This Weekend's Fixtures & Two Others (25/26/28/29 April).

Saturday, 25th April 2015
Southampton v Tottenham, 12:45 http://i44.tinypic.com/5bpl5u.png
Burnley v Leicester, 15:00
Crystal Palace v Hull, 15:00
Newcastle v Swansea, 15:00
QPR v West Ham, 15:00
Stoke v Sunderland, 15:00
West Brom v Liverpool, 15:00
Man City v Aston Villa, 17:30 http://e2.365dm.com/tvlogos/pixel/ss1hd.gif

Sunday, 26th April 2015
Everton v Man Utd, 13:30 http://e2.365dm.com/tvlogos/pixel/ss1hd.gif
Arsenal v Chelsea, 16:00 http://e2.365dm.com/tvlogos/pixel/ss1hd.gif

Tuesday, 28th April 2015
Hull v Liverpool, 19:45

Wednesday, 29th April 2015
Leicester v Chelsea, 19:45 http://e2.365dm.com/tvlogos/pixel/ss1hd.gif

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As it stands:

http://i58.tinypic.com/ak7vxt.png

6 pointer for Spurs. St Totteringham's Day could edge ever closer.

We'll probably be 4th when we kick off against the Russians.

This will be proper pressure. I hope the team stands up to Arsene and demands we at least show up.

There has been proper pressure throughout much of this run.
I don't see much pressure on the Chelsea game, we're not going to catch them, we're not going to fall out of the top 4.
It would be nice to finish 2nd but the priority for the club (and in this case for me, as we're in the Cup Final) is to finish in the CL spaces and win the Cup.

Not overly bothered about 2nd or 3rd, it's a flip of the coin.

4th would be quite annoying though.

Ultimately like last season, this campaign will be defined by the outcome of the cup final.

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I don't see much pressure on the Chelsea game, we're not going to catch them, we're not going to fall out of the top 4.

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This is Wenger's philosophy to a tee. Do the minimum. Write off what's difficult as unobtainable.

This is why we underachieve. We don't even settle for 2nd, not falling out of the top 4 will do. There's "no pressure" because we can't catch them... But maybe there's a teensy bit of pressure not to be their bitch for the 10th season in a row?

This game will decide the outcome of NEXT season. If we win it we could be in for a title run. Lose it or fight out a crappy draw on our own turf and we have established our status as inferior. We'll carry that status into next season and the season after and for every season Wenger remains here.

It is not 'difficult' to catch Chelsea. They've lost 2 times all season in the league, if we beat them we have to hope they lose 2 out of 5 and win all our games when we have a cup final to worry about. We should keep trying, obviously, but it's way out of our hands. If we were close enough to them that the result would put some real pressure on them then it would be different, but we aren't and it's not for the want of trying. They got lucky against QPR and beat Utd in a game where we needed them to slip up. Nothing we can do about that.

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This game will decide the outcome of NEXT season

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No, it won't. As we found out with the Cup Final win, momentum doesn't necessarily carry forward. A win would be good psychologically but we've already won some big games this year which should help our mentality. Win the Cup too and that's a good season.

Obviously I want us to beat Chelsea and I want us to finish 2nd. But I'd rather have the Cup if I had to choose.

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As we found out with the Cup Final win, momentum doesn't necessarily carry forward.

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We found that out when I pointed it out to you after you tried to use the fact we've reached the FA Cup final again as an indicator of progress.

13 attempts to beat these chavs without success and a humiliation on Wenger's 1,000th game in charge. We can either face the enemy and take them on and beat them, or we can beat Villa in a cup final and wave at the chavs from a safe distance. I know what I prefer.

It doesn't matter if we don't win the league this year provided we win all our remaining games. Winning all our remaining games is most certainly in our hands. It will cement us in second, place us to pick up the spoils in the ulikely but possible event the chavs collapse, leave both mancs billionaire spenders in our dust, automatically qualify us for the CL, have the fans and the media buzzing about our chances next season, give Maureen and his chavs something to mull on during the summer, prove this is a team of winners rather than also-rans, there are so many positives it'd be hard to count them.

Or we could beat Villa in the cup final and wave a pot around for a while. If that's all this team can achieve then so be it. But let's not pretend it's the big prize or even a prize of any real significance. Certainly let's not use it to make excuses for underachieving in the big tournaments. For example, and FA Cup win doesn't hide that farce against Monaco.

That's if we even win the cup. Bit of a lottery that match, more like a drunken happy hour. Beating the chavs and keeping the winning run and the winning mentality intact would be useful.

In fact there's no valid reason that can be used to downplay the importance of Sunday's game. The biggest game of the season so far. The most important game of the season so far. The biggest must win of the season so far. A proper test and a proper measure. Hopefully we measure up otherwise I guess we can limp away, regroup and go and beat on some little kid like Villa.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

We found that out when I pointed it out to you after you tried to use the fact we've reached the FA Cup final again as an indicator of progress.

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Where have I said that?

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Originally Posted by Letters

Where have I said that?

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http://www.goonersweb.co.uk/forum/sh...l=1#post454710

In the context of:

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If we win two cups in two years - having thought, especially after the Birmingham debacle, that under Wenger we'd never win another trophy - and get a similar number of points to what we got last year (which was the most since 2007/8) then IMO it would show we're on an upward curve.

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Yet you state:

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I don't see much pressure on the Chelsea game, we're not going to catch them, we're not going to fall out of the top 4.
It would be nice to finish 2nd but the priority for the club (and in this case for me, as we're in the Cup Final) is to finish in the CL spaces and win the Cup.

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If we repeat what we did last year but fail to finally beat the chavs then how is that progress? It is repetition maybe, but not progress. It is imperative we beat the chavs and then go on to make the strongest finish possible for real progress to occur. All the cup can do for us to to ensure we don't end up worse off. It's a sign of precisely nothing.