The Race For Bronze

By: Tom | May 6th, 2009

We have eight more games to play in the league this season, and an FA Cup final after that. Although not mathematically assured yet, it would take an almighty collapse of Liverpool and Chelsea for us to challenge the top two, and we are comfortably ahead of the likes of Aston Villa and Portsmouth in the chasing pack. Third place is up for grabs though, if we can overhaul Man Utd, who we happen to play next. Win this against the reigning champions and we move to within five points of them with two games in hand.
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Arsenal vs. Man Utd – Premier League
22nd April 2009
English starters: 3 – Taylor, Jagielka, Walcott

Goals – Adebayor (74), Tevez (83)

Bah. That’s that then.

We shifted back into a 4-4-1-1 formation to try and keep the game tight, and that’s exactly what it was. Nasri missed an absolute sitter very early on, but Adebayor made the most of his best chance, rising seemingly nine feet into the air to power home Van Persie’s beautifully lofted cross.

I tried to close things up then and slow the game down, and it might have worked had it not been for some sloppy play in the midfield. Walcott, despite being rested in the last game, didn’t come back with his best performance. He seemed to revert to the style of his (even) younger years, running aimlessly with the ball with no real purpose or final product. It was this that lead to the equaliser, as he needlessly gave the ball away, before it was won back and given to him again, only for the very same thing to happen. This time though, United kept hold of it and went up the other end to score.

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Aston Villa vs. Arsenal – Premier League
25th April 2009
English starters: 4 – Taylor, Jagielka, Bullard, Wilshere

The press tried to stir something fresh up between myself and Diaby in the run-up to this game, and I, stupidly, took the bait, thus inspiring my winter offload to a man of the match performance. What can I say – it’s dull always playing the diplomat.

There were few chances in a narrow, harried game, and now third place is almost certainly gone.

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Arsenal vs. West Ham – Premier League
29nd April 2009
English starters: 4 – Taylor, Jagielka, Walcott, Bullard

Goals – Noble (9), Adebayor (13), (39), Owen (54)

West Ham have Ruud Gullit in charge in my game. How does that man always seem to find work throughout the various Football Manager incarnations?

He has them sitting 12th in the table this season, but, despite taking the early lead, they didn’t put up much of a fight here. Two for Adebayor before Owen came off the bench to score one of his patented meaningless goals.

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Middlesbrough vs. Arsenal – Premier League
2nd May 2009
English starters: 3 – Taylor, Jagielka, Bullard

Goals – Arca (11), Adebayor (67), Mido (70)

I’m Manager of the Month for April, my second award of the season, but it must have been a slow month. I celebrated by seeing my team capitulate against Middlesbrough in an FA Cup final rehearsal.

Adebayor seemed to have earnt us a point, but it didn’t last long, as Mido took advantage of some lazy, lazy defending a few minutes later.

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Hull vs. Arsenal – Premier League
6th May 2009
English starters: 4 – Taylor, Gibbs, Jagielka, Walcott

Goals – King (14), Walcott (70)

Two teams with nothing to play for any more in the league, as Hull are already relegated. As turgid as you might expect therefore. Some very suspect keeping from Almunia as he hesitates in coming out to claim a ball that was there for the taking and allows King to nip in and score.

Hull then took their goal scorer off and switched to a very defensive 4-5-1, and it took until the 70th minutes to break them down for a share of the points.

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Here’s the table with three games left to play.

We are now, baring some very strange results, guaranteed to finish fourth. That means the dreaded qualifying for the Champions League next year, which, due to the shake-up, entails the prospect of facing a very decent team. We were unlucky enough to draw Atletico Madrid this time round when the odds of getting a minnow were in our favour, so who knows what will happen when the odds are against us.