastle (H) Fulham (H) West Ham (A) Burnley (H) Palace (A) I once again have Dave Hardy by my side as we find a way to look into the future for what could be a great season. Dave Hardy’s predictions are in blue. So, what can we say for certain? If we win all we will get 91 points, our best ever. Better than the 90 of the Invincibles. Also if we do that we will win with a guaranteed 2 matches to spare but probably more like three. Which makes winning our last 3 probably harder as we might be on holiday in our mind. Will Arteta be desperate, though, if beating the Invincibles is possible, to win all just as Wenger pushed his guys not to get beat long after the title was won? I think yes, and Gabriel Heinze will be screaming at everyone to treat every match as critical, as well. I think he has added a killer mentality to Arsenal which Arteta, as his strong buddy, regards as that extra push to get us over every line. Has this proven winner Gabriel Heinze been brought in to get us over the line? So can we win all 8? Everton at home we will know very soon. We have a good record against them and Arteta knows David Moyes inside out. I feel 2-1 will be the scoreline but a bit easier than that score indicates. Dave Hardy says we start this final marathon with Arteta's former team. Even with Moyes at the touchline, they've been quite inconsistent, plus we do have quite a decent record against them at home, so I reckon we'll keep it that way. 3-1 for Dave and 70 points for both. So 70 points which I feel will get us Champions League and our first Wenger trophy of the season. Buddy number one David Moyes does us a favour I don’t know whether it is strange or not but probably the three managers that Arteta is closest to are our next three. The aforementioned David Moyes who Arteta was captain for at Everton, Andoni Iraola was alongside him as a youth footballer in the Basque country and they have remained close ever since, and of course, the famous Pep Guardiola with which he is strongly entwined. An advantage or disadvantage? We will find out soon enough. Bournemouth, again at home, is surely one we cannot afford to lose. They have only 9 wins all season but a massive 13 draws, by far the highest of any team. A potential banana skin, then? A draw could put City a potential 2 points behind us and reawaken their hopes and make us nervous. I would take a 1-0 to make George Graham happy. Buddy number two Iraola also does us a favour After the international break, and probably quarter finals in the FA Cup and the Champions League, we host Bournemouth. Last season they've managed to turn the game around and do the double on us, but this season their form is a bit different, so I'll go with a steady 2:0 win here. 73 points each And then the biggie, the match of the season, A Man City away which has been inconsistent for two seasons in a row. Still, at home they have only lost once all season to Liverpool and a draw may well be the best we get. I would take 2-2 and keep our title hopes strong. Something of a favour from last buddy Pep Probably the big one for this season. Two years ago we were in pretty much the same situation, and we've thought that a point here will be a good result. It almost was, but that damn Aston Villa had different plans for us. Back to the main point, I still don't think that we can go and win every single game all the way to the end, but I have a sense that the Carabao final against City, will be a vital turning point for us. 74 points each Newcastle at home and they regularly give us hard matches. Eddie Howe packs the defence and uses the speed of his forwards to to get breakaways. If he gets lucky he could win. But his away from is dreadful, they are way behind us on points, and there can be no excuses, we must win. I say 3-0 as they have an uncharacteristic bad day against us. After City, we've got another bout with Newcastle. Last season a Declan Rice belter was enough to seal us the final 3 points of the season, so I reckon that we can beat them once more. Plus historically, they have just a single league win over us at the N5 ever since we moved there. 77 points each We then head into 3 out of 4 London derbies the first of which is against Fulham at home, which is a sort of Arsenal lite with several ex players there. They have been good at home, and taken some nice scalps and Marco Silva must look on with envy at another young manager who has far bigger resources than he has. They are not so good away but I feel that this could be a draw and a wobble and 2-2. A London Derby is always a 50/50 game, and Fulham are quite a decent team this season, even though they are far off the European places. At this point with only 3 games left after that (and with the possibility of City's game in hand being played), this game comes as the first match point in our quest for the title. Dave goes 2-0 to us. 78 points for me and 80 points for Dave West Ham away next but here I feel more confident. They are worse at home than away and I think a nice win here at 4-1 puts us back on track. Another London Derby, with a huge stake for both teams. On one side we have the Hammers who are fighting to stay in the Premier League and on the other are the mighty Arsenal cruising on the way for a first league title since 2004. Over the past two seasons, The London Stadium has been a very generous place for us, as we scored 11 times in those two games. So I think that it'll be another free scoring game, and another 3 points to The Arsenal. 3-1 to Arsenal 81 points for me and 83 points for Dave Burnley at home in our final home match and I just can’t see them getting anything from us. I think they will finish bottom as Wolves will put in a great fight to stay up. I feel 3-0 will give us 84 points. That may even give us the title and cue huge celebrations at the Emirates. The last home game of the season, could potentially mean that we can celebrate the first league title at the Emirates. By the time this game comes, Burnley would most likely be relegated with nothing else but their honour to play for. So I expect a fabulous performance from us, and a rampant win before we can drown in beers and tears of joy. 4-0 for Dave 84 points for me and 86 for Dave And finally Palace away and presumably Oliver Glasner’s last match. They have had nothing much to play for, for a lot of this season and we also may have nothing to play for but I think if we get the first goal we will win. I say 2-1 to us and we win the title with 87 points Will Glasner be dreaming of this team by then? For the final matchday of the 2025/26 season, we have a London Derby with Palace. I can only hope that by that time everything will be decided, as I'm not ready for a repeat of the 23/24 season and that Everton game at the end. Since Ebe Eze won us the 3 points at the Emirates, it would be written in the stars for him to do it once more at his old ground. Also 2-1 for Dave to us, so that leaves us 87 points for me and 89 points for Dave. Us bottlers will enjoy our beers We win the league and the bottlers all lose. 4 teams have been better than us since the new century, Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool but somehow we are the only ones called bottlers. We will enjoy all our bottles and our draughts and our cans. Up the Arsenal!

The man, not the ball? Of course, we are the experts. We have big strong defenders, midfielders and attackers willing to take the man not the ball out of the equation, and a goalkeeper who also, despite not being big for a goalkeeper, will jump through man and ball to get both away. There is so much close grabbing in the box that they need to be implored to get a room. Brentford, and Keith Andrews, decided they needed to beat Arsenal at their own game, and they succeeded expertly, so much so that whenever they had a corner or throw in, our players and fans were panicking. Certainly I was, watching at home on TV. Now we know what it is like for other teams. Hurzeler at Brighton shows he knows all about the dark arts as well. Keith Andrews, my fellow Dubliner, loves the dark arts In the Wenger days, our glory days, he never encouraged any form of dark arts but there is plenty of evidence from his players that they did it without his permission or knowledge. Ferguson, by contrast, was a master of darkness as was Mourinho, who emerged as the second bete noir to Wenger. Big changes ahead? But is it football? I suspect that the coming World Cup (if it goes ahead) may well see a change in interpretation and holding in the box will be outlawed. They may bar putting your arms around another player and also maybe holding another player with one arm. I am as close to certain that next season’s Premier League will see this as all the noises coming from all sides seem to indicate this is what will happen. They cannot really do it at this stage of the season. I for one will be happy to see the pulling and dragging hauled out of football. And yes, it will have implications for Arsenal. That's a dark outfit you are wearing Mr Hurzeler But for the worse? Why should it? There will be no reason not to keep coming up with ways to flummox the opposition from set-pieces. We can still be the set-piece kings, using movement, speed, and great discipline to work out ways to score. We do have an advantage over many of our rivals in that a lot of our players have been playing together for years and the new ones seem to slot in very nicely. Zubimendi, Hincapie, and Mosquera are standouts this year for that, if not quite Gyokeres and Eze. Togetherness is our superpower I believe we are winning the league at present and doing so well in all competitions because of this factor, more so than any other. The team slot together well. All the players know what they are doing and what they are supposed to be doing. It does make us predictable, however, and teams have used that to their advantage. On days when the passes are not hitting home as well as they should means that we will suffer that day. We have had quite a lot of such days but have managed to scramble points most times. We have averaged 2.207 points per game so far and a repeat of that gives us around 84 points. Will that be enough? Probably, I would guess. Only City can get to that and they would need a strong finish to do so. Can David Moyes, Arteta's friend, cause an upset? But we can assume that the dark arts, and the strongman approach to set-pieces will continue to the end. They will probably garner us some points that we might not necessarily get without them. Like I said, we do have an advantage of togetherness that maybe no other team has. City are probably the closest in this aspect as they are now flowing better than before. Their new players are settling in and that togetherness is getting them over the line without necessarily playing all that well. Still, I feel we are stronger in this regard. That gives us an advantage in our matches. All will play their part Or Arteta's friend, Iraola, give us grief? Or Arteta It is up to Arteta and the backroom team to bolster the players for every match to ensure a high level of wins to secure the title. Zubimendi, Hincapie, Mosquera, Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres, Norgaard and Kepa will be critical in how they slot in when they are needed. So will all the rest who have been there longer. It will not be for a lack of a strong squad that we miss the title. And if what we are playing at times is not football as I recognise it, we will need to keep doing it until the end of the season as all other teams will for sure. Table of Doom update Arsenal Now 67 Max. 91 Manchester City Now 60 Max. 87 Aston Villa Now 51 Max. 78 Manchester United Now 51 Max 78 Chelsea Now 48 Max. 75 Liverpool Now 48 Max. 75 Fixtures Arsenal: Man City A Man City: Chelsea A Arsenal H Villa A Aston Villa: Man Utd A Liverpool H Man City A Man Utd: Villa H Chelsea A Liverpool H Chelsea: Man City H Man Utd H Liverpool A Liverpool: Man Utd A Chelsea H Villa A This time there has been 2 matches and Arsenal are the only ones to win both. We can now lose at the Etihad and still win the league. A quick recap of the targets I set. Originally I said 89 points and only Arsenal can reach that but I revised that to 81 as the minimum needed, partly to keep the Table of Doom alive. Only City and ourselves can reach that. I feel around 84 will be the final amount but it still requires strong runs from both teams to get to that. These bottlers desperately need to be back in the big time I also put 75 as the drop out point for the Table and both Liverpool and Chelsea are on that and they have to play each other. Villa and United have to play each other as well as they are both on the same points at the moment. Carrick’s defeat to Newcastle may well be the portent of his collapse and it looks like 75 will soon be out of reach for all bar City. There are plenty of points that are guaranteed to be dropped as the top six still have many games against each other. It is looking like a points total in the 60’s will secure Champions League. Will it be five places this time? If so one of those will lose out and I believe Liverpool and United, the 2 giants of English football, will be the ones scrapping for that final place. So do these bottlers We have one biggie only and Bournemouth and Everton before that. City have West Ham and Chelsea away and possibly Palace at home before the scrap with us. If we win both we possibly will have a bigger lead by then but for sure not an unassailable one. A win puts us, assuming an earlier 2 wins for both, and assuming the Palace game hasn’t happened, 10 points ahead with 5 matches to go. A really strong position and one I am certain we will not blow. C’mon the Arsenal!