The final game of the season. Yet it is a game which will be drowned out by 7 other games with more riding on them — the two title race games, along with games with the three teams trying to avoid relegation plus Everton and Villa’s quest for 5th spot (Everton are 3 points ahead of Villa and only need a point;both teams are locked with a goal difference of 20). The Spurs - Liverpool and Boro vs Man City games are the ones which might be on the same length as the Sunderland - Arsenal game as getting the least attention. Sunderland are safe, so no pressing need for them to put on a good show. And since Arsenal are not going for the title, Roy Keane’s boys won’t get a chance to spoil any Gunners plan. (speculation: this need might go back to the love that Keane shared with Arsenal during his friendly encounters with Vieira).
Point totals:
Arsenal won’t finish higher than third, but the goal of 83 points is something that would be nice to achieve. Arsenal finished the 2004/05 season with 83 points and ended in 2nd place but the next two seasons only brought 67 and 68 points in back to back 4th place finishes. So in a way 83 points and 3rd place is an improvement on the past 2 seasons but that consolation is tinted a bit considering that Arsenal lead the league for most of the season.
As it stands 87 points might be good enough for the title tomorrow. If so, then that is the least point total since the 2002/03 season when Man Utd took the title with 83 points. In 2002, Arsenal took the title with 87 points with an unbeaten away record.
Here are the point totals of the 1st and 2nd place teams since the league scaled down to 20 teams:
But ofcourse, point totals are only dictated by the pace of the teams at the top. If the top teams run away with the league and chalk up win after win, then the bar could be set higher than even 90 points (something that has happened three times already with totals of 95 & 91). That would be quite scary because as it stands the margin for error is pretty slim already. On the other hand if teams start putting better results against the top teams then the point total needed for a title might come down.
When Sunday Comes…
Line-ups, scores, predictions of Sunday’s game? For the final time this season, over to you guys…
36 Responses to “Sunderland vs Arsenal”
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May 10th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
ARSENAL 2 SUNDERLAND 1 BENDNER WITH A BRACE
May 10th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
If we win tomorrow, then 83 points - historically - is very impressive. It would have been enough to win the league 5, maybe 6 times.
But as we can see from the figures above - times change.
It’s a real case of woulda coulda shoulda this season. All we had to do - ho, ho - was hang for a drawer at ManUre and Chelsea and we’d be laughing.
Despite our dismal loss of form post Eduardo horrortackle, our goals scored is well up there. The finger points to the defence for any one key reason we didn’t stay in the hunt.
That said, I really hope Wenger does some “we mean business” shopping this summer.
2-1 to the Gunners tomorrow.
ManUre to win the title.
Fulham to stay up with Pompey fixated on the Cup Final.
May 10th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Very difficult to predict these last day “nothing at stake” games. I remember a 2-1 loss at Birmingham, 4-2 defeat at Newcastle (?) and 3-3 draw at Soton (?). There was also a 4-1 win at Sunderland with Ljunberg scoring a hat-trick (game 2 of the 49 game sequence). Let’s hope Wenger will blood some youngsters. I don’t think 80 points is any different from 83.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:43 am
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2008/05/09/wenger-plays-his-master-stroke-again/
Interesting take on how Wenger is “playing” the Hleb story.
May 11th, 2008 at 3:43 am
[...] Sunderland vs Arsenal Match Preview 3 [...]
May 11th, 2008 at 8:56 am
and u better start theo
May 11th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Going by 4thegame.com’s commentary 10 minutes in and there’ve been 4 chances and 4 blinding saves 2 at each end
.. and its not live …. 
May 11th, 2008 at 10:31 am
theoooooooooooooooooo what did i say
May 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am
from what it sounds like, it was a well taken goal by Theo. My stream is very slow. OOOOOF.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Walcott 1-0!
Next year, Theo is going to EXPLODE Adebayor-style.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am
mabey if hleb goes theo will play more
May 11th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Gilberto injured Jones with a shot. Sent him down the tunnel. Must have been a wicked shot!
May 11th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Interesting.
We have now scored more goals this year than the Invincibles.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:56 am
who here is tired of finshing 3rd and 4th me i am we need to step it up for a whole season
May 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am
i hope Ade won’t get carried away with his 30 goals season and started acting like big shot. That Henry’s style annoying expression from him whenever his teammates decided to shoot instead of passing to him was not nice to see.
He’s not even Henry yet. Without his teammates, he would never be able to score 10, let alone 30. He does not have that ability to create his own shot unlike Henry, so most of his goals were the end result of some good passes, good crosses from his teammates. He better remember that.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:14 am
@Andez: Where r u getting coverage from? I cant see a stream anywhere.
Yeah Theo is breaking out next year for sure…and I’m not even sure AW will buy a creative player unless he sells Hleb…though he does say so…unless he has lost trust in Rosicky as well.
Each time we play well…i feel good..sure its irrelevant but its nice to see us playing well ..anytime.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:19 am
yea we all feel good when we play well but we drew too many games this season
May 11th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I am streaming Live audio from Arsenal TV online. The stream has gotten much better for me.
Gilberto slices a free kick from 6 yards? Ummmmm.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:39 am
looks like fulham are staying up
May 11th, 2008 at 11:58 am
really feel for young Randall. could have scored in his Premiership debut, thanks to yet another rubbish decision from the ref and his assistant it got ruled out AGAIN. yeah, no excuse. they are just plain simple RUBBISH.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Chelsea drew, we won. So 4 pts from #1 and 2 pts from #2. Great season!!!
And Birmingham went down.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
birmingham going down was the best part of today
May 11th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
and so long Birmingham. go back to where u belong. only that next season don’t expect Arsenal loan u 3 players to help u going up again. our players need their legs.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
bye bye birmingham now u can break legs in the championship next season u cheats
May 11th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
did anyone catch the boro v manc game ? what happened to man c ? probably all sulking cause of sven’s imminent departure. also, any truth to the rumor that we may sign dunne for 1million ?
May 11th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
@dubsta i havent heard the one about dunne
May 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Long live Fulhamerica! Or something like that…
May 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
hilarious how steve bennet is in the Man U play book.
generous pen and incredible decision not to send off scholes.
anyhoo…..at least birmingham go down. and i hope they stay down for quite a long time.
in the end 4 points off the top is not bad at all. infact its excellent.
now lets do better next season.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Sad that Bolton didnt go down and Reading went instead though. More of those long cold trips to the North West then
May 11th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Seriously…Steve Benett was all for Man Utd in this game…well..maybe things will even out next season.
Great effort by Fulham though..was hoping they would come through..and they did.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
yes LDE, i feel for Reading as well. despite Coppell’s comment about Arsenal (lack of English players “yawn”) , i like the team. and they did try to play some football. but they are too small a club just simply have no ability to keep hold of their best players. their fate this season almost like a carbon copy of Ipswich Town many years ago - brilliant first season, going down the next.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
@Wayne: You’re not allowed to talk about ManU being favoured here. Because the “best team” wins and everything “evens out” and penalties and injuries are just “excuses” . Arsenal need 8 new players and a new coach IMO because they just finished 8th as predicted. Oh wait..it was just 2 points behind second and 4 behind third….no those are just statistics which are pointless but which did have meaning at the start of the season..know why?? Because we WERE that far behind . Since we’re closer this time..they hold no meaning and just “distort” reality. And don’t dare speak in favor of AW or say you want any less than 4 players minimum .. coz that too is unpopular.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
You can take it for granted that as soon as Wenger said that 220 players are interested in joining and that he hopes to conclude transfer business in 2-3 weeks that all the scribes and agents went into overdrive. Just about any player is being linked with Arsenal - Carlos Marchena, Mario Gomez, Ben Arfa, Dunne, Micah Richards. Likely none of them sign for us.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Seriously…Steve Benett was all for Man Utd in this game…well..maybe things will even out next season.
Great effort by Fulham though..was hoping they would come through..and they did. Also nice to see Birmingham go down…haha. Here’s something which Alex McLeish said before the game “I have my private time when I feel like jumping off the nearest bridge. If things don’t go right in this vital match, I’ll feel like that.” hehe
May 11th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
with 19 clubs in the Premiership, the golden rule is “when the going get tough, the tough get going”…
with Manchester United, it’s a case of “when the going gets tough, the referees get going!”
Umm…. i wonder if any Man U fan here under an Arsenal shirt will come out and stand up speak up for them?!
May 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
@LDE ..atleast for once the commentary team went all out against Bennett when he did not send of Scholes.
BTW..got this link a few days back…
http://rightresult.net/
interesting concept ..although you can never say what would have happened if a decision went the other way…but still a good way to see which team is having the rough end of ref decisions.
Cheers