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The FA, UEFA and FIFA got it right? If I could paraphrase Jeremy Bentham, (the 19th century philosopher) it would be that be that the more teams that achieve a happy outcome, then the better football is for all. And this season has epitomized that. In years to come, pub quizzes will ask what had Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and the Spuds got in common in 2025, it would be that they all won major trophies after a long wait. So have the footballing gods of the FA, UEFA and FIFA got it right at last? Have they listened to the spirit of the great utilitarian philosophers of the 19th century and finally created a system that gives a chance to the many instead of the same boring old teams whipping up all the happiness? Did the ghost of Jeremy Bentham permeate the football gods? But is the real question whether or not the teams, their owners, staff and fans are actually happy? Are Liverpool’s fans happy or are they worried about their bad results at the end of the season, possibly particularly being second best to PSG over the 2 legs of the Champions League? Or the Spuds having an abysmal season but pulling a beautiful pearl out of their final oyster after a year of eating rotten ones? Only the above mentioned stakeholders can answer that but I can tell you as an Arsenal supporter that even when we were winning things there was always grumblings and discontent no matter what we achieved. Should Arsenal be happy? Let’s look at Arsenal. We finished second with 74 points as opposed to 89 and 84 in the previous seasons. So we should be unhappy, yes? But we did much better in the Champions League reaching the semi-finals with some great results along the way ,as opposed to the quarter-finals the year before that and the previous year getting knocked out in the Europa League round 16. Progress each year. So we should be happy, yes? We were knocked out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup this season and last with being beaten by Man City in the 4th round the previous year. So we should be unhappy with no progress, yes? But we got to the semi-final of the League Cup this season, being beaten by eventual winners, the happy Geordies as opposed to reaching the 4th round last season and the 3rd round the season before that. So we should be happy, yes? Was a fight between Edu and Arteta the reason we couldn't sign a striker? We had good progress in 2 competitions and sort of similar results in the 2 others over the past 3 seasons so maybe overall we should have a level of happiness. We have not gone backwards but probably slightly forward this season, particularly coupled with the amount of injuries we sustained and the unique sendings off we have had, not seen before or since. If the argument is that a manager and staff can coax better performances out of their players than seems likely then they can be happy that they have done their best with the resources we have. Jose Mourinho, one of the most decorated managers ever, claims that Man Utd’s second place season he achieved was his best ever as a manager, testament to the belief that getting the best out of the players you have is the ultimate test of a manager. That means Arteta and his staff can be happy. Are they? I doubt it. But I don’t know for sure. There is no way of predicting such a series of outcomes and we were left without crucial players all season. It may well have been a better conclusion, given the circumstances, than could have been expected and a large credit should be given to the backroom team for being competitive in 3 of the main trophies. Fans are never happy I think it is fair to say that Arsenal’s fans are not happy. City’s collapse should have been our opportunity, and big teams stuttering in the Champions League meant we lost one of our best opportunities to win my most coveted trophy. Not buying a striker is the familiar refrain and it has resonance, for sure, but Jesus, our only recognized striker, was out for most of the season, Kai Havertz, his replacement, was also injured for many games, as was Bukayo Saka, possibly our best player, and Gabriel Martinelli also lost quite a few games. Coupled with our main supplier of assists, Martin Odegaard, missing a huge chunk of the season meant we were short of the possibility of scoring goals, the hardest thing to do in football, yet we still managed 69, the 3rd highest in the league. That is a good achievement under the circumstances. I emphasise that this is with the players we had on the pitch, not phantom ones we could have bought. Man Utd are surely miserable but one win would have made them happy? Salah had 29 in the league, Diaz 13 and Gakpo 10, by contrast, in their 86 goals, whereas none of our boys managed 10. Man City had 72 goals with 22 of them coming from Haaland who had an up and down season. It is fair to say that the management team got good outcomes with what they had to work with. It’s all Edu’s fault? The loss of Edu may well have played a part in why we could not nab a striker. Something was going on behind the scenes for sure. Possibly a disagreement between Edu and Arteta over who to sign that would gel with Arsenal? The story never leaked as to what went wrong with the relationship but I feel it is a good bet that that was the reason no striker was signed in January. One pearl in a rotten season for Tottenham made all the difference I feel we should be happy. Such a combination of events rarely happen often. Some good new players in from outside and the academy plus a normal season regarding injuries and I feel we have the players and the hunger to succeed. Happiness is on the way, folks, you read it here first. Most teams should be happy? I do want to finish with the main point we had at the start. If we disregard the 3 relegated teams who surely could not be happy, and throw the once mighty Manchester United in there as well, who else deserves to be unhappy? Not many, I posit. The Spuds managed an unlikely end to a disastrous season and they are celebrating. Chelsea are back among the elite. They do look happy Aston Villa are disappointed but this was their first attempt at the Champions League, a long way from their success in the European Cup over 40 years ago. They could not cope with fighting on two hard fronts and lost some points along the way. Bad luck on their last game cost them and even that was by a tiny fraction because of goal difference. I think they deserve to be more happy because they showed they don’t need much improvement to stay up there amongst the best. The old order has changed? Forest, Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth all had their highest Premier League points totals, Everton jumped up the table and while West Ham are disappointed, they did finish midtable and can have some optimism for next season. And by the way, the Champions League win will go to a team outside the usual suspects, although Inter do have a Champions League pedigree, meaning that possibly we will have a new winner and both teams surely regard it as a good achievement to have got there. Will PSG be among the ones who grabbed a new trophy? In short, a lot of happiness for the maximum amount of teams have been achieved. So many fans have had their lives enhanced by the buzz around their team and perhaps the FA, UEFA and FIFA can take solace that an element of utilitarianism has surfaced. Football has become fairer. Or has it, really? Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea are the top four. And maybe this season with all the lesser teams becoming happy is just an anomaly, like Arsenal’s run of injuries and weird refereeing decisions, and everything reverts to the rich next season? We can only hope Arsenal becomes that giant next season, the one who conquers all on behalf of the super-rich. Will that make us happy? I will ask Jeremy Bentham.

3 games and the anticipation. For the first time ever, I am going to 3 Arsenal games in 8 days, all at home. I have a few times gone to 2, when a European or other match coincided with a home match at the weekend either before or after. Midweek matches are easier to get tickets for as people can’t travel so easily. They become available on the ticket exchange. Will Arteta need one of these if we lose all three? These three are critical, though. Tottenham are the old beast that we love to beat. Aston Villa have been huge rivals in recent years and Dinamo Zagreb have popped up against us twice before in the Champions League. Liverpool’s extraordinary form means we must beat the Spuds and Villa to stay in with a chance of the Premier League and a win against Zagreb pretty much gives us a great chance of an automatic spot in the Champions League. Are we afraid of winning? So, I am travelling with one wish, 3 wins. Will it happen? We shall see. Are we better than those 3? Yes, we are. Does that mean we will automatically win? Of course not. But this is the life fans want, where we need to win all matches but are fearful that we won’t. Every defeat flattens our dreams and brings out the Arteta out brigade to complain about how useless he is and they also trot out their favourite player to blame. The haters always say how if Arteta stopped picking (insert your hated player here) we would win all matches. Arteta deliberately picks say, Havertz or Martinelli or Jesus or Trossard or Merino or Kiwior just so that Arsenal can lose. Did you know that Arteta plays Havertz to make sure we lose? There is a good chance that all of those might appear over these next 3 matches so we could lose all of them, by that logic. 3 defeats? Oh,no, Arteta out out out! We will see, but I suspect we will see most of those on the pitch at some stage over my 3 games. If we win them all, the strange thing is that those same fans will still not be happy , they will still blame Arteta for playing them and gambling with defeat. Playing experienced internationals such as these is a big risk, it seems. Even if they all score, they will say the same. Is Arteta a great in waiting? It is always a source of amusement to me how fickle fans are. Managers are rarely given a chance to see out the season despite the fact that it could all turn around quite quickly. I have instanced before how Alex Ferguson seemed to be on his way out until an FA cup win saved him and he got the chance to be the greatest manager ever in English football. Look at Guardiola’s recent bad run, unable to win even against much weaker teams. That would have been enough to get him dumped at Everton, Leicester, West Ham and other recent dismissals. Emery tries harder against us This is the background to my upcoming 3 games. 3 defeats or 3 draws will bring the knives out. I would advise Arteta to get a stab vest for his front and back, and his head and his legs if that happens. Beaten by the Spuds at the Emirates will be a hammer blow. Being sent home crying by Unai Emery will be a bomb exploding. And defeat by Zagreb? Wow! Leaving us open to a playoff to stay in the Champions League? He may need to build a nuclear bomb shelter under the Emirates. We need to be invincible now It is, like every 3 matches we will have between now and the end of the season (as long as we keep winning most of them) very critical that we win them all. Otherwise we go back to the way we were from the time of Wenger’s decline up to 3 seasons ago. We were hoping we could win matches but not really expecting to. We don't want to lose to him So, the Spuds? They are going through an awful phase in the league with one win and one draw from their last six. Relegation form and this match could be a tester for Ange Postecoglou. Daniel Levy must be about to blame the manager again at the Spuds so a loss and the Aussie could be gone. I badly want a win to set me up for these 3 games and another bad day for you, mate. Can we lose to Zagreb? Aston Villa? 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw from their last six and a mediocre season for them so far with 6 losses and five draws makes them vulnerable to us at our best. We are not at our best without Saka, though. He draws 2 defenders away, leaving space for the rest. Being the better team and home advantage should be enough to dispel the Emery effect, I hope. They seem to raise their game against us. But I am hopeful that we get the second crucial win of the trilogy. Maybe we can drop points here and still be ok? Dinamo Zagreb? Logic suggests that we might play a slightly weakened team for this one with some big players on the bench to rescue us. Even a draw would not be a disaster and, indeed, if we are to lose a match from these three, this is the one I would pick. The last match against Girona should still save us. They have only managed one win with no draws so far. Even 16 points may well be enough to avoid a playoff. A late birthday present It will be my birthday the day before so I would love a late present from it though. We would already have 16 points and may well have already qualified for the top 8 leaving us with a run out for the reserves for Girona. That would really suit us best. I will talk to fans and report the atmosphere Somehow I don’t think so. I plan on writing my next blog on the road for these games to give fans the chance to see what it is like to fly across and sample the big match atmosphere. I will report who I see, what their feelings are, and hopefully celebrate the 3 wins that will make for a great birthday present overall. Up the Gunners!

The Table of Doom returns Can anyone take this away from the Citizens? Table of Doom Fixtures Current Max Liverpool Man City (h) Spurs (h) Villa (a) 51 96 Man City Liverpool (a) Arsenal (h) Villa (h) Spurs (h) 49 97 Arsenal Man City (a) Villa (h) Spurs (a) 49 94 Villa Spurs (a) Man City (a) Arsenal (a) Liverpool (a) 46 91 Spurs Villa (h) Man City(a) Arsenal (h) Liverpool (a) 44 89 And so the Table of Doom returns in a much tighter scenario than last year and, while last year I was counting down from Arsenal, now we are looking at Liverpool. I have decided that only these five can win the league as I believe 86 points is the target this year so we are left with these teams. Manchester United, the best of the rest can only get 83 points. Only Liverpool and City can win by winning all their matches, as ourselves, Villa and Spurs need the top 2 to drop points. However, they will, as I can’t see any team winning all until the end. Whoever can put the strongest run together will win it. Klopp's team are in the strongest position - or are they? As before, any team that cannot reach the leader drops out and I will update weekly. Once again, if I make any mistake in my calculations please let me know, as one generous reader did last year. The great thing about a blog is that I can update straightaway. Five for five I am pretty certain that the Champions League chase will be these five as well, barring a collapse and a lower team making a late run. There could be five places this year as well so Arsenal are looking very good. Liverpool have crucial matches close to the end and they could be the decisive factor. Man City have almost all home games and they are really good at home. I will put City favourites based on past experience. Villa have all away and that might be important also as they have not been great on their travels. They have earned the right to be favourites In my previous blog here I speculated that around 86 points should be enough this year which gives City and Liverpool a bit more scope than the rest. We can afford to lose 8 points from 15 matches and 45 points. A tough ask as the 2 and 3 points extra for Liverpool and City mean they can maybe lose 3 matches but we can only lose 2. Away to City could be a huge game for us if we are still in it. We must put away the little teams Now I will turn my attention to the Champions League. Last year 68 points was enough as Liverpool in 5th had 67. and I am going for it again. Arsenal need 19 points out of 45 and that would be a collapse, little above relegation form. As long as we put away the little teams we will make it comfortably. Man U, Newcastle and Chelsea falling apart has meant that the Champions League struggle looks easier this year. Man Utd, West Ham, Brighton and Newcastle in the next 4 positions are, I feel, the only teams capable of pushing for top four. If five places are available then it could be tighter as maybe Villa or Spurs could collapse leaving a space for one of these to run into. Can Arteta finally become The Man? Truly, I don’t feel that Villa or the Spuds will do so. Man Utd are the closest at six points behind Tottenham but they have to play all the big teams, go on a long winning run and a collapse of one of the top five to get there. I doubt it, judging by their form. Will the new rules help? As for the rest, they need to find consistency, they have all got tough matches to negotiate and produce a level that they haven’t so far, and clawback a lot of points. It is hard to see that happening. The only conclusion is that the top five will be the top five, and the only doubts are the positions and how many places are available. Either Arsenal and City could win the Champions League but it won’t open up a fifth space as they will qualify through the Premiership. However, it might be enough for England to qualify under the new rules if Arsenal and City go far in the tournament or the other English teams do well in the other trophies. A European Cup winner could finally make it back onto the big stage Bizarrely, though, there could be 5 places and they are already won as none of the rest seem to be capable of a sustained run. Possibly 5 Champions league spots and only 5 teams really challenging for them. A bit of a joke, really. City never wobble? So, back to the Premier League. Arsenal and Liverpool only play 3 of the others, the rest play four. Could that be significant? City seem to have the best position as they play almost all at home and they usually win there. Villa, by contrast, have 4 away and that might be tricky as they are struggling a bit away. The Spuds have 2 home and 2 away but the 2 away are City and Liverpool. I will be surprised if the Spuds and Villa can keep their momentum going to such an extent that they win the league. Most likely they will drop away a little. But I suspect that they will take positions 4 and 5. Two tough away games for the Spuds Liverpool have won a lot of matches this season without being all that impressive too often. It is credit to their fighting spirit and appreciation of what it takes to be winners that they have ground out enough wins to leave them top. For a team that is obviously in transition they have done extremely well but that, and Klopp leaving, may mean that Arsenal can overtake them. Arsenal to become tough boys? And the big boys? City? If they win their game in hand they will go top and they don’t normally surrender the league. If Rodri, De Bruyne and Haaland stay fit, they do look the best team in it. They haven’t always looked at their frightening best this season and they have dropped 17 points so far. They will need to improve on that to claim the title. But Arsenal have dropped 20 so we need to improve even more than them. And, while I feel like a broken record mentioning this, we have not had a strong end to the season under Arteta. I one hundred percent guarantee that we must have a very strong finish this season to win the league. 37 points out of a possible 45 is a tough ask. We could lose that on our 3 matches against our top five rivals let alone on the other 12 matches. We had 54 points at this stage last season. We dropped 15 points from our last 15 matches to get 84. I have spelled out what we have to do to win the league. We must have steel in our backs, a streetfighters capacity, and some luck to go our way. Can we win the Table of Boom? And yes, I am aware that my target of 86 points to win the league and 68 to qualify for the Champions League could be out. I will be very surprised if I am far out, though. Both targets may be higher or lower. The only thing I feel we can be confident about is the Champions League qualification. That is within our grasp even with an average end to the season. Can Arteta fulfill all my dreams at Wembley? And the two big prizes we are still in? For the Champions League we may need only to be really good in 4 matches, 3 of the legs and the final. That would do me. Wembley would be a great place to win. I would call Wembley the Table of Boom for us even if we don’t really come close to winning the league. Topping the Table of Boom would make me so happy.